Fiji, Scotland and the Making of Empire

Today Mrs T and I went into Aberdeen to see Fiji, Scotland and the Making of Empire an exhibition based on the University's Fijian collections, highlighting the 19th century Scottish involvement in missionary activity and colonial administration in Fiji.

Fiji became a British colony because leading Fijian chiefs, in the face of financial and other difficulties in the mid-19th century, including Tongan ambitions, requested permission to join the British Empire. Many of the items on display in the exhibition were donated by North-East Scots who worked in Fiji as members of the first colonial administration led by the first Governor, Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon (1875-80). Gordon, son of the 4th Earl of Aberdeen brought with him as private secretary his relative Arthur J.L. Gordon, and as medical officer Dr William MacGregor, the son of an Aberdeenshire farm-worker who had studied in Aberdeen and Glasgow.

Arthur Gordon was an accomplished water colourist and a number of his paintings feature in the exhibition, including this life size portrait of a young Fijian woman.

Fiji is close to our hearts as we lived and worked there from 1970-73, having arrived a couple of weeks after the islands achieved their independence.