text:
The University of the South Pacific, Department of Management and Public Administration,
Suva, Fiji
MPA Working Paper # 00-0012
Mr. Subhash Appana
USP Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Appana, Subhash
Traditional leadership at the crossroads : the Fijian chiefly system / Subhash
Appana. – Suva, Fiji : Dept. of Management and Public Administration, University of
the South Pacific, 2005.
22 p. ; cm. – (MPA working paper ; #00-0012)
- Fijians—Politics and government 2. Fiji—Politics and government 3. Fiji—Ethnic relations—Political aspects I. The University of the South Pacific. Dept. of Management and Public Administration II. Title IV. Series: Working paper (The University of the South Pacific. Dept. of Management and Public Administration) ; #00-0012
The Fijian chiefly system is a colonial construct that has had gradually intensifying internal contradictions and external tensions that came to a head with the coups of 1987 and 2000. Ironically, the coups also served to underline the importance of chiefs in times of crisis or at times when political agendas needed the sanction of what has been accepted as the stamp of approval of the Fijian people. These agendas and disagreements have steadily increased in complexity, intensity and intrigue since 2000. They have also entered the public arena with a steady breakdown in normal cultural protocols and inhibitions that helped maintain chiefly mana in the face of similar onslaughts in the past. This article undertakes a historical examination of the chiefly system and the challenges that it has encountered. It concludes that the Fijian chiefly system is indeed at the cross-roads and this has grave implications for Fiji.
Fijian1 society dominates the political landscape in Fiji for historical reasons even though there are other subcultures that have evolved around and in conjunction with this. Pre-contact Fijian society was very different from colonial Fijian society, and this in turn, is very different from contemporary Fijian society. At the centre of both the Fijian society as well as the collective that is Fiji has evolved the institution of chief. The colonial administration, its policy of "indirect rule" through the chiefs via the Fijian administration, and the advent of education as well as the inevitable influences of modernization that could not be prevented from affecting Fijian society, led to subtle redefinitions of the institution of chief in Fiji. These redefinitions have continued into contemporary times in the face of new pressures and tensions.
The significance of the chief in connecting the Fijian to the national administration as well as rallying mass Fijian political support was well appreciated by colonial administrators as well as politicians.2 This not only expanded the role of, but placed non-traditional burdens on the chief. Thus the Fijian chief, who did come under scrutiny intermittently during the colonial era, began to be questioned more openly two years after independence. By 1987, Fijian discontent with the chiefly-sanctioned and led Alliance government of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, had reached a stage where Mara, an eminently anointed and groomed high chief, was rejected at the polls. The ensuing leadership void planted the seeds and nurtured the emergence of legitimised commoner rule as well as a new mode of interaction between commoner leader and traditional leader. This was a critical juncture in the evolution of Fijian society as well as the institution of chief that had played such a pivotal role in its development. The ensuing tension, between the commoner as a democratically elected leader and the chief as a traditionally installed leader, has remained largely unresolved in Fiji.
Events between 1987 and 1992, when Rabuka emerged as the democratically elected Prime Minister of Fiji, placed a number of unprecedented demands and strains on the Great Council of Chiefs which operates as the formal constitutional embodiment of the chief. These tensions became multi-faceted during the 2000 hostage crisis when traditional rivalries, that had been contained by the colonial administration through its imposition of an artificially grounded Fijian socio-political structure, emerged with unprecedented vehemence. Ironically, these two political upheavals also served to underline the importance of chiefs in times of crisis or at times when political agendas needed the sanction of what has been accepted as the stamp of approval of the Fijian people via the GCC. These same agendas and disagreements have steadily increased in complexity, intensity and intrigue especially after the 2000 coup. They have also entered the public arena with a steady breakdown in normal cultural protocols and inhibitions that helped maintain the sanctity of the institution of chief in the face of similar onslaughts in the past. This article is organised into two parts; part one follows briefly historical pressures, and part two, in greater detail latest pressures and strains that have besieged the institution of chief in Fiji. It concludes that the institution of chief is indeed at the cross-roads in Fiji and this has important implications for the direction that the country takes in its socio-political as well as economic development.
Fijian Social Structure
The Fijian derives his identity from his links with the qele and the vanua to which he belongs and which belongs to him.3 The Fijian social structure is, in turn, predicated on this link. Fijian society is organised around the turaga (chief).4 Every Fijian belongs to a yavusa whose head (turaga) claims a direct line of descent from some legendary founding ancestor. Each yavusa comprises several mataqali (extended family groups) whose hierarchical positions are determined by lineal proximity to this founding ancestor. Each mataqali, in turn, is made up of several closely linked i tokatoka (family sub-groups). Historically, the yavusa were forced by circumstances to combine into larger units called vanua (state). In his landmark study on power in pre-colonial Fiji, Routledge (1985, p.5) writes, "the traditional socio-political order consisted of small, kinship-structured and locality-oriented entities fighting and intriguing for advantage over one another." Political power play, intrigue and internecine rivalry had no small part to play in these socio-political adjustments. Toward the end of the 18th century circumstances pushed these vanua further into combining to form still larger units called matanitu (confederacy).5 Thus these social units emerged "within the context of political processes", and therefore, were "power constructs articulated by the continual exercise of force" (Routledge, 1985, p.29). This has continued to have particular significance for contemporary politics in Fiji. In the 19th century, as contact with beachcombers6, missionaries7, traders8, planters9, and labourers began to impact further on internal social and economic relationships, strategic alliances and kinship bonds began to take on a new significance. It was this social and political organization of Fijian society that the colonial administration encountered and subsequently entrenched through its administrative strategy of "indirect rule".
The unit of the matanitu holds significance when seen from the perspective of contemporary national politics. This is because "Fijians speak of Fiji in terms of Kubuna, Burebasaga, and Tovata" (Tuwere, 2002, p. 30). Each of these confederacies (or matanitu) comes under the benign rule of a paramount chief who receives loyalty, respect and obedience. More significantly, these confederacies are seen as separate "governments" (or matanitu) that combine to form Fiji. The intricate web of kinship relationships that bind them were a part of the traditional social order before colonization in 1874. Routledge (1985, p.5) says that despite continuous warring and intrigue between "kinship-linked and locality-oriented entities", the consolidation of extended power was "difficult". A number of unique relationships assisted in consolidating this power and ensuring reciprocal security for members. These kinship relationships held the various Fijian traditional entities together, and formed the fabric of wider alliances that created the three matanitu. Tuwere (2002, p. 31) somewhat idealistically, says that the bonds that bind the three matanitu together to form the sovereign state come from the cultural institutions of veirogorogoci (willingness and commitment to listen to the other), veivakaliuci (according the other a higher rank than oneself), and veivakarokorokotaki (reciprocal respect). These kinship-linked socio-political groupings of matanitu have been used in structuring the administration of Fijian society by successive governments in Fiji. Integral to the effective functioning of these administrative structures has been the institution of chief.
Who is a Chief?
There is a chief at every level of the Fijian social hierarchy, and at the apex stands the paramount chief of the matanitu. "The scheme … is of a hierarchy of chiefs, graded in relation to one another according to the relative position of the units under their command" (Nayacakalou, 1975, p. 37). The institution of chief has traditionally been surrounded by a degree of mysticism. Tuwere (2001, p. 54) says that "in old Fiji, the chief represented the god". The installation ceremonies are predicated on the gunu where the god is believed to enter the new chief through the traditional drink of yaqona.10 Sahlins (1985, p. 75) puts it more bluntly when he says that the Fijian chief is perceived to be the embodiment of god. In fact the chief has generally been accepted as being the embodiment of the kalou-vu or progenitor. The office of the chief was traditionally an achieved position (Nayacakalou, 1975, p. 39). Conquests and warfare were a common means of acquiring chiefly office. Certain outstanding traits, characteristics, and/or circumstances could also lead to the assumption of chiefly positions.11 In contemporary Fijian society, seniority of descent and political dominance have become key factors in the selection of chiefs. Chiefly authority, on the other hand, rests on the consent of his people. A chief who loses the support of his people is referred to as Turaga vakasenitoa (literally like a hibiscus which does not have a scent). This support is now dependent on generosity with personal wealth, knowledgeability, political clout, traditional as well as modern power networks, and official positions in the formal administration. Thus it is in the chiefs' personal interests to aspire to positions within the bureaucracy and politics. The mana of the chief however, has lost its lustre at an increasing rate over the years largely because of its weakening traditional basis within a modernising political-economic environment.
