By the 1880s Methodist Christianity was widely accepted in the Wainibuka and Wainimala river vall... more By the 1880s Methodist Christianity was widely accepted in the Wainibuka and Wainimala river valleys in the interior of Viti Levu, the biggest island of Fiji. Brought inland by indigenous teachers from mission centres on the coast, this form of Methodism incorporated local dance, chants and exchange elements, and seemed well-established and well-adapted. Yet many people in these areas soon abandoned Methodism and became adherents of either the Catholic or the Seventh Day Adventist Churches, which took different views of Fijian traditions and beliefs. This paper examines the reasons for the denominational shift, including the unfulfilled demand for educational opportunities, continued adherence to syncretic practices and indigenous prophetic leaders, and harsh colonial repression in the wake of political revolt.
(Joint presentation with Christine Weir at the Pacific History Association 21st Biennial Conference 2014 in Taiwan).
Since 2006 the relationship between the Methodist Church of Fiji and the Bainimarama regime has b... more Since 2006 the relationship between the Methodist Church of Fiji and the Bainimarama regime has been variously tense, acrimonious and downright hostile, with Church Conferences cancelled by the government in 2009 -2011 and allowed under restrictions in 2012-13 after the Methodist church was accused of ‘playing politics’. Other attempts to sideline the influence of the Methodist Church have included government encouragement of the New Methodists (Souls to Jesus) movement in 2008-9, and the invitation to Catholic leaders to be involved in the development of government policy. However, these government actions have been premised on the assumption that the Methodist Church is monolithic in its support for conservative Fijian chiefly values, often privileging these over more universalist values espoused by other Christian denominations. While this may been generally true of the years 1989 to 2012, it has not always been the case, as shown by the election of IndoFijian Daniel Mastapha as President of the Methodist Church in 1977 and the initial Methodist reaction to the coup of 1987. This paper suggests that in the last two years dynamics within the Methodist church have changed as the more liberal wing of the church has reasserted itself, a shift which is only partly influenced by Bainimarama’s actions.
In his role as General Secretary of the Australasian Methodist Missionary Society in the 1920s an... more In his role as General Secretary of the Australasian Methodist Missionary Society in the 1920s and 1930s, Reverend John W. Burton travelled each winter to one of the ‘mission fields’ in the South Pacific to inspect the mission’s activities, and to encourage and advise. Accompanying him was his camera; Burton had long been an enthusiastic photographer. Following his 1924 visit to Fiji he created two albums of his photographs, one illustrating the indigenous Fijian mission, the other the Indian mission. This article focuses on the ‘social biography’ of the photographs, and examines Burton’s choice and balance of subjects in each album, which cover educational and other mission activities, village and town scenes, landscapes and individual and group portraits. It also considers the placement and message in context of many of the individual photographs when they were later reproduced to illustrate stories in the mission magazine, Missionary Review, of which Burton was the Editor.
By the 1880s Methodist Christianity was widely accepted in the Wainibuka and Wainimala river vall... more By the 1880s Methodist Christianity was widely accepted in the Wainibuka and Wainimala river valleys in the interior of Viti Levu, the biggest island of Fiji. Brought inland by indigenous teachers from mission centres on the coast, this form of Methodism incorporated local dance, chants and exchange elements, and seemed well-established and well-adapted. Yet many people in these areas soon abandoned Methodism and became adherents of either the Catholic or the Seventh Day Adventist Churches, which took different views of Fijian traditions and beliefs. This paper examines the reasons for the denominational shift, including the unfulfilled demand for educational opportunities, continued adherence to syncretic practices and indigenous prophetic leaders, and harsh colonial repression in the wake of political revolt.
(Joint presentation with Christine Weir at the Pacific History Association 21st Biennial Conference 2014 in Taiwan).
Since 2006 the relationship between the Methodist Church of Fiji and the Bainimarama regime has b... more Since 2006 the relationship between the Methodist Church of Fiji and the Bainimarama regime has been variously tense, acrimonious and downright hostile, with Church Conferences cancelled by the government in 2009 -2011 and allowed under restrictions in 2012-13 after the Methodist church was accused of ‘playing politics’. Other attempts to sideline the influence of the Methodist Church have included government encouragement of the New Methodists (Souls to Jesus) movement in 2008-9, and the invitation to Catholic leaders to be involved in the development of government policy. However, these government actions have been premised on the assumption that the Methodist Church is monolithic in its support for conservative Fijian chiefly values, often privileging these over more universalist values espoused by other Christian denominations. While this may been generally true of the years 1989 to 2012, it has not always been the case, as shown by the election of IndoFijian Daniel Mastapha as President of the Methodist Church in 1977 and the initial Methodist reaction to the coup of 1987. This paper suggests that in the last two years dynamics within the Methodist church have changed as the more liberal wing of the church has reasserted itself, a shift which is only partly influenced by Bainimarama’s actions.
In his role as General Secretary of the Australasian Methodist Missionary Society in the 1920s an... more In his role as General Secretary of the Australasian Methodist Missionary Society in the 1920s and 1930s, Reverend John W. Burton travelled each winter to one of the ‘mission fields’ in the South Pacific to inspect the mission’s activities, and to encourage and advise. Accompanying him was his camera; Burton had long been an enthusiastic photographer. Following his 1924 visit to Fiji he created two albums of his photographs, one illustrating the indigenous Fijian mission, the other the Indian mission. This article focuses on the ‘social biography’ of the photographs, and examines Burton’s choice and balance of subjects in each album, which cover educational and other mission activities, village and town scenes, landscapes and individual and group portraits. It also considers the placement and message in context of many of the individual photographs when they were later reproduced to illustrate stories in the mission magazine, Missionary Review, of which Burton was the Editor.
Uploads
(Joint presentation with Christine Weir at the Pacific History Association 21st Biennial Conference 2014 in Taiwan).
(Joint presentation with Christine Weir at the Pacific History Association 21st Biennial Conference 2014 in Taiwan).