The Role of Agricultural Institutions in Providing Support Towards Sustainable Rural Development in South Pacific Island Countries

This paper examines the agricultural training in higher education institutions and tertiary colleges, their pre-eminent role and how best they can contribute to alleviate poverty in rural communities in Fiji and other South Pacific island countries. These institutions provide support through training farmers (vocational and adult education) and/or extension officers and providing researchers. Unfortunately, agricultural training institutions are not adapting to the rapid changing times early enough and have more or less maintained the traditional way of training. There is a need for agricultural institutions to amend their programs to facilitate the new emerging areas, together with new learning and teaching frameworks, establish new partnerships with the private sector in addition to expanding their representation in governance in addition to holding continuous dialogue with policymakers. Further, these institutions can potentially showcase local customs and knowledge, mirroring the regional culture, and ethical customs of the Pacific island community, as well as global movements and development forces. In reinforcing their title role as contributors to a culture of education and rural agricultural development, we suggest that agricultural institutions engage more directly and more effectively in partnerships and dialogue with other local agricultural stakeholders and their surrounding rural communities in Fiji and other Pacific island countries.

Promoting Peace Through Climate Change Adaptation

Climate change has affected people's peace in the form of impact on livelihoods, health, and/or well-being. Most of these peace impacts, however, are felt significantly by people who are living in the low-lying communities in the Pacific, who are within and/or close to the Ring of Fire. This chapter is based on a study of peace and climate change adaptation that was conducted in the Pacific island region in 2016. It took place in five communities in Suva, Fiji: Vatuwaqa, Raiwaqa, Raiwai, Samabula, and Toorak. It highlights the impact of climate change on peace, and then it indicated how peace can be promoted in the form of climate change adaptation for these communities. Based on the results of this research, the author recommends that peace should be incorporated into the Pacific islands national adaptation plan.

Are ‘Behaviour Change’ Approaches to Obesity and Health Effective? A case Study from Samoa

‘Behaviour Change’ approaches in public health strategies have been used in Pacific Island countries to address the problem of dietary and lifestyle changes that are believed to be the cause of rising rates of obesity and associated NCDS. We consider the limitations of this approach in the context of Samoa’s socioeconomic situation and public health policy and propose that an ‘obesogenic’ environment and structural factors are causational and require policy measures that go beyond the scope of responsibilities of the Samoa Ministry of Health

Navigating the Coalface: Religion, State, Pacific Communities and Family Violence in New Zealand

<p>This thesis examines how the New Zealand state (e.g. government ministries and departments, government-funded social welfare NGOs, and the justice system) engages with religion as it addresses issues of family violence within Pacific Island communitiesin New Zealand. In so doing, I trace the contours of an amorphous New Zealand state secularism. Through an analysis of policy documents, I show that religion has been largely occluded instatefamily violence initiatives. However, through interviews with Pacific Islanders who work at the coalface between the state, Pacific communities,and family violence issues, I show that while they do encounter an implicit and pervasive ‘wall of separation’ between the secular and the religious, they have also found ways to navigate these boundaries through their own strategies. Such strategies are both inevitable and necessary. Because religion is interwoven with family violence in Pacific communitiesin nuanced ways, I argue that sidelining or ignoring religion reduces the effectiveness of state interventions. I show that secularism, expressed in relation to family violence in Pacific communities, has further marginalised those communities, and Pacific women especially. Instead, I propose a more pragmatic approach, one which seeks to address Pacific communities more fully on their own terms. If the New Zealand state wants to successfully engage Pacific communities on issues of family violence, and work toward solutions to these issues, it must also collaborate alongside Pacific churches and faith-based actors.</p>

Afterglow: Belonging, diversity, and emotional expression in barbershop singing in Wellington, New Zealand

<p>Over the last three years, since the development of the Barbershop Harmony Society’s “Everyone in Harmony” inclusivity and diversification initiative, barbershop singing networks have increasingly broken down systems of class, gender and race. Despite a history of conservative and traditionalist musical practice, I argue that participating in barbershop music offers singers in New Zealand opportunities to express themselves and create lasting relationships in increasingly diverse social contexts. In light of this, this thesis explores ideas of belonging, camaraderie, diversity and self-expression in barbershop music in New Zealand, through ethnographic fieldwork conducted with Vocal FX chorus, based in Wellington, New Zealand. This thesis works through these ideas in three ways: I consider historical context and discuss who gets to sing, belong or contribute to barbershop music; I then explore diversity and Māori and Pacific Island influence in barbershop in New Zealand; and I conclude with a discussion of performative emotional expression in the barbershop style, and how that contributes to free and healthy modes of self-expression in a predominantly homo-social male space. These threads combine to display how ideas of belonging – both to an ensemble and to a wider, global style of music – and camaraderie are complex and culturally nuanced concepts in barbershop music contexts. Furthermore, this research displays ways in which established socio-cultural norms in barbershop contexts can be challenged by ensembles working in this musical style. Ethnography, including personal reflection through performative auto-ethnography and memory, informs much of the thesis. I draw on conversations with singers and observations of rehearsals and contests for Vocal FX to narrate many of the ways in which barbershop music works in New Zealand.</p>