Chiefly participation in the colonial administration was established through the setting up of the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC) in 1876 by Governor Sir Arthur Gordon who saw it as a vehicle to implement his Nigeria-learnt doctrine of indirect rule. Howard (1991, p. 27) writes that, "The council was used by Gordon to help legitimate his efforts to create a stable and uniform colonial state, and his power over the council was considerable". It is significant that Gordon established the GCC after violence erupted between the colonial forces and local hill tribes in Viti Levu. The Chiefs were thus deliberately co-opted into the colonial administration as minor functionaries where, in addition to being hired as officials and bureaucrats, some matters of importance to the Fijian were referred to the GCC for consultation and deliberation.12 This helped keep the Fijian chiefs within the ambit of national administration whilst retaining effective indirect control over the commoners. The traditional relationship of mutual dependence between the commoner and the chief was thus reinforced through the colonial administrative apparatus. Over time, this relationship of dependency underwent a subtle but significant change as the dependence of the commoner on the chief increased, and the dependence of the chief on the commoner began to be replaced by his dependence on the colonial administration because the chief was now a bureaucrat in the Fijian Administration. This marked the beginning of a major distortion on the position and role of chiefs within the Fijian socio-political structure.
Chiefs as Bureaucrats
The Fijian Administration followed closely the boundaries of traditional socio-political units, which were themselves artificially demarcated by Gordon.13 This structure operated as a separate department of government with Roko and Buli operating as administrative heads at provincial and district (tikina) levels. However, adept in the art of forging alliances, "the chiefs quickly learnt to adapt to colonial rule and exploit colonial class divisions to their own advantage" (Robertson & Tamanisau, 1988, p.10). The chiefs had recognised early the importance of forging close links with European capitalists and the colonial administration. This was to persist in later years with the evolution of a comprador class of chiefs, businessmen and politicians.
By 1905, their presence in the colonial administration had begun to cost enough for Governor im Thurn to restructure the hierarchy and centralise authority in the hands of white officials. The expected demise of the Fijian Administration was thwarted when in 1917 Ratu Sukuna managed to impress on the colonial administration the indispensability of the chiefs when he met the Secretary of Native Affairs and told him that:
"fear and respect for constituted authority, being the only things
that matter under such circumstances, are indelibly stamped on their
minds…. as centuries pass, the masses become more and more
dependent on the will and guidance of the (chiefs)."14
This acceptance, of the centrality of chiefs, by the colonial administration was in no small measure due to pressure and support from "hard-pressed European mercantile capitalists."15 The establishment of the Fijian Administration in 1944 firmly entrenched the chief as a permanent part of the national bureaucracy. Subsequent setting up of exclusive schools16 further facilitated the access of chiefs to bureaucratic and leadership positions. This centrality of the chief in the colonial administration made it inevitable that they would play an increasingly active role in Fiji's politics.
Chiefs in Politics
As stated earlier, chiefly involvement in politics was obviated through Governors Gordon and Thurston's recognition of their indispensability within the doctrine of "indirect rule" that directed early colonial policy. Fijian representation in the Legislative Council between 1904 and 1965 was through government selected nominees of the GCC. From the 1920s through the 1950s, as the Indo-Fijian voice for political representation became increasingly more assertive, Fijian opposition to this was mainly articulated by and through the chiefs.17 On the other hand, European commercial interests were largely behind attempts at influencing Fijian opinion against the Indo-Fijian.18 A January 1920 strike by Indo-Fijian workers of the Public Works Department that spread into a bigger confrontation was suppressed by force using 200 Fijians from Lau and a number of others co-opted from Rewa and Navua.19 One year later, the 1921 cane strike was suppressed by 250 Fijian constables from Bau commissioned through their chiefs. A second cane strike in 1943 saw Ratu Sukuna negotiating unsuccessfully with the cane farmer leaders on behalf of government. Soldiers were posted around the cane areas of the west during the strike, and there were outraged utterances against the "unpatriotic" strikers from both Ratu Sukuna and Ratu Edward Cakobau. Later the multi-racial December 1959 Oil and Allied Workers strike led by Apisai Tora and James Anthony invoked Ratu Mara, Ratu George Cakobau and a handful of other chiefs to address a counter rally at Albert Park on 10 Dece. 1959.20 The chiefly voice had steadily gained a direct place in Fiji's political landscape, and it would strive to entrench itself further as the full import of the dilemmas contained in juxtaposing traditional authority with modern democratic rule began to emerge.
Negotiations for Independence
Indeed given the integral role played by chiefs in the colonial administration, especially since the establishment of the GCC in 1876 and the Fijian Administration in 1944, it was inevitable that the chiefs would be at the forefront of negotiations for Fiji's independence as well as its aftermath. The GCC was very much a part, albeit indirectly, of the constitutional conferences that finally led to the granting of independence to Fiji in 1970. This has tended to create a mistaken and misplaced belief that the Fijian chiefly system is synonymous with government. Public criticisms against chief/politicians have been treated with hostility especially whenever they have come from non-Fijians. Loyalists have felt that the institution of chief was being demeaned by "outsiders".21 The 1970 Constitution did attempt to establish a legitimate place for the chiefs in national government when it not only gave them numerical dominance in the Senate, but also accorded them veto powers over any matters that affected Fijian land, customs or customary rights.22 Unfortunately, the full import of this was neither fully understood nor appreciated by the majority of Fijians as seen in the build-up to and the aftermath of the 1987 coups.23 The role and conduct of the chief outside of these constitutional provisos has been unclear. There are no institutional mechanisms that allow the GCC to have a direct say on matters of national interest. Their contribution has merely been advisory. On matters of particular significance to Fijian traditional interests, the GCC adopts a position outside the ambit of the parliamentary process.
New Responsibilities
A number of prominent chiefs entered politics as natural successors to the colonial administration.24 Others recognised the need to enter public office and jockeyed for positions over the years. It has paid handsome dividends for chiefs to augment their traditional sources of power with modern ones emanating from holding public offices and engaging in business ventures. Even though traditional bonds weakened, chiefs continued to hold sway over their people, 60% of whom are rural dwellers. This is because "chiefs are recognised by many as the guardians of those values that are essential to the life of a particular group or society".25 Chiefly influence is still dependent on political and economic clout but the nature of this has changed markedly. Political parties actively court chiefs for blessings as this assures them of votes. Rewards are then expected through appointments to public offices or partnerships in businesses enterprises.
In addition to this, chiefs (through the GCC) have been called upon to find "solutions" whenever Fiji has faced political uprisings. In 1987, when Fiji was plunged into its worst political crisis, the chiefs deliberated long and hard before supporting Rabuka's coup. Their focus was not only on assuaging Fijian fears of "Indian domination", but also on ensuring that Fiji came out of the disaster with as little damage as possible. Then again in 2000, after the initial trauma of the Speight upheavals, it was the GCC (with active military support) that played a key role in getting the hostages released safely from Parliament. There is little denying that tradition, which is manifested in the Fijian chiefs and the GCC (as opposed to individual chiefs), has had a stabilizing and healing effect on the general populace of Fiji. This fact was recognised even before the coup phenomenon became a part of the political process in Fiji when Routledge (1985, p. 221) wrote that the "importance (of the traditional) as a cohesive force will continue, giving life and strength to Fijian society in the multi-cultural complexities of the contemporary state".
In fact, it can be argued that the GCC has actually operated beyond this and continued to give hope to all of Fiji's people.26 The landmark 1997 constitution was only promulgated after the unanimous blessings of the GCC. Indo-Fijian leader, Jai Ram Reddy's address to the GCC on PM Sitiveni Rabuka's visionary initiative on that occasion was a historic development of monumental proportions. Reddy humbled himself before the august body and reminded the chiefs that they were not only chiefs of the Fijians, but also chiefs of the Indo-Fijian community. Unfortunately, this aspiration has not become a realisation yet largely because of Fijian insecurities and parochial interests. History shows that Fijian fears and insecurities have been invoked to serve vested interests whenever the need has risen and chiefs have played a central role in this mobilisation. Opposition against the Bavadra government of 1987 began with roadblocks into Tavua ordered by the Tui Tavua, Ratu Ovini Bokini27. Subsequent meetings had a strong presence of chiefs who were agitating for personal as well as what was made out to be "Fijian interests".28 Then again in 2000, it was both the overt and covert support of some of the chiefs29 that lent credence to and fuelled the anti-Chaudhry marches. Chaudhry had alienated the bulk of the chiefs and the GCC in his haste to show economic progress.
