Knowing and learning

the long version

In Knowing and Learning: An Indigenous Fijian Approach, author Unaisi Nabobo-Baba has employed a decolonized 'vanua research' method to explore how her people, those of Vugalei, in southeastern Vitilevu, acquire and transmit knowledge. By documenting the various dimensions of knowledge and their value and applications in Vugalei society, the author enables the indigenous voice to be heard. Nabobo-Baba's finding have obvious implications for formal education models - and she discusses how they impinge on evrything from school architecture to teaching methods, curriculum development and educational research, and how they go some way toward explaining the apparent failures of the past affirmative action strategies. This ground-breaking book provides an 'insiders' view of how an idigenous society percieves itself and the world around it, and is set to raise the level of debate on the development of Fiji as a post-colonial nation.