Climate Adaptation and Resilience-Building through Valuing Indigenous Knowledge in Fiji

When tropical cyclone Winston hit Fiji in 2016, it destroyed and damaged 30,000 houses in the country.

The damages to these houses and buildings revealed something about their structures, which is a primary reason for their failure—destroyed Fijian homes lack proper lateral load-resisting systems. 

Additionally, the country lacked skilled workers and limited knowledge of compliance with their building code.

Aquino et al.’s study focuses on the traditional structures of Fiji, particularly in the village of Navala, as a resilient solution for restoring the village after the tropical cyclone.

Navala’s Bure houses

Navala village is located on the bank of the Ba River in the province of Ba in Viti Levu, Fiji’s biggest and most populous island. It is the last remaining traditional village of Fiji because it was able to preserve its traditional houses, known as Bure.

Bure is made from locally sourced materials, such as bamboo, local reeds, and ferns for its roofs, pandanus leaves woven into mats covering the dirt floors, and hardwood for its posts.

Some villagers also earn income from these traditional houses. Some villages offer their Bure homes as accommodation for tourists who want a taste of authentic Fijian culture and lifestyle.

Building resilience for post-disaster recovery using traditional knowledge

The study highlights traditional knowledge or Indigenous construction practices as a resilient post-disaster recovery solution for the Indigenous people in Fiji.

Bure is a product of Indigenous people building skills through trial and error, which have withstood various environmental and socio-cultural tests.  

Because Bure’s materials are locally resourced and building these structures is a communal activity, post-disaster recovery using the traditional method is faster and more sustainable. Materials and human resources necessary for rebuilding are immediately available. 

The study also presents examples from around the world of communities that chose to rebuild by preserving their traditional practices and methods.

Challenges to Rebuilding Bure Houses

The study aims to review Fiji’s policies that influence the reconstruction of housing structures after a disaster. It wants to know why contemporary or modern houses are preferred to replace disaster-damaged Bure housing in the recovery phase and how communities can build Bure houses if they choose.

The study revealed three central challenges to rebuilding Bure in the aftermath of a disaster, to wit:

(1) There are Differing views among stakeholders in Fiji on the meaning of resilient housing structures. The local government promotes the building of modern houses rather than traditional ones, so the information given to communities regarding rebuilding, construction materials, etc., only pertains to the latter type.

(2) Indigenous construction design and methods are not recognized or included in Fiji’s building codes and standards, which are primarily based on Australian and New Zealand building codes and standards.

(3) Fiji’s government policies and programs favour rebuilding using contemporary housing structures and materials.

The Fiji government has extended financial support to rebuild the houses damaged by Cyclone Winston. However, this fund can only be used to buy materials from government-accredited hardware stores.

This can be restrictive to those who may wish to rebuild their traditional houses because the materials they need may not be available in these stores.

In light of government policies regarding resilient post-disaster recovery and the application of the Build Back Better concepts to post-disaster recovery and rebuilding, resilience should be interpreted and applied broadly.

Therefore, a resilient house should not only be sturdy and withstand extreme events such as climate change and natural disasters but also be able to adapt to changes and environmental conditions. 

According to the study, it should also be flexible and “one that might be feeble but quick and easy to reconstruct.”

To read the entire study, click the link below.

BACKGROUND PHOTO CREDIT: Fijian bures in Navala by No machine-readable author provided. Merbabu~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1943651