This participation of chiefs in public offices, and more particularly in national politics, within a framework that has not adequately demarcated or reconciled the traditional structure of Fijian society with the modern structure of Fiji society renders the institution of chief vulnerable in the face of unrelenting and inexorable change. Nayacakalou saw this problem way back in 1975 when he wrote:
There are already changes toward a more democratic type of
leadership. But the process is difficult owing partly to the resistance
of groups which have a vested interest in the preservation of the
old order, and partly to actual conflict of authority between
traditional and modern leaders.30
The institution of chief has therefore, been under increasing pressure that has taken on the proportions of a siege of late.
As early as 1912, traditional Fijian leadership was challenged by westerner Apolosi Ranawai who formed the Viti Kabani and accused the chiefs of collaborating with white oppressors in suffocating Fijian economic enterprise.31 Ranawai also proposed the setting up of a separate administrative system for the Fijians, but this lost impetus with the outbreak of war. Subsequently, with his exile to Rotuma in 1917, the chiefs under the able guidance of Ratu Sukuna were able to reassert their influence on the colonial administration. In 1928, after noticing a wane in chiefly influence, Sukuna told a gathering of Bauan chiefs:
You cannot be saved by the strength and reknown of your fathers….
think of the splendid heritage bequeathed to you by Cakobau. Is
there not a danger that this heritage may be lost in your hands.32
Sukuna recognised that service to the people was what propped up the institution of chiefs. Thus the Fijian Administration that he helped craft in 1944 attempted to ensure that the needs of the Fijian people were met. This administrative apparatus institutionalised and facilitated the chief-commoner relationship of mutual dependence even though it was skewed in favour of the chiefs in the face of alien changes brought about by colonial interests. It also ensconced the Fijian in a web of regulations that not only suffocated economic enterprise, but also prevented them from developing important cross-cultural bonds with other communities until 1960 when these regulations were relaxed.33
Confusions with Representative Government
After independence in 1970, a development that was seen to have been attained by the chiefs (Ratu Mara in particular) as a victory against Indo-Fijian political designs because the 1970 constitution guaranteed Fijian control of Fijian interests, the chiefs entered the sphere of party politics within the Westminster system of democracy. This pitted commoners and public political criticism against chiefs in a manner unprecedented. There was confusion and anger at times because the Fijian masses failed to understand the workings of a modern system of parliamentary government.34 This confusion has persisted with intermittent threats being made against non-Fijian critics while Fijian political adversaries have embraced the political opportunity on offer and exhibited tremendous zeal in launching scathing attacks against chiefs who are politicians. A number of very public incidents that took place during the 1987 and 2000 coups shook the institution of the chief in ways that would leave it changed forever. As opposition to the Bavadra government gathered momentum after his swearing in as PM on 13 April 1987, the Governor General (on 22/4/87) and the Vunivalu of Bau (on 23/4/87) cautioned patience and a multiracial national focus for the good of the nation. These exhortations by two paramount chiefs of Fiji were ignored in no uncertain terms on 24 April when some 5000 protesters marched through Suva and told the GG that they would "burn down Suva and kill Indians".35 The main organisers of the protests were commoners36 and this march would have amounted to a show of defiance against two of Fiji's highest chiefs no matter what other rationalisations37 were forwarded later. The elevated sanctity of the institution of chief was thus being openly challenged in a threatening manner by commoners and lesser chiefs for the first time38 in post-colonial Fiji.
The 1987 Coup
Then on 14 May 1987 shortly after the first Rabuka coup was executed, prominent nationalist Sakeasi Butadroka ranted in front of the Opposition Office:
Where is Kamisese Mara? Don't blame Bavadra, don't blame anybody,
blame Kamisese Mara who sold Fiji. Where is he? Where is he now?
Mara, the bloody Judas Iscariot.
A crowd of onlookers had gathered in front of Parliament House by then, and Butadroka displayed no qualms about not only questioning, but ridiculing Fiji's most prominent chief of the time. Video footage showed that the crowd merely watched with mixed expressions of perplexity, amusement and anticipation as a commoner sullied the persona of a paramount chief in public. To his credit, someone appearing to be in control was heard to exhort Butadroka into calming down.39 This voice was too insignificant to be given any credit. In fact, Butadroka's appearance as a cabinet minister in Rabuka's interim Council of Ministers after the second coup40 of 1987 appeared to show a total lack of concern about or an endorsement of his blasphemous behaviour earlier. This second Rabuka coup was also against two of Fiji's three paramount chiefs at the time. There would be no reactions against Rabuka, a commoner, for his continued insolence against chiefs.41
The 2000 Coup
During the 2000 siege of Fiji's parliament by George Speight and his supporters45, the Great Council of Chiefs was openly defied on a number of occasions by the military, other chiefs and Speight's group.46 Decisional dithering and bickering amongst the chiefs prompted the Chief Justice to remark at one stage that the chiefs "were supposed to be the voice of reason, the voice of wisdom …But they are at war among themselves" (Australian, 6/6/00, p.9). Interim deputy PM, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau was scathing in his condemnation when he acknowledged the "unadulterated greed and the unbelievable arrogance (that) was shamelessly displayed by chiefs and people alike on May 19" (scoop, 20/12/00). It is an open secret that chiefs were aggressively jockeying for positions of power and influence within the vacuum created by the coup. One incident that broke out of the halloed halls of silence of the GCC at the time involved one coup-intoxicated Naitasiri chief who broke protocol and berated yanuyanu or island chiefs saying that they were overstepping their marks as "visitors" to Viti Levu. Sources say that chiefly diplomacy from Cakaudrove averted a potentially violent confrontation on that occasion. After the signing of the Muanikau Accord between the military and Speight on 9 July 2000, civil defiance and violence was escalated throughout the country in an attempt to intimidate and influence the forthcoming GCC meeting. Rebel Jo Nata boasted that this was like "holding a gun to the chief's heads" (Australian, 13/7/00, p.7). The frontiers of public acceptance of effrontery against chiefs had indeed been removed. In characteristic fashion, the Speight Coup was being rationalised and explained in terms of the "Indian threat". Race was again being used as a powerful weapon to mobilise Fijian support for nebulous causes that had actually been spawned by parochial interests.
Speight however, was also leading not only "a middle class revolution against the Fijian establishment symbolised by Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara" as asserted by Lal (00), but a revolution of the traditionally marginalised power structure. This was seen in the openly disrespectful, critical and dismissive tones in which Ratu Mara's name was being evoked. There were calls for his resignation, loud whispers of his "demonic" links with the Masons, allegations of dynastic ambitions with one son-in-law having designs on the title of Tui Cakau and another on the title of Vunivalu. There were also animated grumblings about the long reign of the eastern hierarchies over the rest of Fiji. This is understood better when seen in light of the fact that Fijian society comprises three matanitu (confederacies)47, therefore, there are three paramount chiefs in Fiji.48The relative strengths of these chiefs have varied over time even though kubuna and the vunivalu were dominant until the emergence of Ratu Sukuna49 in the early 1900s. It also needs to be noted that what the colonial administration "froze" as the traditional Fijian chiefly structure in 1874 was a state at that point in time on an ever-changing power-political stage.50 The three dominant matanitu thus became firmly established even though other matanitu had emerged at different times in history. In fact, demands for a fourth matanitu called yasayasa vaka ra have surfaced with increasing stridency during times of political instability in recent years. This coup had pitted matanitu against matanitu. There were too many unclear interests and demands that prompted the army to adopt an unexpectedly firm stance. This is what saved the situation from deteriorating into complete anarchy. The chiefs were obviously unable to deliver under the circumstances.
Mutiny at the Barracks
On 2 November 2000 however, a bloody mutiny broke out at the Fiji Military Forces HQ in Nabua. The aim of this latest uprising was to liquidate Commander Voreqe Bainimaramara and replace him with a military man more amenable to interests who had been supporting the Speight factions during the coup standoff. Chiefly involvement was established, and on 24th November 2004 the Qaranivalu, a high chief of Naitasiri, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for this rebellion51. This was followed by the gaoling of the Tui Cakau, the paramount chief of Tovata in June 2005 for inciting rebellion at the Sukanaivalu Barracks in Labasa during the November 2000 mutiny. Three other lesser chiefs, the Tui Nadogo, Tui Wailevu, and Ratu Josefa Dimuri of Macuata were also gaoled with him by the Labasa Magistrates Court for the same offence. Commander Bainimarama, who emerged in a strengthened position after the mutiny, was reported to have earlier lamented that "the only thing that united indigenous Fijians [is] their dislike for Indians," that the instability "would not have happened if the chiefs had been united," and that the chiefs should be "more honest and open to each other."52 The growing frustration of the masses with their chiefs was becoming a matter for military concern. In recognition of the enormity of commoner disillusionment and demands (as seen during the 2000 crisis) and the very real threat that this posed to the institution of chief in Fiji, the GCC meeting of April 2001 heard calls for greater chiefly representation in Fiji's parliament (fijilive, 27/4/01). Government's response was to allocate $20m to the GCC to make it financially independent so that it could strengthen the chiefly system over time. A major administration complex is already under construction to give the GCC a more visible presence in Fiji.
