Te Tumu Seminar: Guardianship in Early Colonial Fiji

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Lachlan Paterson

Image from: Burton, J.W. (1910). Fiji of To-Day. London: Charles H. Kelly

Te Tumu PhD student Erica Newman will be presenting the research presentation, Guardianship in Early Colonial Fiji, on 12 November.  Please note that the venue and time have changed to previously advertised.  It will now be 3.30-4.30 pm in R3S10 (3rd floor, Te Tumu building).

Abstract:  Fiji became a British Colony in 1874 and within five years the Indian Indentured Labour Scheme was introduced to provide workers for the European owned plantations.  Care of any orphaned children from these plantations was the responsibility of Colonial Office bureaucrats who applied the western systems of guardianship and adoption that they used throughout the Empire.This seminar will examine five examples of Colonial Office correspondence negotiating the approval of guardianship of children, between the years of 1889 to 1900. A study of these files reveals the circumstances of the child, those who were approved guardianship, and why they sought to become a guardian.  

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