Conducting research with people on socially painful issues: "No one came to help any one here, it seemed, this was just a professor training her students [...] ."

 GEOG 2013 - A very important read and a reminder-to-self as I conduct research in informal settlements in Suva, Fiji.

Palestinian Refugees are not at your service (Nayel, 2013) 

Ten points to consider when pursuing research in human geography, particularly with people who might be deemed 'vulnerable':

1. People's stories and life experiences are personal, sensitive, sometimes urgent, and you have to be prepared to share resources, leverage your privilege, and make a difference. 

2. You are doing research with a purpose and if you are going to connect a reader eventually to this case-study, you need to connect and be connected yourself.

3. Please do your research before going in to the field - READ!

Do not ask things that are already well-known.

4. Get a sense of the resources available in the participants' area, so you can direct and lead them to get help that you may not be able to provide. You can do this online, through key-informant interviews before-hand, and through other informational interviews with 'authorities' BEFORE doing fieldwork with your participants.

5. Remember their (your participants') time is more important than your time. Be grateful and show your gratitude.

6. Research is an invasion of privacy and space - you need to consider ways of giving privacy and allowing space while you are with someone, whether you are in their home or not.

7. If you cannot help or unwilling or unable to be connected to people and issues, tell people frankly at the outset that they will get no benefit from this interview AND they should not feel they have to answer anything you ask - there is no obligation or compulsion. In my research, even though they had agreed, and I had traveled out of my way to meet them, some thanked me and left me holding blank questionnaires when they understood they did not have to participate. While I was disappointed, I also felt happy that acted in their interest and that my research ethos allowed them that freedom not to participate. If they choose to participate, for their sake, at various points, ask if they need to take a break, do something while you interview, or if they would like to stop for today, or stop altogether.

8. Give people the right to be people (not research subjects or merely participants), make choices, and express their agency, even if it's not the narrow focus of your research.

9. Your role in the research doesn't end at the completion of the interviews - quickly compile your data to see trends, and highlight major issues e.g. access to health, education, water and sanitation - see how you can mobilize resources you have to improve things in the short term since, as you know, research takes months and years to get into the public domain. This will allow you to bridge the divide between people's immediate needs and the typical duration of a study.

10. You will leave the field, but you must stay connected. This means being actively involved in the struggles of your participants, even when you are not being funded for research and you are doing other things in other places.

In our GEOG 2013 methodologies and research conduct classes, we talk about "feeling used" by researchers. This is a quintessential example you should heed. Please use the comment section to add more advice for other human geographers, or to offer your own examples of essential practices from the field.

Finally, the Palestinian exile and generations growing up in deadly circumstances, displaced from their homelands, is one of the most important social, political, economic, and geographical issues of our time. Please don't ignore the underlying issues of the multiple and interlocking supremacies and forms of oppression that are the foundation of this story. 

Veidogo (pronounced Vaydongo) informal settlement - Squatting is a health issue and a form of homelessness with improvised shelter and insecure tenure in marginal urban areas

My Geoscience brothers in Fiji - Kumar and Kumar (Neil and Satendra)

Caribbean students in the South Pacific - Small Island Developing States (SIDS) citizens bond over a passion for sustainable development, the environment, and natural resource management. Others of us have joined to share our knowledge and desire to learn about pressing social issues that affect and are affected by environmental pressures, including urbanization and housing affordability.

Notable Alumna of the Department of Geography, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Ms. Sherri Lodhar (left).  I didn't have the opportunity to influence her learning as she'd already graduated by the time I arrived to the UWI-STA, but I'm fortunate to have met her thanks to the Caribbean-Pacific Islands Mobility Scheme.  Sherri is currently a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, working in the field of biogeography and the relationship between invasive plant species and forest dynamics.  A brilliant young researcher, supervised by Professor Juergen Boehmer, she is undoubtedly going to gain a world of experience that will allow her to consider tropical vegetation dynamics as well as invasive species impacts generally in relationship to development and environmental management.

Left to Right

Dr. Eberhard Weber, Senior Lecturer, Geography, Earth Science and Environment, Sustainable development and environmentally-induced migration

Kristina Sankar – T&T – Postgrad Diploma in Marine Science

Delmer Tzib – Belize – Postgrad Diploma in History

Ms Sherri Lodhar – T&T- PhD  Environmental Management

Mr Faron Young-Belize - Postgrad Diploma Sociology

Ms Khaleella Arzu – Belize - Postgrad Diploma Sociology

Mr Leomar Longsworth – Belize - Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Science

 Ms Kashieka Broadster – Belize -  Postgrad Diploma Sociology

(Unnamed cheeky American student - female)

Mr Jermaine Clarke – Guyana – Postgrad Diploma in Management

 (Unnamed cheeky American student - male)

Dr. Priya Kissoon, Lecturer, Geography Department, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus

Red-headed parrot finch and orange-breasted honeyeater at Laucala Campus, USP. I've also spotted the finches in a pair on the neem tree outside my window in Nabua-Three Mile. They are fairly common, though not as common as the Mynah Bird, which some consider a pest.A (I'll try and capture the Red-vented Bulbul, which are usually swooping between our neighbour's mango tree and the Ixora bushes on the other (eastern) side of my flat. To discover the name of the Bulbul, I googled 'crested bird red bum' and the 'Red-vented' Bulbul appeared. The next time I have to refer to a bum, I'll call it a vent. Nice euphemism.)