The 2001 Elections
The general elections of 2001 brought into power a Fijian commoner who had the backing of a divided and dithering Fijian establishment. In what was a first for Fiji, PM Laisenia Qarase had neither a military career53 nor the open backing of the majority of Fiji's more powerful chiefs54. Qarase, a banker by profession, was in many ways a man of very common background. His SDL political party emerged as a replacement for the tarnished SVT of Rabuka which had lost the 1999 elections to Chaudhry's FLP. The SDL however, does not have the widespread Fijian backing previously enjoyed by the SVT government. The fact that a commoner has assumed the reins of government amidst a divided Fijian establishment has brought to question the need for widespread chiefly support for Fijian political parties to succeed in national politics.
Coup Supporters and the SDL Government
Moreover, the SDL government has within its ranks a number of Ministers and senior members who were part of the illegal and treasonous Speight regime.55 This association of PM Qarase with coup elements has created an unprecedented public divide within the ranks of the GCC. The ascension of Ratu Epeli Ganilau, an FLP government nominated member of the GCC, to the prominent position of GCC Chairman, had helped paper over the ominous rifts that were threatening a number of political groupings within the Fijian establishment. The GCC Chairman's strong public pronouncements on the need for tolerance, multiracialism and reconciliation tended to grate against government rhetoric on special Fijian rights and privileges. Ratu Epeli was also consistently calling for the paramountcy of the rule of law in dealing with coup elements. This came to a head when Ratu Epeli asked the Vice-President to resign because of his involvement in the 2000 coup.56 Government's initial response was to attempt to discredit him through the media.
In a scathing public attack Information Minister Simione Kaitani, a commoner, accused him of showing disrespect for the rule of law and lacking integrity and transparency. He also called for his resignation accusing him of causing divisions57 among his own people and being disrespectful to his high chief, the Tui Cakau (fijilive 22/6/04). Similar attacks followed from Ratu Josefa Dimuri of the CAMV party58 which is presently in coalition with the SDL government. Ratu Josefa called for Ratu Epeli to step down as chairman of the GGC for his alleged involvement in the removal of former president Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. He also accused him of being power-hungry and wanting to usurp the post of vice-President. Furthermore, he reintroduced the Kubuna-Tovata tug-of-war that was a major part of the hidden power struggle in the 2000 upheavals by saying that Ratu Epeli, a high chief of Tovata had insulted the Kubuna people by calling for the resignation of their own high chief, the vice-President (fijilive, 22/6/04). Ironically, by saying this publicly Ratu Josefa was himself insulting a high chief linked to his own vanua of Macuata. These outbursts exposed publicly for the very first time open undignified and unchiefly acrimony among ranking chiefs in Fiji. It also eroded further the already frayed mana of the chief. Ratu Epeli's subsequent dismissal from the GCC by PM Qarase through some disputed interpretations of his contract term, and a refusal to renew his membership, helped remove him from the Chairmanship. A prominent nominated chief had thus been removed by an elected commoner from membership in the only constitutional body that gave Fiji's chiefs a role in government. Referring to this as a "wakeup call for chiefs", Filipe Bole59 warned that this was the beginning of a marginalization process of chiefly authority (fijitimes.com 23/7/04).
No More "Big" Chiefs
Indeed with the passing away in May 2004 of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, and later in July of Adi Lady Lala Mara, the Fijian establishment has been left with a yawning leadership void. Fiji does not have any unanimously installed paramount chiefs of larger-than-life stature anymore.60 With the passing away of the last Tui Cakau, Ratu Glenville Lalabalavu, Tovata endured a power struggle between two cousins. Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu was finally installed as Tui Cakau, but the people of Cakaudrove have been divided on this. Ratu Naiqama's involvement with the 2000 coup, and his subsequent gaoling, has also tarnished his image to a considerable extent.61 His rival Ratu Epeli Ganilau's removal from the chairmanship of the GCC by a government in which Ratu Naiqama is DPM, has tended to widen the rift between these two chiefly cousins of Tovata. The confederacy of Kubuna has been without a head called Vunivalu, since the passing away of Ratu Sir George Cakobau in 1989, because of intense internal disagreement among the cousins of the House of Mataiwelagi in Bau. The third confederacy of Burebasaga lost its paramount chief with the passing away of the Roko Tui Dreketi, Adi Lady Lala Mara in 2004. The new Roko Tui Dreketi appears to lack the larger-than-life profile of her late sister. And the one chief who still has the status and mana to command widespread respect is the ailing octogenarian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo. With his impending death, Fijian society will be left with an unprecedented leadership void. This would present an extremely enticing opportunity for lesser chiefs as well as commoners to fill.
The RTU Bill62 and the Leadership Void?
The Qarase government has already acted by proposing amendments to the 1997 Constitution that would allow commoner public office holders to become members of the GCC. This could allow government to gain control of the GCC, and through it, the provincial and tikina councils. This was very much evident in the manner the RTU Bill was moved through the various provincial councils before it was discussed by the GCC. In fact, amid growing opposition from all sections of the community, the PM had defiantly declared that he did not need to consult anyone (even the GCC) on the Bill. When the GCC finally met to deliberate on the Bill on 27-28th July 2005, all 14 of the provincial councils had already been guided by sympathetic bureaucrats, professionals and politicians to endorse it. Open deliberations by the GCC were therefore, pre-empted and the GCC decision was a foregone conclusion.
An important check on government conduct is therefore being removed subtly while the institution of chief continues to be minimised within the Fijian establishment. On the other hand, government's control of the public coffers has the potential to reduce the remaining chiefly members of the GCC to being mere supporters of government proposals and policies on matters pertaining to Fijian land, customs and traditional rights. Bole sees this as "a slow manipulation by common people to get into the authority of chiefs and it is more destabilising than the coup" (fijitimes.com 23/7/04). He fears that this could lead to the extinction of chiefs in Fiji. Indeed the convening of the GCC at the whim of some elected government could lead to a dangerous and irrevocable detraction of its mana, and in the process, its very legitimacy within the traditional Fijian system.
R.A. Derrick, A History of Fiji (Revised Edition), (Suva: Government Printer, 1950).
K.L. Gillion, The Fiji Indians: Challenge to European Dominance, 1920-1946. (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1977).
M.C. Howard, Fiji: Race and Politics in an Island State, (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1991).
B.V. Lal, Power and Prejudice: The Making of the Fiji Crisis, (Wellington: The New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1988).
B.V. Lal, Broken Waves: A History of the Fiji Islands in the Twentieth Century, Pacific Islands Monograph Series, No.11. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992).
B.V. Lal, Viewpoint: 'Fiji Damaged Democracy'. PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT, (Pacific Islands Development Program, East-West Center, Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 29/5/00).
I. Lasaqa, The Fijian People Before and After Independence 1959-1977, (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1984).
J.D. Legge, Britain in Fiji, 1858-1880, (London: Macmillan, 1958).
R.R. Nayacakalou, Leadership in Fiji, (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1975).
C.G. Powles, The Place of Chiefly Systems in Constitutions. In Fiji and the World : Research Papers of the Fiji Constitution Review Commission Vol. 2. B.V. Lal & T.R. Vakatora (eds), 325-47, (Suva: SSED, The University of the South Pacific, 1997).
R.T. Robertson & A. Tamanisau, Fiji: Shattered Coups, (NSW, Australia: Pluto Press, 1988).
R.T. Robertson & A. Tamanisau, Government by the Gun, (Annandale, Australia: Pluto Press, 2001).
D. Robie, Blood on Their Banner. Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific, (NSW: Pluto Press, 1989).
D. Routledge, Matanitu: A Struggle for Power in Early Fiji, (Suva: The University of the South Pacific, 1985).
M. Sahlins, Islands of History, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985).
D. Scarr, Fiji: A Short History, (Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1980a).
D. Scarr, Ratu Sukuna: Soldier, Statesman, Man of Two Worlds, (London: Macmillan Education Ltd, 1980b).
D. Scarr, (ed.) The Three-Legged Stool, Selected Writings of Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, (London: Macmillan Education Ltd, 1983).
