Disturbing History

Explores the lives of ordinary people in Fiji and their responses to various forms of power and authority in the colony from 1874 to 1914. Couched in the tradition of people’s histories, this book excavates a mass of archival materials that challenge conventional accounts of Fiji’s colonial experience.

This alternative way of reconstructing Fiji’s history reveals stories of ordinary people’s resistance as a constant and highly complex aspect of the colonial world. Colonialism itself is shown to be a force that was imperfect, fractured and sometimes

fragile. It was shaped in struggle and its presence in the daily lives of people was often susceptible to subversion.