Possession and indigenous subjectivity:a view from the Pacific

It is objectively challenging to reconcile the rational metaphysics of pre-colonial indigenous governance with the irrational objectivity of colonialism. The only relatively undisputed factor in this prospective equation — ‘possession’ becomes relevant as a matter of discussion only when there was a ‘dispossession’ recorded or perceived to be the case. This opinion builds on Athanasiou’s context-linked elaborations regarding ‘addressing’ and ‘redressing’ (2013), while touching upon a range of historic-n-legal developments that took place in New Zealand and Fiji.