I.S. Tuwere, Vanua. Towards a Fijian Theology of Place, (IPS/USP and College of St. John the Evangelist, Fiji, 2002).
R.G. Ward, 'The Pacific Beche-de-Mer Trade with Special Reference to Fiji' in Man in the Pacific Islands: Essays on Geographical Change in the Pacific Islands, R.G. Ward (ed.), 91-123. (London: Oxford University Press (1972).
Fiji Sun
Fiji Times
I wish to acknowledge the following persons for reviewing this paper:
Professor Tupeni Baba, Visiting Professor, Pacific Studies Department, The University of Auckland, Private Mailbag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand.
Email: email@example.com
Mr. Shiva Sankaran, Advisor, Tertiary Education Commission, Auckland, NZ.
Short Biography of Author
I attained my BA (Economics/Administration) from USP in 1986; Diploma in Japanese Studies from Osaka University of Foreign Studies in 1987; MA from Sophia University (Tokyo) in 1990. I was appointed Lecturer in Management at the University of the South Pacific (Fiji) in 1991.
Between 1991-2001 I taught a range of courses in Management. I also wrote extension packages for courses Introduction to Management and Operations Management. Between 1994-1995, I revisited Japan for a year as a Japan Foundation Fellow researching "Japanese-style Operations Management".


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Related Information for Amanda Lepore Amanda Lepore is an American model, fashion icon, nightlife hostess and performer. She is a transgender icon who has received attention for entertainment and business skills. She has been the advertising face for Heatherette, M.A.C. (cosmetics), Mego Jeans, Swatch, CAMP Cosmetics and more. Fashion design company Heatherette has used Lepore's image on much of their clothing and has chosen her several times to model their brand during Fashion Week. Lepore is also noted as a regular sub.. read more

subset: commoncrawl


text:
JBoss.orgCommunity Documentation
Snowdrop is a utility package that contains JBoss-specific extensions to the Spring Framework. These extensions are either:
Extensions to Spring Framework classes, that can be used wherever the generic implementations provided by the framework do not integrate correctly with the JBoss Application server
JBoss AS-specific extensions for deploying and running Spring applications
This user guide aims to cover the functionality of Snowdrop, to describe its components, and to provide information on how to use it optimally for running Spring applications in JBoss.
The current version of the package is supporting the following configuration:
JBoss AS 5.x
Spring 3.0.x
Snowdrop contains libraries that offer support for:
resource scanning - i.e. scanning the classpath for bean definitions or using "classpath*:"-style patterns
load-time weaving
bootstrapping and registering application contexts to be used by Java EE applications
The distribution contains the following files:
snowdrop-vfs.jar - the library containing the support classes for resource scanning
snowdrop-weaving.jar - the library containing the support classes for load-time weaving
spring-deployer.zip - the Spring Deployer
This chapter details how to use the individual components of the package.
Since Spring 3.0, the ApplicationContext implementations that are shipped with the Spring Framework are compatible with VFS. The components described below are still part of the library, and can be used, especially for backwards compatibility purposes, but it is not required to use them.
For using this functionality, the snowdrop-vfs.jar file needs to be added to the application.
This library supports resource scanning in JBoss' Virtual File System. When doing resource scanning, the 2.5 version of the Spring framework used to assume that the resources are either coming from a directory or a packaged jar, and treats the URLs encountered in the process of scanning resources accordingly. This assumption does not hold in JBoss' Virtual File System.
The solution to this problem was to implement a different
underlying resource resolution mechanism, namely in amending the
functionality of the
PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver. From the user's
perspective, using this different resolution mechanism is done through
using one of the two ApplicationContext implementations provided by this
library, which are:
- to be used instead of
- to be used instead of
In many cases, the
VFSClassPathXmlApplicationContext would be
instantiated on its own, using something like:
ApplicationContext context = new VFSClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath:/context-definition-file.xml");
The XmlWebApplicationContext is not instantiated directly, though, but bootstrapped by either the ContextLoaderListener, or the DispatcherServlet. In this case, the class to be used for bootstrapping needs to be used to trigger an instantiation of the VFS-enabled context.
For changing the type of application context created by the ContextLoaderListener, use the contextClass parameter, as shown in the sample below:
For changing the type of application context created by the
DispatcherServlet, use the contextClass parameter again, but this time
on the
DispatcherServlet definition (emphasized
portion again):
Both configurations can be seen at work in the web-scanning sample.
In general, it is a good idea to pay attention to this error. If encountered while the application is starting, you definitely need to replace the default ApplicationContext with one of the VFS-enabled implementations.
Caused by: java.util.zip.ZipException: error in opening zip file ... at org.springframework.core.io.support.PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver .doFindPathMatchingJarResources(PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver.java:448)
(the listing has been wrapped for formatting purposes).
Since version 3.0, the Spring Framework supports load-time weaving on JBoss AS 5 out-of the box, without the need to configure a custom load-time weaver. The component described below will still work and can be used, especially in a backwards compatibility scenario, but it is not required to do so.
In order to perform load-time weaving for the application classes in Spring (either for using load-time support for AspectJ or for JPA support), the Spring framework needs to install its own transformers in the classloader. In certain cases (like for JBoss 5.x), a classloader-specific LoadTimeWeaver is necessary. The functionalities described in this chapter are included in the snowdrop-weaving.jar file.
To that effect, if a load-time weaver needs to be defined in the www Spring application context, use the JBoss5LoadTimeWeaver class, as follows:
<context:load-time-weaver weaver-class="org.jboss.instrument.classloading.JBoss5LoadTimeWeaver"/>
The role of the Spring Deployer is to allow the bootstrapping of a Spring application context, binding it in JNDI and using it for providing Spring-configured business object instances.
This distribution contains a JBoss Deployer that supports Spring packaging in JBoss. What this means is that you can create JAR archives with a META-INF/jboss-spring.xml file and your Spring bean factories will automatically be deployed. Also supported in this distribution is EJB 3.0 integration. You can deploy Spring archives and be able to inject beans created in these deployment directly into an EJB using a @Spring annotation.
If you are using EJB 3.0 and JDK 5 integration, copy the jboss-spring-jdk5.deployer directory into the JBoss deploy/ directory. If you are using JDK 1.4, then copy the jboss-spring.deployer/ into the deploy directory. If you look inside these .deployer deployments you will see that only a partial Spring distribution is contained. If you need a full Spring distribution, then copy those jars into the .deployer directory or into the lib/ directory of your JBoss configuration.
You can create Spring deployments that work much in the same way .sar's, .war's, .ear's, .har's, and .rar's work. Using the JBoss Spring deployer you can create Spring archives:
my-app.spring/ org/ acme/ MyBean.class MyBean2.class META-INF/ jboss-spring.xml
So, my-app.spring is a jar that contains classes, like any other JAR and a jboss-spring.xml file in the META-INF/ of the jar. This jboss-spring.xml file is like any other Spring xml file. By default, the JBoss Spring Deployer will register this bean factory defined in the XML file into JNDI. It will be registered in a non-serialized form so you don't have to worry about JNDI serialization! The default JNDI name will be the short name of the deployment file. So in this example, the bean factory described in the META-INF/jboss-spring.xml file will be registered under the "my-app" JNDI name.
Alternatively, you do not have to create an archive. You can put your jar libraries under server/<config-name>/lib and just put an XML file of the form: <name>-spring.xml into the JBoss deploy directory. For example, my-app-spring.xml. Again, the JNDI name will be by default, the short name of the XML file, in the case my-app-spring.xml will produce a JNDI binding of "my-app".
Once you have created a .spring archive or a -spring.xml file, all you have to do is put it in the JBoss deploy/ directory and it will be deployed into the JBoss runtime. You can also embed these deployments inside an EAR, EJB-JAR, SAR, etc. as JBoss supports nested archives.
You can specify the JNDI name explicitly by putting it in the description element of the Spring XML.
<beans> <description>BeanFactory=(MyApp)</description> ... <bean id="springBean" class="example.SpringBean"/> </beans>
MyApp will be used as the JNDI name in this example.
Sometimes you want your deployed Spring bean factory to be able to reference beans deployed in another Spring deployment. You can do this by declaring a parent bean factory in the description element in the Spring XML.
