Documentary-Making in Ra, Fiji

At the start of the month in August I headed out to Fiji, with a bag packed with lenses, tripods, and portable chargers, planning to delve generally into the discourses and politics surrounding climate and conservation. As a Social Anthropology and Politics student this trip was key for my final year dissertation, but I felt it was extremely important to justify my position in the field, especially with the carbon emissions it took to get there! As such the Trinity Hall Award for volunteering beckoned to me and I began searching for ways to remain engaged with the politics of my academic subject as an activist.

Fiji is a country comprised of 330 islands, just over a hundred of which are inhabited. It is ranked as one of the most vulnerable nations to anthropogenic climate change and is one of the UN’s PSIDS (Pacific Small Islands Developing States) alongside countries such as Tuvalu and Kiribati. I have a close relationship with many in Fiji, as I have family there, and have spent last summer conducting ethnographic research for the Laidlaw Scholars Programme. Therefore, I was able to engineer and plan a shooting and production outline for my stay to foreground consensual storytelling and interviews with I-Taukei (indigenous) communities in the northeastern mainland province of Ra.

Titling my documentary Kaiwai (people from and of the ocean) I spent a month with friends- a family business of I-Taukei SCUBA divers- as I was extremely curious to hear their memories and relationship with the ocean. Drawing from long fascinating conversations around the tanoa (a bowl used for drinking Kava) about values, missionaries, science, and the importance of family, I was inspired by the latter the most. I want my documentary to highlight the importance and vibrance of the environment and ocean in tandem with complicated but joyful relationships to it. I hope that the value of the wai (water) shines through on its own terms, helped hopefully by some amazing diving footage, but also in the manner that it acts to bring families and people together around this common resource- the way it allows people to engage with their past and their own identity and hopes for the future.

After this month I headed down to the capital of Fiji, Suva, to stay and interview a close friend, Helen Sykes, who has worked in conservation and marine tourism for over 30 years. It was fascinating to get her insight over a couple of weeks on the ways in which sustainable tourism and fisheries management looks to map onto existing I-Taukei customs and values, rather than attempting to over-write them.

I hope to finish the production process over the winter break before promoting my film around Cambridge, and hopefully back in Fiji with the aid of a translation. I hope to be able to start a discussion and perception of Fiji here in Cambridge as the PSIDS remaining in view is vital to their attempts to show, as one of my participants stated, “where climate change will hit first, hardest and most unjustly”. Hopefully this humble goal can build going forwards- watch this space!