Differing Cultural Perspectives
As with any cross-cultural encounter, you are going to be engaging with and living alongside people with different cultural backgrounds to your own and who may have different perspectives on life to yours.
1. Traditional Gender Roles
Within a Fijian village, there are quite obvious divisions in responsibilities between male and female community members. Within the family unit, this may become particularly clear. Men are generally expected to do manual work; the long trips to the farm, extended days fishing, hunting, etc. Traditionally, women in a Fijian village are far more domestic; cooking, cleaning and looking after the children. In the village setting, men will obtain the higher positions in traditional authority roles in a village and will likely have a louder voice on what change occurs and on general village decisions. This dynamic can be seen explicitly within customs and ceremonies or communal meals, the men sitting in ‘higher positions’ with the women sitting behind for example, or men eating first and women eating after.
Culturally, reasons for this are mixed. Fiji’s pre-Christian culture was heavily patriarchal and not much changed with the introduction of relatively conservative strains of Christianity.
This may feel very different from experiences in societies you have grown up in, but please understand that this is fundamental feature of current rural Fijian lifestyle and village polity. The perspectives of Fijian people may be very different from your own and often where some of our volunteers feel injustice, they may be projecting their own views onto others without providing a chance for the other to respond. If traditional gender roles in the village makes you feel uncomfortable, we ask you to understand that it is not your responsibility to change them and we ask the deepest respect from you for the perspectives of those who have invited you into their lives.
The experience of individuals who join our projects does not change based on your gender; we ask that everyone joins in with the chores, everyone eats together and everyone has the same opportunities. The community know this and are more than willing accommodate! It’s a cross-cultural encounter. If anyone ever asks your perspectives, definitely share them openly, honestly but respectfully.
2. LGBTQ+ Perspectives
Sexuality that is outside of heterosexuality, for the most part, is not openly common in a rural Fijian village and may be a taboo subject for Fijian people amongst each other. This does not change anything about how we communicate the subject to the village pre-team arrival and it does not change the way anyone on a Think Pacific project will be treated. Community members may be curious to ask more, or openly learn about a different perspective, and be open and honest in your response! Some questions may come across as blunt but they will never be intended to offend, English is a second language in the village and Fijian conversation is generally to the point!
As with each category here, we address the subject and its treatment during community prep-visits and the community will be aware that the international team may have different perspectives from their own… but its all part of the cultural exchange.
3. Non-binary
Identities which are outside of the gender binary are also not openly discussed at community level and will often be a new and interesting thing for communities to learn about. Village members may have different views on the subject but again open conversations are always valued and everyone comes away from them having learnt something.
If you are somebody who identifies as non-binary, you may have to have a few discussions with your leaders and our team prior to entering the village about your own personal preferences when it comes to clothing, living arrangements and general experience in the village. Categories such as clothing options, especially formal wear, are divided between exclusively male and female in the village and we will pair volunteers in households during their stay according to gender. Once we are aware of your personal choices, we can then communicate this to the particular family you are staying with to inform them of the situation and arrangements. This is always warmly received.
4. Racism
As with the categories above, community members in the village will never intend to offend but may perpetuate topics in a way that is unintended. Words in the English language that first-language speakers will fully understand to be offensive can occasionally crop up in discussions in the village. These words may have been commonplace in the early 21st century when English was first being adopted by rural communities and dated with very little challenge at a community level. An example can be ‘the N word’ which is occasionally used in passing conversation in a village.
We address this during pre-visits with communities and we have a zero tolerance to racism. However, we cannot realistically expect everyone in the village to get it right 100% of the time with very new encounters, if you ever hear anything that you find offensive in the community, please speak to your team leaders.
5. Religion
The vast majority of indigenous Fijians identity as Christians. In rural villages in Fiji, the predominant strain of Christianity is Methodism and this makes up a fundamental part of lifestyle in the village. Everyone attends church on Sundays and often during the week, prayers are said before any meal and some families even host small devotion session during some evenings. This is a fundamental part of contemporary rural Fijian culture and it is an amazing thing to experience in your cultural immersion. But there is of course no pressure to join in on any situations you do not feel comfortable joining.
Within the households and within the community, village members may be very keen to share something that is incredibly important to them but within discussions about religion, again, feel open about respectfully expressing your beliefs as part of a two-way understanding. Be aware of how your words will comes across and always be open to hearing another perspective.
Even if you are not a Christian, attending the village church on a Sunday is something we encourage as a unique experience and a community event.
Top Tips:
- If are ever seriously offended or uncomfortable with a situation, let your leaders know
- Approach the entire experience with an open mind and a real willingness to understand others
- Communicate openly and honestly in what is a cultural exchange experience