<beans> <description>BeanFactory=(AnotherApp) ParentBeanFactory=(MyApp)</description> ... </beans>
Once an ApplicationContext has been successfully bootstrapped, the Spring beans defined in it can be used for injection into EJBs. To that end, the EJBs must be intercepted with the SpringLifecycleInterceptor, as in the following example:
@Stateless @Interceptors(SpringLifecycleInterceptor.class) public class InjectedEjbImpl implements InjectedEjb { @Spring(bean = "springBeanName", jndiName = "SpringDao") private SpringBean springBean; /* rest of the class definition ommitted */ }


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The onward march of discount U.K. retailer Primark will continue with the opening of its first U.S. store, in the famous Burnham Building previously occupied by Boston department store Filene's.
Fast fashion seller Primark, founded in Dublin but owned by Associated British Foods, has been one of the real success stories of the recession in Europe. On Wednesday, ABF announced that Primark had continued to fuel its revenues, with operating profit 26 percent ahead of the same period last year in the six months to the end of March.


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Originally uploaded by magicmoir
I have finally finished everything on my reading list, which is brilliant, and it now leaves me with a rather interesting task. Because, you see, the final book on the list; 'As yet untitled,' is also unfinished. At the end of Chapter five there's a line space, the header 'Chapter six,' and then that's it. After that it's just blank page after blank page.
I'm fairly certain that, until this morning, I hadn't opened it in well over six months. I had looked through a few of my notes on Sunday, before meeting up with John, and realised that they just got to a certain point and then stopped…
What to do, what to do. I read the second half of WHHITC's today, and then ploughed right into 'As yet untitled,' so my head is in the right kind of place. I think.
I'll sit down tomorrow morning and lay out all my notes. I'm not sure if I'll set out writing in precisely the same place I left off, but I will start writing again.


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There's something about summertime that causes me to contemplate life's transitions. Whether it is triggered by the last child moving up to middle school, the last child graduating, or the realization that they're really not coming back (except for brief visits), summer is the time when our new life stage hits me. Over the years, it is during this season that I have evaluated why there are still baby toys still in my sixth-grader's closet, or more recently, why a bathroom that my boys shared in their youth still harbored rubber duckies and water pistols while they were away at college. When there is insufficient storage space for current interests because the closets are stuffed with relics of the past, it's time to do something about it.
Women's magazines are full of articles about purging excess stuff, de-cluttering, organizing, and strategies for 'the best garage sale ever.' They admonish us to make three piles: things to keep, things to sell or give away, and things to be tossed in the trash. Children who are still in the household can make their own decisions about things that should be parted with, and mine hosted some lucrative garage sales along the way. But I've never seen a magazine article that acknowledges the real emotion – even the grieving – that comes with trying to dispose of things that were once ever-so-meaningful to our children, but will never be played with by them again.
The three-pile strategy works for me – for a while. Some stuff is just stuff. It's not too hard for me to toss what is really trash, and I can generally sort out the few items I'd definitely like to keep for future grandchildren. But that strategy breaks down when I run into a patch of things I've imbued with precious mom memories. Some things, either singly or as a group, trigger powerful, sweet remembrances of life stages that will be no more. When I find myself sitting in a sea of childhood things and paralyzed by my task, here's a strategy that has helped me honor my emotions, and yet move on.
Instead of lumping things that should be given away into one pile, I try to imagine who would really enjoy the things that I've imbued with such maternal value. Is it the child down the street, a favorite pre-school or elementary school teacher, or a charity that serves kids? By picturing a specific, happy new end-user of the items in question, I can free myself to let go and become a cheerful giver.
Of course, identifying just the right receiver for each item and delivering it to them is much more time consuming than putting everything out on the porch for the next charity pick-up in the neighborhood. Certainly it involves many more piles, some research to determine whether a particular charity you have in mind can actually accept what you have to offer, and "inefficient" trips hither and yon, sometimes for a single item. But it makes me smile when I can share something that has been precious to me with a young mom, infuse a classroom with books and games appropriate for indoor recess use, or introduce new resources to a child care setting.
Carol Kaemmerer


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Waking in their locked quarters – all but Ferdinand – the party were summoned to their feet.
The party had a brief meeting with the Balancers , in which the party was thanked for their service and told to collect the usual token from the porter. As they left, Aleister called out that they would be "down at the tavern." Roob collected the token, and they left the inner citadel.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand spent the night in The Sign of the White Stag. Heading in the direction of his only clue, the Street of Urns, he met some resistance from the guards outside the The Citadel. But all was well when he ran into the other party members as they left the inner citadel.
At least, it was for a moment. Roob set into Ferdinand, demanding all of his money – or Roob would tell the agents of Justica that he was a cleric of Sun-Ra, surely assuring his imprisonment. After much sotto-voce argument about what to do next, Ferdinand attempted to summon food, and failed. But his evocation of the name of Sun-Ra drew much attention to themselves.
Heading to the east side of town, the party ran into Balay, another Beadle for Justica, who invited them in to join his family for food. They also got directions to the Street of Urns, and headed straight there.
Just to spite the DM, the party split up.
Aleister Mal, Flookus the Noble, Shorty, and Choppy all were hanging out with The Mad Widow Ymae in her hut. They gave her the lock of hair from the fresh corpse, and she quickly weaves it into a larger skein. Handing it to the adventurers and rubbing the weeping sore on her cheek, she reminded Choppy of his promise to marry her. Shuddering, the adventurers left the hut and headed to the altar stones, keeping in mind the witch's advice to "bind and pierce" the Hound.
Armed with the skein from The Mad Widow Ymae, Ferdinand, Roob, and Ubgnord arrived at the standing stones, where they created a makeshift wickerman to place on the altarstone. Ferdinand cut himself, to smear blood on the wickerman, but cut a little deeper than expected. Hiding behind the standing stones, they awaited the arrival of the Hound of Greyrock.
The Hut Team arrived just in time for the arrival of the Hound, and the battle was on. Ubgnord, grabbing the skein, raced straight at the oily beast and grappled it. Unfortunately the beast quickly ripped Ubgnord apart, and another hero was downed. Our heroes had no time to mourn, as it attacked Flookus the Noble and killed him as well. Choppy grabbed the magical yarn while Ferdinand attempted to Command the Hound, with no success.
Fearing total decimation, Shorty yelled "run!" and turned tail, to be joined by the aged Roob. Ragmus hefted the hammer and took a swing at the Hound, only to miss. This proved to be a fatal mistake, as the Hound ripped Ragmus apart.
Choppy, meanwhile, threw the skein over the top of the Hound to Aleister Mal. Ducking around the yarn, the Hound lunged at Ferdinand and felled him in one swipe. Fearing the worst, Choppy and Aleister Mal finally bound the Hound with the yarn, holding it down as it thrashed against the binding.
Lurking at a distance, Roob slinked over to Ragmus's still-warm corpse, and lifted the hammer from his stiff fingers. Furtively watching the battle, he retreated back to the town.
With Aleister Mal holding down the Hound, Choppy hands a fierce blow, and the Hound writhed into greasy smoke. It seemed like they had won the battle, and they took to checking the corpses of their fallen comrades. Defying fate for a second time, they discover that Ferdinand wasn't dead!
Staggering into town, Roob made his way to the inn. Drawing the terrified townspeople towards him, he weaves a gripping tale of single-handedly defeating the Hound. He called them to obey his orders as the new leader of the town. When the rest of the adventures arrived, they were confused at this turn of events, but quickly fall into line — all but Aleister Mal. Aleister Mal isn't one to suffer untruths and deception, and called Roob out.
For some reason Ferdinand sobbed here.
For some reason Ferdinand sobbed here.
Fearing exposure, Roob led the team away from the inn. His sovereignty wasn't to last long, for overnight the Hound returned and killed more townspeople. Realizing the ruse, they all descend upon the liar Roob. Seeing both a need and opportunity, Ferdinand set the inn on fire, and the adventurers ran to the docks, set all but one boat on fire, and set sail in the remaining boat. The raging townspeople were silhouetted by the burning buildings, their deathly fate sealed by the return of the Hound.
The weary adventurers let Aleister Mal take the helm, and headed north up the coast. Although trailed by a ghostly ship in the distance, the trip was uneventful. Soon they spied the city of Argenne, where Roob is to deliver his message to the Citadel of Argenne.
Argenne was the largest any of the adventurers have ever seen, though it was but a small city. Once again splitting up, Ferdinand headed straight for The Sign of the White Stag, while everyone else followed Roob to the Citadel. Greeted by Fenseer Mordagit, they are quickly offered refreshments and hospice, taken to quarters, and promptly locked inside — and offered no reason why.