Bright and bold in plumage and attitude, the red-headed parrot finch.  I'm sure he has a song that is as incredible as his plumage.

The orange-breasted honeyeater is annoyed by its rival who is inevitably present for a fight, peering back at him from the glossy steel of the fire-extinguisher.  I heard the tapping and peeped out of the office to see him challenging his reflection to a duel of curved beaks.  You are a honey eater, not a fighter, little bird, get back to your day job!

My Bulileka family. A three-night stay was the start to what might be a network of life-long friendships.

A loving family poses for their portrait.  It was hard to say goodbye, especially to my ladies, Va and Millie.

In Bulileka Village ... .

Welcome to Bulileka village.  Villagers decorated the common area to ensure a spirit of warmth and festivity for the students arriving from USP.  We had tea and sweet baked good freshly prepared, and then retired to our respective quarters within the homes of our assigned families. 

The stove-chimney for the wood cooking-fuel is prominent in this photo.  A little girl peers out of the kitchen window at the students gathering for their tea.  You can see that the house is slightly raised to avoid flooding and that it is well constructed, mainly of wood except for the corrugated kitchen.  Around each of the houses, families have planted flowers – ixora are common.  My family-hosts tended gerbers.

A common house design with the bedroom front window and the kitchen-addition on the right. Breadfruit (the leaves in the foreground), mangoes, and coconut were planted around the village.  The mountain view in the background was breathtaking.  A river runs between the village and the mountains range, though much of the fish that was cooked was bought from the market.

Just another view of the well-kept village, Bulileka.

In the lull after arriving to the village on our first day and returning to the community hall for dinner, the boys of the village took to the pitch to challenge our USP students.

Home cooking - a feast laid out for USP Geo students.  Cassava, fish, and chicken pilau.

The villagers took turns preparing meals for the USP group, each clan taking turns.  I ate some wonderful savoury curries and tomato choka, with roti, cooked in that iTokei village.  That just goes to show the multiculturalism, tolerance, and diversity of the place.

Lobo.  A packed lunch provided by our hosts for the long journey home.  This is taro roasted in an earth-pit oven with taro leaves and coconut milk poached in a banana leaf.

En route to Bulileka Village, Vanua Levu, Fiji - Rainbows galore!

Standing in Bulileka Village - looking at the hillside in the background.

Bauxite mine - Vanua Levu

Dr. Holger Sommer leads his ENVS class on a fieldtrip to Vanua Levu.  The first stop - Bauxite mine, Xinfa Aurum Exploration.  More on the mine can be read at this blog.

The rich red colour of the soil was so beautiful, but the brutality to the landscape was undeniable, especially when juxtaposed to the covered hillsides in the distance, and the intensive re-planting that has to be done to re-vitalize the area.  The company is pining the area with soft-wood.

The bauxite is filtered from the soil into the sediment pond.

Mine Geologist explains how the  pond is used to separate the bauxite and points to the pine trees in the distance (left of the pond) that are planted to renew the area.  About 100 people work at the mine, and the majority of these are men who come from neighbouring villages.  Consequently, he stresses how important it is for the mine to be productive for local livelihoods.

The landscape in the distance gives you a sense of what used to be here before the mine became active.

Vanua Levu, Savusavu - hot springs, pearls, etc

Newly paved highways roll out before us, leading to more and more beauty in Vanua Levu.  A gorgeous driving experience.

Caribbean pine in Fiji.  You're welcome, Fiji!

Delicious spring water on the way to Savusavu.  Cool, crisp, and light tasting.

Undulating, lush, and productive landscape in Fiji.

Hot springs.

Shamefully blurry but adorably curious school children watch USP students carry out tests at the hot spring in Savusavu.

A harbour perfect for pearl-making oysters.

Everywhere there is water, Indians worship.  The marigold wilts in the salt and sun.  It is typical in Hindu prayers.

Homes for small creatures shaped like narwhales' tusks.  Why didn't I keep this one?  I felt ashamed at walking alone collecting the discarded bits of nature's beauty from the beach - especially when they're free, and I should be on pins and needles anxious to pay $1200 USD to purchase a cultured pearl.  I prefer my nature uncultured.  I need to practice reveling in that preference instead of feeling embarrassed by it.

Beautiful Fiji pearls - almost gem-like, these specimens range from $600 - $1200 USD.

Japanese expert technician or craftsman spends some time in Fiji every year to facilitate or seed the oysters for future pearl cultivation.

Oysters bathing.

You can see the imperfections on a few of these pearls if you look closely.  These are not gem-quality and yet this strand is priced at over $100,000 USD.  Who buys Fiji pearls?  Fijians?  Doubtful.  The industry has squeezed out the small pearl-farmer - a form of artisanal revanchism that has displaced indigenous practices and products in a neoliberalist capitalist global economy where the rich benefit from the rarest resources that require the most intensive processes in ecologically precious areas of the world.