Four Slices of Fiji Time

Abstract “Fiji time” is a well-known concept in Fiji, similar to notions of “Island time”, “Pacific time”, and other conceptualisations that represent Pacific islanders as people who are skilled in the arts of chilling out and being late. This chapter argues that the prominence of Fiji time does not correlate with an absence of clock time in Fiji. Instead, “Fiji time” is a version of clock time, just a product of a different historical trajectory. The chapter presents four popular depictions of Fiji time – as relaxation, tardiness, rural backwardness, and a kind of dignity – in order to establish the book’s first claim: that clock time can stand for various other values in addition to labour and discipline.