Revitalising rural development in the Pacific: An itaukei (indigenous Fijian) approach

Indigenous groups who live on and work with customary land and resources occupy many rural settings in the Pacific. In Fiji, as life has become dominated by economic demands, many itaukei (indigenous Fijian) communities have struggled to see how bula vakavanua (tradition, culture and the way of being)—such as solesolevaki, or unpaid communal work for collective good—can aid in sustainable development of their resources for their people’s benefit. This struggle, along with a lack of opportunities in rural settings, has given rise to rural-urban migration and increased related social problems. This paper aims to demonstrate that indigenous driven, effective rural development is possible in the Pacific despite these challenges. Case studies of successful itaukei businesses based on customary land in Fiji—and how solesolevaki has been revived to support itaukei entrepreneurial success and community wellbeing—were conducted and analysed.fals

Te Hononga—Modelling indigenous collaborative enterprise. A research report on Māori enterprise collaboration in Aotearoa New Zealand

This study explores the theory and practice of Māori enterprise collaboration. There exists a strong rationale for Māori enterprise collaboration as it builds on the relationality of a Māori world view, shared values and existing whakapapa (genealogical) relationships. Collaboration is considered integral to Māori development because it is set against a background of self-determination and self-governance. Waiū Dairy and MiHI (Movers in Hemp Innovation) are two Māori enterprise collaborations that have been facilitated by Poutama Trust and are at distinctly different stages of maturity. Interviews were conducted with participants from Waiū Dairy and MiHI to gain insights from those involved in the practice of Māori enterprise collaboration.falsePalmerston North, New ZealandNgā Pae o te Māramatang

Islands of Indigenous innovation: reclaiming and reconceptualising innovation within, against and beyond colonial-capitalism

From Vision Mātauranga and Callaghan, to Silicon Valley and billionaire space races, ‘innovation’ is becoming a placeholder for particular conceptions of progress. The concept is almost exclusively, however, associated with capitalist innovation for profit. This dominant and exclusionary framing has the effect of obscuring innovative knowledge and practices that occur outside of colonial-capitalism. This study places the concept of innovation under a critical Indigenous lens to rethink and reclaim innovation as a crucial aspect of Indigeneity, within-and-against, and beyond the colonial-capital relation. We provide two mini qualitative case studies of Indigenous innovation within-and-against and beyond colonial-capitalism from across the vast historical and contemporary scope of Te Moana-nui-a-kiwa. Together these cases extend Indigenous innovation to include collective struggle for collective wellbeing. In doing so, this study creates diverse theoretical and empirical space for a past, present and future of Indigenous innovation

Na yaqona kei na i tikotiko ni veivakarautaki vakavuli: Na veisataki ni i tuvatuva vakalawa kei na veiqaravi raraba. (Yaqona and the school campus: Regulation versus facilitation)

Yaqona (kava) is a culturally significant, non-alcoholic drink consumed nightly by many Fijians. Although yaqona is not consumed by primary or secondary school students, cultural protocols related to yaqona preparation and presentation are often taught in their schools, with students then presenting this indigenous drink to acknowledge visitors to the school, open events and support fundraisers. In the early 2000s, some within the Fiji Ministry of Education began questioning whether yaqona use by teachers was negatively impacting their teaching ability, suggesting it should be banned from the school campus. In this study, Fijian teachers were cognitively tested and interviewed following an evening of yaqona consumption with the results suggesting this indigenous substance can disrupt cognition and in turn negatively impact teaching quality the morning after consumption. Although development theory prescribes prohibition and situational bans in cases where indigenous substances negatively impact productivity, the author argues that prohibiting yaqona in Fijian schools would be short-sighted as the findings show that this traditional substance is critical to the facilitation of school function, identity formation and academic achievement, all elements necessary to development

The Productivity and Innovation of Māori Frontier Firms

Te Au Rangahau (Massey Business School’s Māori business research centre) was invited by the New Zealand Productivity Commission (the Commission) to provide a review of the Commission’s report on its frontier firms inquiry, with a focus on the Māori frontier firms. The inquiry adopts the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) definition of frontier firms – those within the top 10% of firms’ productivity distribution in an industry. This definition brings around 30,000 firms into scope for this inquiry. Identifying Māori firms within this cohort becomes functionally complex. Some of the approaches of identifying Māori firms include business owners’ ethnicity, employees’ ethnicity, the nature of the product and service, or commercial and social enterprises operating with Māori values, philosophy, and tikanga (Statistics New Zealand, 2016). The Commission recognises that there is no single agreed definition of a Māori business or Māori firm as the Māori economy comprises a range of organisational forms and structures under various legal frameworks.falseProductivity Commissio

Indigenous enterprise on customary lands: Diverse economies of surplus

This study examines Indigenous Fijian and Papua New Guinean enterprises on customary land. It explores the duality of merging Indigenous and Western principles of entrepreneurship and the ability to balance business and socio-cultural imperatives. A qualitative, ethnographic-case study approach is deployed, with talanoa/tok stori used to collect empirical materials. Two interrelated themes emerged from the study: the need for Indigenous enterprise models to contribute to a more holistic conception of well-being, and as a result, the requirement to rethink how surplus is distributed beyond mainstream shareholder ownership models. This study reveals a more nuanced approach to distributing surplus based on Indigenous conceptions of kinship. The specific theoretical contribution of this study is an Indigenous conception of surplus distribution that offers a challenge to traditional shareholder models