Paddling as ‘Pelagic Postcolonialism’: Pacific voyaging resurgence,ocean justice and outrigger canoe racing (Va’a) in Fiji

This article presents an exploratory study of va’a, or outrigger canoe racing, in Fiji, based on 13 semi-structured interviews with paddlers and administrators. The sport, which is deeply embedded in Pacific seafaring heritage, emerged in Fiji in the 1980s against the historical background of the region’s decolonisation. The paddling community subsequently developed notable inclusivity in terms of gender, ethnicity and age, in contrast to the gendered and racialised nature of dominant sports in the country, notwithstanding persisting geographical/class disparity. Fiji paddlers have cultivated va’a into a multifaceted sporting practice that simultaneously constitutes a highly competitive modern game, a hip and cool recreational activity, and a cultural movement underpinned by ocean-centred regionalism and an agentic community coalesced around the shared pursuit of ocean justice. Whilst their active involvement in ocean/climate action parallels the environmental activism of nature-based lifestyle sports in other global locations, Fiji paddlers’ engagement with and stewardship of the ocean are inseparable from postcolonial resistance to the subjugation of the Pacific Ocean, knowledges and cultures, a direct consequence of which is the ocean/climate crisis, an unprecedented existential threat to the Pacific Islands today. The distinct nature of their paddling practice may be described as a ‘pelagic postcolonialism’.