Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T23:23:53.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Political and Religious Tensions of Fijian Dance in Canada: Renegotiating Identity Through Affect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2014

Evadne Kelly
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent performances of meke, a “traditional” Fijian song-dance genre, in Canada indicate a renegotiation of identity among Fijians in diasporic communities. However, due to religious and political anxieties involving Fiji's colonial history, not all Fijians in Canada will participate in meke. To explore this, I draw from archival research and fieldwork conducted in Western Canada and Viti Levu, Fiji (2011–2012). Additionally, I take inspiration from the anthropological theory of affect, whereby the body has the ability to be affected (to feel/sense) and to affect others (causing others to feel/sense). I argue that experiences and expressions of powerful feeling states in and surrounding meke performance are important in terms of renegotiating Fiji's past colonial and present post-independence realities while negotiating new connections and relations in multicultural Canada.

Type
Research Article
Information
Congress on Research in Dance Conference Proceedings , Volume 2014 , Fall 2014 , pp. 106 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Evadne Kelly 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Buckland, Theresa Jill. 2006. “Dance, History, and Ethnography: Frameworks, Sources, and Identities of Past and Present.” In Dancing from Past to Present: Nation, Culture, Identities, edited by Jill Buckland, Theresa, 3–24 Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Cassin, A. Marguerite, Krawchenko, Tamara, and VanderPlaat, Madine. 2007. Racism and Discrimination in Canada Laws, Policies and Practices. Halifax, NS: Atlantic Metropolis Centre.Google Scholar
Epeli (pseudonym). 2012, June. Interview by Evadne Kelly. Suva, Fiji.Google Scholar
Fiji Bureau of Statistics. 2007. http://www.statsfiji.gov.fj/. Accessed March 11, 2014.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric. 1994. “The Nation as Invented Tradition.” In Nationalism, edited by Smith, Anthony and Hutchinson, John, 198–205. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, John D., and Kaplan, Martha. 2001. Represented Communities: Fiji and World Decolonization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lal, Brij. 2003. “Fiji Islands: From Immigration to Emigration.” Migration Policy Institute. http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/fiji-islands-immigration-emigration. Accessed March 11, 2014.Google Scholar
Manning, Erin. 2007. Politics of Touch: Sense, Movement, Sovereignty. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Massumi, Brian. 2002. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Massumi, Brian. 2011. Semblance and Event: Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Newland, Lynda. 2009. “Religion and Politics: The Christian Churches and the 2006 Coup in Fiji.” In The 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji: A Coup to End All Coups?, edited by Fraenkel, Jon, Firth, Stewart, and Canberra, Brij V. Lal., 187–208. Australia: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
Nicole, Robert E. 2006. “Disturbing History: Aspects of Resistance in Early Colonial Fiji, 1874–1914.” Doctoral thesis, University of Canterbury.Google Scholar
O'Shea, Janet. 2007. At Home in the World: Bharata Natyam on the Global Stage. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Ryle, Jacqueline. 2010. My God, My Land: Interwoven Paths of Christianity and Tradition in Fiji. Farnham Surrey, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Sala (pseudonym). 2012, January. Interview by Evadne Kelly. Vancouver, Canada.Google Scholar
Stimson, Blake. 2008. “Gesture and Abstraction.” In Migrations of Gesture. Edited by Noland, Carrie and Ness, Sally, 69–83. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, Nicholas. 1997. In Oceania: Visions, Artifacts, Histories. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Tomlinson, Matt. 2009. In God's Image: The Metaculture of Fijian Christianity. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Reverend Thomas, and Calvert, Reverend James. 1858. Fiji and the Fijians: The Islands and their Inhabitants. Edited by Stringer Rowe, George. London: Alexander Heylin.Google Scholar