At the inn, Ferdinand strikes up a conversation with a grizzly local, who tells him to "seek the Street of Urns".
By this time, the adventurers are so far off the rails of any pre-written adventure, and the DM was in total free-fall. We shall see if any narrative sense can be made of this.
By this time, the adventurers are so far off the rails of any pre-written adventure, and the DM was in total free-fall. We shall see if any narrative sense can be made of this.
Making their way North from the beached vessel, the castaways came across the small town of Harbors End. Splitting up, three different groups went three different ways.
First things first, one group headed straight for Freddy's Outfitters to use some of the lucre from the Chaos Temple to purchase clean clothes and equipment. Things did not go as smoothly as hoped, however, after Berrel vaulted the counter to attack the proprietor. Unfortunately his attack was wild, and Freddy quickly bashed him into unconsciousness. Krellic went outside to try to smooth things over with the collecting townspeople.
Ferdinand, meanwhile, headed for the waterfront and the small shrine dedicated to the ocean goddess Marqua. His religious fervor impelled him to mess things around a little.
Merchy and Crowde explored the harbor, meeting up with local drunkard Lanker the Liar. In talking with Lanker the Liar, the characters found out about the strange once-in-a-millennium tides occurring, causing The Fingers to be more exposed than usual. When exposed suchly, the long-lost Tower of the Black Pearl becomes accessible. But before more could be found out, the commotion at the store started in earnest, with the local militia showing up.
Casting aside Krellic's attempts at diplomacy, Ferdinand skewered the militia leader with his pitchfork. Beldrow joined in, killing another townsperson. In the resultant battle, both Krellic and Merchy die. Ferdinand and Seaver grab as much as they can from the store before they all run to the waterfront. Not fully appreciating the lascivious glances from Lanker, Crowde quickly kills him before they all steal Parsal the fisherman's boat and head out to sea, leaving behind what they would now all call "Murdertown".
The row to the gnarled, pointed rocks was uneventful, as the heroes quietly contemplated their ruin of the small town. If there were any moral doubts, no one felt comfortable bringing them to bear.
Soon they spied the Tower of the Black Pearl, a rough rectangular shape, black against the skyline, extruding from the tallest of the spires. Only when the celestial bodies are right does the tide lower enough to access the tower, and even as the heroes approached the tide was at its lowest and starting to rise. Moored on the far side was a larger ship, flying color marking it as a pirate vessel. They decided to check it, only to discover several pirates were stationed at the top of the tower with bows. Seaver took an arrow and died, without anyone really knowing who he was — his desires, hopes, and fears. Ferdinand, ever hopeful, attempted a Word of Command, but his god Sun-Ra ignored his call. Beldrow found that climbing the side of the tower was more difficult than he expected, ending his otherwise uneventful life. Luckily the crafty Aleister made it to the top, where he killed one of the pirates. The remaining pirates, unleashing a flurry of arrows, killed both Berrel and the goodman William Borth.
Let us take a moment to mourn the loss of William Borth, one of the last remaining first-generation characters. He shall be missed.
Let us take a moment to mourn the loss of William Borth, one of the last remaining first-generation characters. He shall be missed.
Fortune began to favor the heroes, as Adonrum and Ferdinand make their way to the top of the tower. Adonrum landed a good blow, but it wasn't good enough to finish the pirate.
At this point, Crowde leveled up, although I'm not sure why. I suspect it was the "Last Character" level up rule.
At this point, Crowde leveled up, although I'm not sure why. I suspect it was the "Last Character" level up rule.
The Chaos Lord cursed the heroes as it lost its tenuous grasp on the animated form of the cyclopean effigy, it's empty husk cooling from the dying fire. The beastmen, aghast at the defeat of their god, scattered down the ziggurat in tremulous fear. The lack of the presence of the Chaos Lord seemed to cause the ground to shake and swell, and the inside of the vast cavern began to crumble. Our heroes, suspecting the worst, plunged down the stairs of the ziggurat and to the ship on the beach, just in time to watch massive chunks of the top of the chamber cleave off and crash into the underground sea. For these simple townsfolk, who perhaps have never even seen the sea, the waves that shuddered towards them were more massive than imaginable. Caught up and smashed along the cavern walls, the remaining heroes all fell into darkness as they were bashed and knocked aboard the ship.
The few that finally regained consciousness found themselves adrift out at sea. While all of the current roster hark from Smythwyk Hollow, the only remaining adventurer from the rescue party was Ferdinand. The rest were captives from earlier Beastman raiding parties, by now exhausted and starving. By good fortune, the unlikely mariner Aleister Mal was aboard, and he guided the ship to beach on an empty shore. To the South, more shoreline. To the North, a trail of smoke and signs of civilization.
At this point, it should be mentioned that Rudy Rudabega, Krellic, Beldrow, and Seaver all contracted Chaos Taint, but none of them lived long enough to see its effects.
At this point, it should be mentioned that Rudy Rudabega, Krellic, Beldrow, and Seaver all contracted Chaos Taint, but none of them lived long enough to see its effects.
The ruined keep rose before the gathered rabble of townsfolk, choked by vines. A single flag flew above the broken rampart, a red skull on a field of black. Though it was noon, the skies were dark. It was only yesterday when you all set out from the town of Smythwyk Hollow, a last desperate attempt to avoid the fate of the rest of your town — kidnapping by mysterious forces.
A small scouting party investigated the far side of the keep, finding part of the wall collapsed and potentially scalable. But that path was decided against in favor of a frontal assault. On the rocky path to the keep the adventurers came across two corpses — recognizably the blacksmith's sons — strung up by vines. Wolly the Dwarf farmer approached to investigate. His compatriots watched in horror as the corpse vines lurched off their stakes and eviscerated Wolly. Although they made short work of the two vines, thanks in great part to the work of William Borth, the first death weighed heavily on their minds. Not so heavily that they didn't search the bodies to find a decent short sword.
Pressing forward, the party came to the keep's guardhouse. The hobbit triplets were is much disagreement, leading to halfling siblings Lucky and Wittie hanging back to the rear of the party. This proved unfortunate — as the party entered the gate, the portcullis dropped on the last rank of adventurers. Wittie was skewered, but alive. The front ranks had their own problems — two mutated human/beast creatures dropped from the gatehouse, ready to fight. While that battle raged, Wittie made one last futile attempt to lift the portcullis, and died of major blood loss.
The party suffered no further losses in taking care of the two beastmen, and took a moment to rest. The vine-animated body of Wolly scrabbled at the fallen portcullis, but couldn't make it through. It's presence was disturbing, however. Looking around the courtyard, Sulisica headed alone to the central well. Looking into the well, she felt compelled to throw herself down into the bottomless void, breaking the compulsion with just enough time to grab hold of the well rope. For the other party members, however, it looked as though she walked up to the well and cast herself into it. Rushing to help, two more party members [WHO?] got caught in the same compulsion and hurled themselves into the pit, their bodies twisting and mutating as they fell into the endless. Sulisica managed to climb out, but not without contracting the horror of the void. She would suffer from shakes and chills for the remainder of her short life.
By now the group were assured of their dire fate, and decided to enter the belly of the beast: the ruined tower. Rumors from town spoke of many treasures within, but they were at a loss as to how to open the door. Lacking a key or the strength to open it, they hatched a plan: to fill a barrel with nightsoil, set it on fire, and kick it into the door of the tower. While far-fetched, the gods clearly appreciated the derring-do of the plan, and it succeeded in blasting open the door. Unbeknownst to the villagers, however, inside the tower were hundreds of skins and meats, fermenting in the heat of the tower. The flaming barrel ignited the rotting fumes, causing a further explosion. Out of the fire staggered two beastmen, burning to the deaths. The group's elation turned south as they entered the tower to see a giant bull-headed beastman wielding a mighty axe. While smoldering, this foe was not about to drop without a fight.
The battle with the bull-headed beastman was not without losses and displays of cowardice, but the heroes prevailed — thanks in large part to the bravery and strong arm of William Borth. Braced by the victory, the party pressed on, eager for blood. Ascending the stairwell, they stopped at the closed door at the top, leading to a seemingly impossible set of stairs downwards. Remembering their success with the flaming barrel of nightsoil, the group decided that the best possible way forward was to set a sheep on fire and kick it down the steps.
Again: they decided to set a sheep on fire.
Then kick it down the steps.
