Tuvaluan Diaspora within Oceania: Ethnic Identity and Belongingness in the Margins

Abstract

The diaspora within Oceania conceptualises the existence of settler communities of Tuvaluan heritage on Kioa Island in Fiji and in the village of Elise Fou in Samoa and validates existing ties they have with their home of origin. Fiji and Samoa are home to myriad of ethnic groups that have eventuated because of migration. The i-Kiribati on Rabi Island in Fiji and the various communities of i-Solomoni descent in Samoa and also scattered throughout Oceania are such examples. This research however concentrates on Polynesian ethnic enclaves that exist in both rural and urban extremes of these host countries. The diaspora within Oceania acknowledges that communities of Oceanic descent permanently settled within other areas of Oceania live diasporic lives.

In our modern Pacific, a Tuvaluan diaspora within Oceania exists and this thesis allows for the investigation into how Tuvaluans of Kioa Island and the Elise Fou settlement practice, live and experience life. Both communities are ethnically Tuvaluan. The original settlers came from various atolls in the Tuvaluan archipelago and live in minority ethnic groups in Samoa and Fiji. Despite migration that has separated them from their motherland, Tuvalu continues to have huge bearing on their lives as Samoans and Fijians today. Integration into their host communities however has had significant repercussions for their current predicament as peripheral minority groups. Through an examination of the phenomena of ethnicity in diaspora this thesis gauges the significance of ethnicity in the determination of forms of culture in migrant situations such as the diaspora within Oceania. It also looks at the salience of ethnicity as a marker of identity in the Tuvaluan diaspora. Cultural identity today in the diaspora within Oceania is derived from the natal home and is also shaped by the various contexts within which they live and experience life today. The Diaspora has been written about extensively and Pacific Islanders have become the subjects of many such writings, but little is known of the Pacific diaspora within Oceania. Non-traditional, intra-Pacific migrations of our contemporary times are fertile areas for research. Multi-disciplined research has concentrated mainly on Pacific Islander experiences in the Pacific Rim countries to which we ‘traditionally’ migrate. It is not the intention of this study to homogenise the Pacific diaspora but there is an apparent gap in the Pacific Island diaspora literature to which this research on the diaspora within Oceania contributes to. As migrant people, our ancestors travelled throughout our Oceanic home for centuries and settled on the various islands that are our homes today. To appreciate this formation of communities that has taken shape due to movements of people, one must take into account both indigenous models and conventional approaches such as migration, malaga, va and our sea of islands.