Fiji Economy and Ethnic Relations

• The lesson focuses on analyzing a primary source to understand the link between economy and ethnic relations in Fiji.
• In 1959, Australian Professor OHK Spate was commissioned to write a report on Fiji's economic problems and prospects.

OHK Spate's Assessment

• Ethnic groups and economic success within communities are important for relationships.
• Historians can understand people's actions and thoughts at a specific time using primary sources.
• The primary source for study is OHK Spate's "The Fijian people: economic problems and prospects," published in Suva in 1959.

Fijian Society and Modern Economy

• A key element of Fiji is a pluralistic society, which seems stable but has the potential for imbalance.
• The plural society is growing rapidly and unevenly, without matching growth in basic production, which could destabilize the balance between groups.
• Fijians dominate in copra and bananas, but Indians dominate in cane.
• Cane is a more rewarding crop with export values twice those of copra and bananas combined.
• There's increasing Indian wealth from secondary industry and services.
• Fijians are generally better off than many small cultivators in Asia and Africa, but perceive Indians, originally poorer, as now economically successful.
• Fijians are politically more powerful with their own administration.
• Economically, Fijians are the weakest of the three major communities.

Interracial Relations

• Interracial relations in Fiji were remarkably good, but the equilibrium was unstable.

Activity Questions

• Identify the first problem Spate identified.
• The sectors of the economy in which the iTaukei have the most success.
• The sectors of the economy in which the Indians have the most success.
• "Special positions" that the iTaukei benefited from.
• Explain Spate's conclusion on ‘inter-racial relations’.
• Spate uses the term “disbalance” – explain what he meant by this term.
• Spate uses the phrase “equilibrium is unstable” – explain what he was suggesting.