Collection PHOTO 103 - Slides and photographs of election campaigns during 1966 election in Fiji

West Viti Levu scenes: Sigatoka river from hill near town, Sigatoka valley West Viti Levu scenes: Sigatoka river toward coast, from town West Viti Levu scenes: Sugar cane fields near Nadi airport West Viti Levu scenes: Cane fields near Lautoka town West Viti Levu scenes: Cane harvesting, Nadi district West Viti Levu scenes: Cane harvesting,  Sigatoka district West Viti Levu scenes: Between Nadi and Sigatoka West Viti Levu scenes: Lomawai village, Sigatoka district West Viti Levu scenes: Village adjacent to Nadi town West Viti Levu scenes: Village adjacent to Nadi town
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AU PMB PHOTO 103

Title

Slides and photographs of election campaigns during 1966 election in Fiji

Date(s)

  • 1966 (Creation)

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183 digital images

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Name of creator

(1944-)

Biographical history

Since 1966 Robert Norton’s major area of research has been ethnicity and politics in Fiji. His PhD thesis, Politics, race and society in Fiji, was submitted at Sydney University in 1972. His book, Race and Politics in Fiji, was published by the University of Queensland Press in 1977 and a revised second edition was published in 1990. He was appointed as one of the foundation members of staff in the Department of Anthropology at Macquarie University in 1969. He continued to be a consistent observer and respected commentator on Fiji politics throughout his academic career, writing many essays and articles on politics in Fiji in scholarly journals and books.

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Scope and content

This collection of slides and photographs was taken by Robert Norton on his first research trip to Fiji, which took place during the 1966 Legislative Council elections campaigning.

The general Legislative Council elections were held in late 1966, just over a year after the first constitutional conference in London, and five years after the British government announced its plan to prepare Fiji for self-government.

The indigenous Fijian leaders were initially very anxious about this objective, viewing it as a threat to the protection they believed the Fijians had enjoyed under the colonial government’s policies, based in part, on the government’s interpretation of the Deed of Cession by which nearly 100 years before the leading chiefs had entrusted the islands to the British crown.

The Fiji Indians who in the 1960s were 51% of the population, and generally more advanced economically than the Fijians (43% of the population), looked favourably on the prospect of an end to colonial rule and their principal leaders called for a common franchise to replace communal (ethnic) political representation. The very influential but tiny European minority, concerned to preserve their longstanding privileged political representation, stood with the Fijians against radical constitutional change.

The 1966 elections were the first in which broadly-based political parties competed for a substantial power in the colonial parliament. The 1965 constitutional conference had changed the parliament (legislative council) from a council dominated by colonial officials appointed by the governor, to one dominated by elected representatives: 14 Indigenous Fijians, (2 elected by the Great Council of Chiefs), 12 Indians, 10 General electors (Europeans, Part-Europeans, Pacific islanders other than Fijians, and Chinese). The new constitution completed the expansion of the vote to a universal franchise, begun in 1963. Only four seats were reserved for colonial officials.

Most of the electorates remained ethnically defined, and all the seats remained ethnically reserved.

But overlaying the many communal electorates, were now three very large Cross Voting electorates covering the entire colony. They were multi-ethnic, made up from the communal electorates, and each had three reserved seats: Fijian, Indian, and General. The electors were entitled to four votes - one in their communal electorate, and three in their cross-voting electorate. Voting was not compulsory, and to cast a valid vote an elector need tick only the communal seat ballot paper if they wished. Communal seats numbered 9 Fijian, 9 Indian, and 7 General; there were 3 Fijian, 3 Indian, and 3 General cross-voting seats. Indigenous Fijians enjoyed additional representation by the two Council of Chiefs members of the parliament.

The intention of introducing the cross-voting electorates was to give people experience in supporting candidates of different ethnic identities from their own - a step, the British said, toward an eventual common franchise without reserved seats. It was hoped that political parties would each field candidates of different ethnicity, and that these would campaign together - the communal candidates assisting the campaigning of their cross-voting partners.

Some of the slides and photos illustrate this joint campaigning in western Viti Levu, by Fijian, Indian, and General candidates of the Alliance Party. All the pictures were taken on Viti Levu, Fiji’s major island.

The Alliance Party, whose main component body was the indigenous Fijian Association, won 22 seats (12 Fijian, 3 Indian, 7 General). The Federation Party (later the National Federation Party) secured only the 9 communal Indian seats; the party fielded only one non-Indian candidate, Fijian cane farmer Penaia Rokovuni (photos 48-54). Three General candidates were elected as independents.

References

Robert Norton 'Race and Politics in Fiji', University of Queensland Press, 1977, revised edition 1990

Roderick Alley 'The Emergence of Party Politics'. In 'Politics in Fiji' edited by Brij Lal, Allen & Unwin, 1986. Pp28-51

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Accruals

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As arranged by Dr Robert Norton

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Available for reference

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See individual items

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Existence and location of originals

Dr Robert Norton, Sydney, NSW

Existence and location of copies

Access this title at PMB Member Libraries or by purchasing it directly from the Bureau: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/pambu/accessing.php

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See Finding Aid for detailed descriptions by Dr Robert Norton

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Finding Aid and Scope & Content written by Dr Robert Norton, drawing on the following sources: Robert Norton 'Race and Politics in Fiji', University of Queensland Press, 1977, revised edition 1990 and
Roderick Alley 'The Emergence of Party Politics'. In 'Politics in Fiji' edited by Brij Lal, Allen & Unwin, 1986. Pp28-51

Archivist's note

Minor dust removal on derivative files using Adobe Lightroom
Uploaded by Kari James, 11 October 2018

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