Beachouse Brooding

Photo I took of the beachouse. 

So, last weekend we were kicked out of the Colonial Lodge, our accommodation in Suva, as it was fully booked. We instead spent the weekend at the Beachouse, a backpackers beach resort on the Coral Coast. After 2 weeks of work in the city, our stay provided some much needed respite. There were hammocks and swings and a pool! 


However, the experience felt detached from any of the others we had had in Fiji. Suddenly, we were in a perfect paradise where racial tension, coups and rubbish did not exist. In fact, a paradise where the only Fijians were serving burgers and piña coladas. Then, I thought, this experience of Fiji was't any different to experiences I have had with my family on holiday elsewhere in the world. Most tourists, want a sanitised version of the country they visit, with a limited amount of culture, appropriate to their palates. In fact, the Beachouse provided 'traditional weaving classes' in the afternoon. Earlier in the week, as part of the Living Human Treasures project, we interviewed Aliti Wiliame, an expert Rotuman mat weaver, dancer, composer and singer. She explained that the art of mat weaving was complex with many different techniques and patterns. Weaving, I thought to myself, wasn't something that could just be picked up on a lazy day at the beach.

But, tourism is profitable - the Beachouse exists because it fulfills a demand! As Cattermole writes, this tourism is economically good for the state so selective portrait of Fiji as a tourism destination is broadcast to the world; 




And, this type of advertising works! One of my friends recently sent me an email saying 'you're going to be so tanned and relaxed!' Somehow, I don't think he would have said the same had I been doing an intensive internship anywhere else in the world. This phenomenon isn't unique to Fiji - Australia doesn't advertise its questionable treatment of the human rights of refugees or indigenous population. Nevertheless I think it is particularly inaccurate here - this ad really could have been for anywhere in the world. 




While Epeli Hau'ofa envisaged the Pacific as a 'Sea of Islands,' I was starting to feel like the various peoples of Fiji inhabited several isolated islands and spoke mutually unintelligible languages. The tourists were on one island, indigenous Fijians on another and Indo-Fijians on yet another island. In my mind, these islands scarcely interacted meaningfully with each other. As far as I could see, each only had a superficial understanding of the other. 

Beachouse - the morning after!

But, on our second day at the Beachouse, I was snapped out of this negative perception. A group of about 20 Fijians (including both indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijian men and women) arrived for their work Christmas party. They were staying the night and, like the rest of the international clientele, took advantage of all the facilities the Beachouse had to offer. I was guilty of belittling Fiji by not even considering the possibility of Fijians coming to and staying at the Beachouse.  Demand for hostels and hotels can also be domestic! The fact that there were no Fijian patrons there when we were arrived was totally random and I had over-analysed the place from an indignant perspective.

I guess I was judging the tourists and their shallow experience of Fiji -a complicated country that I am learning more and about everyday. But, the Fijians came and I realised that the concept of escapism is universal - everyone needs a break, some time. On our last night, we were invited to the work group's bonfire. With backpackers, hostel staff, indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians in hammocks and on the sand around a fire with familiar Fijian tunes in the background, I felt much more at ease. The isolated islands were a fiction of my imagination, I had gone (coco)nuts.