Nationalism and Sovereignty in Niue, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Hawai'i
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 10-30-2018 12:30 PM Nationalism and Sovereignty in Niue, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Hawai‘i Craig Spurrier The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Clark, Samuel The University of Western Ontario Co-Supervisor Young, Carl The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Sociology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Craig Spurrier 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Recommended Citation Spurrier, Craig, "Nationalism and Sovereignty in Niue, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Hawai‘i" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5887. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5887 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract This dissertation explores the ways in which sovereignty and nationalism are expressed within four small island nations of Oceania. These four nations represent significant variation in the level of sovereignty and types of nationalism. Hawaiʻi, though the largest of the four, remains a part of the United States following the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. An active nationalist movement continues to fight for the end of U.S. occupation. Fiji, whilst legally fully independent, has seen considerable nationalist activity including four coups. Niue and the Cook Islands are in free association with New Zealand. Though independent nations, they have elected to outsource several government functions including foreign affairs and defence to New Zealand. They also maintain a close relationship wherein Niueans and Cook Islanders hold New Zealand citizenship. This unusual relationship tests the bounds of typical models of sovereignty and nationalism. Despite their small size, nationalism is present in all four nations. Contrary to expectations given the contested status of the three nations and the ethnonationalist struggles Fiji has faced, the fiery and intense version of nationalism known as hot nationalism is mostly historical for these nations. Rather, we see nationalism expressed through taken for granted components of daily life. This phenomenon known as everyday or banal nationalism can be seen across areas that would not typically be considered as nationalist such as food, music, language and sport. Even extremely banal areas such as road naming, airport organisation, and mailing procedures, can serve to remind people of their place in the nation and create or reinforce a national identity. Sovereignty has been the focus for activists across many modern movements. Though traditionally nationalists have often utilised folk definitions of sovereignty, international law i and the legal definitions of sovereignty have become paramount to many modern movements. Nationalists are increasingly using legal theory and academia as tools to gain legitimacy and support for their causes. How nationalism and sovereignty are expressed and contested have changed considerably over the past few decades necessitating the fresh look at nationalism in small island states provided by this study. Keywords Nationalism, everyday nationalism, sovereignty, Fiji, Cook Islands, Niue, Hawaiʻi ii Acknowledgments I’m very grateful to my supervisors, Samuel Clark and Carl Young. Their valuable advice throughout was very much appreciated. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to those who agreed to be interviewed for this project in Niue, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Hawaiʻi. I am also grateful to the staff of the Auckland War Memorial Museum Library, the Niue Tourism Office, and the Cook Islands Library & Museum for helping me to locate many of the documents used in my study. Finally, I wish to thank my family for their support and encouragement throughout my study. iii Table of Contents ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................ I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................................................... III TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................................IV CHAPTER 1 ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 PURPOSE ............................................................................................................................................. 5 1.2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................................ 8 1.2.1 The Nation ...................................................................................................................................... 8 1.2.2 The Nation-State ........................................................................................................................... 12 1.2.3 Nationalism .................................................................................................................................. 13 1.2.4 Patriotism and Nationalism .......................................................................................................... 21 1.3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................ 22 1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................ 26 1.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................. 26 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY ......................................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................................................................... 30 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................ 30 2.1 BANAL NATIONALISM ........................................................................................................................ 31 2.2 NATIONALISM IN SMALL NATIONS .................................................................................................... 34 2.2.1 Theories of the Nation .................................................................................................................. 34 2.2.2 Newspapers .................................................................................................................................. 37 2.2.3 Sports ............................................................................................................................................ 40 2.3 NATIONALISM AND SOVEREIGNTY IN FIJI ......................................................................................... 41 2.4 NATIONALISM AND SOVEREIGNTY IN NIUE ...................................................................................... 46 2.5 NATIONALISM AND SOVEREIGNTY IN THE COOK ISLANDS ............................................................... 47 2.6 NATIONALISM AND SOVEREIGNTY IN HAWAIʻI ................................................................................. 50 2.7 NATIONALISM IN THE REGION .......................................................................................................... 58 CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................................................... 71 3 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ............................................................................................................. 71 3.1 GEOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................................... 71 iv 3.2 DEMOGRAPHICS ................................................................................................................................ 72 3.3 RACE AND ETHNICITY ........................................................................................................................ 74 3.4 LAND .................................................................................................................................................. 78 3.5 TOURISM ........................................................................................................................................... 84 3.6 HISTORY ............................................................................................................................................. 86 3.6.1 Niue .............................................................................................................................................. 86 3.6.2 Hawaiʻi .......................................................................................................................................... 93 3.6.3 Cook Islands ...............................................................................................................................