Although this impressive feat of cruelty failed to produce any useful effect, it was surely a momentous moment in the chronicles of the heroes from Symthwyck Hollow: here is where shit got serious.
The party, after noting the failure of a flaming sheep to provide any result, decided to brave the steps down. They led to a large chamber with a narrow pool, filled with dark water and floating skulls. Bas relief sculptures lined the walls, depicting scenes of monstrous horror and evil deeds — scenes of which the party took serious note. Particularly the bits about the Kraken. Also, some skulls were picked up.
Heading down the stairs, the remaining group entered an enormous cavern, nigh 500' high. Dark water, an underground sea, spread out before them, the far shore lost in the darkness. A solitary boat sat in the still water, some distance from the shore. A stone menhir, covered in strange carvings, stood in the sand nearby. It was this monument our fearless heroes investigated first, recognizing it from the relief sculptures in the chamber above. They lit a candle at the top, calling towards them the ship. Boarding, the ship set out into the dark waters under mysterious power.
Unfortunately the boat also drew the attention of the slumbering Kraken lurking in the depths. Powerful tentacles broached the sides of the ship at startling speed, blindly grasping for tasty morsels. Many of our heroes fell prey, wrapped in sinewy tentacle and dragged to their watery grave. Some of our best were lost, most notably William Borth and the Halfling vvv. It wasn't much of a battle, but luckily the Kraken seemed satisfied with the massacre and sank below the depths to digest its meal.
Only four were left, standing stunned on the ship's deck: Shilliac, Ferdinand, Sulisica, and mmm. And although they lost eleven of their friends and family in horrible, horrible ways, their experience solidified both their resolve and their skills.


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News \
Backstage at Bonnaroo: Mastodon
VIDEO! Mastodon speaks to SPIN.com about their forthcoming record, as well as those other metal bands at the festival.
Absolute metal monsters Mastodon were unleashed on the Tennessee campgrounds of this year's Bonnaroo festival.Check out video of our own William Goodman talking to Mastodon's Brann Dailor and Troy Sanders about their hotly anticipated follow-up to 2005's punishing Blood Mountain, Bonnaroo's embracing of metal, and Metallica's 'face-melting' set.
More on SPIN.com:
It Happened Last Night: Mastodon, Against Me! Stop, Smell Roses
Bonnaroo Reviewed: Against Me! and Mastodon


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Senior Scholars and Visiting Scholars CWAH welcomes scholars engaging in range of activities including research, collaborations, publications, and other scholarly projects.
Visiting Artists/Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist CWAH supports visiting artists, including the annual Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist. The Lebowitz Visiting Artist brings to Rutgers University and the general public the work of renowned contemporary women artists through exhibitions and short campus residencies that include class visits and public lectures.
Ilene Fort
2018-2019, Senior Scholar
Senior Curator of American Art, and The Gail and John Liebes Curator of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Ilene Fort will continue research and writing for her second book on Surrealist women artists in the US. The first study was part of a large international traveling exhibition and accompanying book entitled In Wonderland: The Surreal Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States. Her research will focus solely on the US practitioners adn will analyze why these women artists first adopted a narrative surrealist style, rather than exploring the avant-garde surrealist techniques and processes. Her research will also consider the scope of influence the surrealist women had on the next generation, namely the feminist and new age artists of the 1960s and 1970s.
2017-2018 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Born in Massachusetts and based in New York, Smith graduated with her MFA from the Visual Arts Department at Rutgers in 1966 when the program was located on the Douglass Campus. As a student at Rutgers in the 60's attending classes on the Douglass Campus, Smith studied with Fluxus and Conceptual artists and began making sculptural works. She became a pioneer in early feminist and conceptual art focusing on clothing sculpture and drawing installation, and attributes her time at Rutgers to this development in her work when clothing and materials became both subject and form. Her various bodies of works include clothing made from plastic and steel wool, traditionally rendered drawings, drawings made from knotted thread and tape measures, clocks, and knitted sculptures. Her work embodies the relationship between everyday life, intimacy, anxiety, and time. During her 40 plus year career as an artist, Smith's work has been both misunderstood and highly regarded. Her work is included in public collections such as The Getty Center, Los Angeles; the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Marcia Oliveira
Fall 2016, Visiting Scholar
Marcia Oliveira holds a PhD in Comparative Literature with the thesis Portuguese Women Artists in the post-Revolution Context. Currently she is an Associate Researcher at CEHUM, Braga, Portugal and has recently been awarded a post-doctorate grant by FCT for a research project on artists' books. Initially trained as a journalist, she completed a Masters in Aesthetics at Nova University of Lisbon with a thesis on Portuguese painter Paula Rego. Her research has focused on a dialogue between visual arts and feminism. Her publications include the book Arte e Feminismo em Portugal no contexto pos-revolucao (ed. Humus/CEHUM, 2015) and the articles "Is this desire? Power, Politics, and Sexuality in Paula Rego's Extreme Bodies", Journal of Romance Studies (New York: Bergham; accepted for publication), "From practice to theory: the ontological turn in 1970s feminist art", Women and the Arts: Dialogues in Female Creativity aestheticism, politics, and contemporary materialism", n.paradoxa -- International Feminist Art Journal, (volume 28, 2011).
Laura Anderson Barbata
2016-2017 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Born in Mexico City and based in New York City. Professor at the Escuela Nacional de Escultura, Pintura y Grabado La Esmeralda of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, México. Her transdisciplinary work has received grants and awards from Bellas Artes and FONCA. Since 1992 has worked primarily in the social realm, and has initiated projects in the Amazon of Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Norway, the USA, and Mexico. Her work is included in various private and public collections, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, the Museo de Arte Moderno Mexico City, and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany.
Chitra Ganesh
2015-2016 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Chitra Ganesh is a Brooklyn based artist whose drawing, mixed media, site-specific, and text based works address buried narratives typically absent from the official canons of history, literature, and art. Her imagery is drawn from a broad range of references spanning from the iconography of Hindu, Greek, and Buddhist mythology to 19th Century European portraiture and fairytales to more contemporary cultural references such as Bollywood, Anime and comic books.
Grimanesa Amorós
2014-2015 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Grimanesa Amorós is a renowned multi-disciplinary artist with diverse interests in the fields of social history, scientific research and critical theory. Born in Lima, Peru, she lives and works in New York City. Amorós is most known for her large-scale light-based public art installations. Her work incorporates elements from sculpture, video, lighting, and cutting edge technology to create site-specific installations that engage architecture and create community.
The solo exhibition and campus visit by Grimanesa Amorós was part of Momentum: Women/Art/Technology.
Martha Wilson
2013-2014 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Wilson, a native of Newtown, PA, who has lived in New York since 1974, is esteemed for both her solo artistic production and her maverick efforts to champion creative forms that are "vulnerable due to institutional neglect, their ephemeral nature, or politically unpopular content." In 1976 Wilson founded and continues to direct Franklin Furnace, an artist-run space that champions the exploration, promotion and preservation of artists' books, installation art, video, online and performance art, further challenging institutional norms, the roles artists play within society, and expectations about what constitutes acceptable art mediums.
Zuzana Stefkova
Spring 2013, Senior Scholar
The aim of my project is to analyze the intersections of gender and art pedagogy in the US context and apply my findings within the framework of Czech art institutions. I intend to research the changing position of women artists within the institutional hierarchies and explore the gendered interactions between the lecturers and students. Furthermore, I seek to analyze the various approaches to lecturing on feminist art and art made by women. In order to do that I will be using interviews (existing as well as my own) conducted with the founders of feminist art pedagogy, and today's faculty and students of art institutions, information retrieved from biographies, and study of practice and theoretical background of feminist pedagogy. From a broader perspective, this project aims to enhance our understanding of relations of gender and art education in the post-socialist environment.Project Abstract
Interview in Art:21 Blog
Dr. Ferris Olin
2012-2015, Senior Scholar
More Information Forthcoming
Dr. Margot Badran
2012-2016, Senior Scholar
My project examines the art of ongoing revolution in Egypt as act or activism -- its processes, forms, and goals -- and as art as a creative product. It looks at Egyptian women as artists and activists analyzing their visual and verbal narratives of revolutionary creativity.Project Abstract
Ariane Littman
2012-2013 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Ariane Littman lives and works in Jersusalem, Israel. Her works use aerial, road, historic, and closure maps to address the various borders, checkpoints, barriers, and road networks throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem. Littman produces works in a variety of media including performance, videos, collage, and photography.
The solo exhibition and campus visit by Ariane Littman was part of The Fertile Crescent: Gender, