ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the structural and epistemic violence against athletic Indo-Fijian women by illuminating some of the insights emanating from their voices. It focuses on the ways in which these women negotiate racialised and gendered sporting discourses and the transformative potentials of such infrapolitical practices by the ‘marginalised of the marginalised’. The chapter relies on primary data gathered through semi-structured interviews with 15 physically active Indo-Fijian women, two female fitness trainers with experience of working with Indo-Fijian women and one female (Indo-Fijian) instructor of classical Indian dance. Fiji’s colonial and postcolonial history has seen the socio-political marginalisation of Indo-Fijians. The colonial regime of ‘indirect rule’ championed indigenous Fijian interests vis-a-vis those of Indian immigrants in return for the allegiance of indigenous populations. The sense of disenfranchisement engendered by pervasive ethno-nationalism, which has historically been asserted by way of physical and political domination of Indo-Fijians, can render physical pursuits alienating, and moreover, an unwise use of their time and energy.
