In this episode Familiar Stranger sat down with Fijian author and political analyst Edward Narain and Associate Professor Tarryn Philips from La Trobe University.

Together Edward and Tarryn published Sugar: An Ethnographic Novel which reveals the extent to which the lives, health, and opportunities of Fijians are still dramatically affected by the country’s colonial past and entrenched inequality.

Set in Suva, with a tropical cyclone looming, Sugar follows three strangers from different cultural backgrounds as they find themselves entwined in a brutal murder: revealing inconvenient truths about the darker side of global development in Fiji.

The story follows a naïve but well-intentioned Australian health volunteer, a jaded Indo-Fijian amateur historian, and a troubled Fijian (iTaukei) teen caring for his diabetic grandmother. The reader is immersed in each character’s world and slowly comes to understand the historical and structural reasons behind Fiji’s diabetes epidemic, exploitative labour and trade practices, and the role Australia and other nations play in both.

Twitter handle: @SugarTheNovel

Links and Citations

Sugar: An Ethnographic Novel (Link to buy for Australians)

Emma’s Pod Man article

About Edward

Edward Narain is a Fijian political analyst, researcher and writer, whose work regularly appears in The Fiji Times and Fiji Sun. Narain is also a senior advisor with the Fiji Labour Party. He is descended from Indian indentured labourers, and spent a lot of his childhood with Indigenous Fijians.

Narain’s story-telling is informed by an intimate understanding of race and class politics in Fiji. When he is not writing, Edward is a dad, a drummer, and coach of the Under 11 Boys Yarra Jets football team. 

About Tarryn

Tarryn Phillips is a medical anthropologist, writer and Associate Professor in Crime, Justice and Legal Studies at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. She has conducted ethnographic research alongside Fijian communities for over a decade on issues of poverty, health and social justice. Her academic writing has been published widely in the top journals of medical anthropology, including Social Science and Medicine, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Medical Anthropology and Health and Place. The recipient of two University teaching awards, Phillips is also passionate about inspiring students and broader audiences to think differently about the world and pursue careers in social justice.

When she is not writing, Tarryn loves hanging out with her three kids, tending to pot plants, and playing futsal. 

Photo Credit: Ian ten Seldam Photographer