2025/11/18 by Rakuita, Tui, Plange, Nii K.
#Itaukei #Vulagi #coloniality of power #genealogy of power #paradigm change #postcolonial condition
paper · doi:10.26021/16128
The issue of who is a Vulagi1 in Fiji is imbued with a stigma that has continued to take its toll within the national psyche. This has proven problematic when it comes to initiatives aimed at nation building between indigenous communities and others who regard Fiji as home. It is the contention of this essay that the problematic aspect of Vulagi in Fiji owes its origin to the coloniality of power that currently has Fiji in its throes. This essay critically interrogates the extent to which contemporary notions of ‘place’ in Fiji are still imbricated with(in) colonised cognitive spaces by charting the evolution of the concept of Vulagi from a temporary to a permanent designation – a change that has proven to be problematic in both its application and provenance. By interrogating settler imaginaries of ‘place’, or Vanua, and indigeneity together with the ways they were radically transformed by the power-effects of settler colonialism, the essay hopes to be a clarion call for the reclamation and liberation of our colonised subjectivities.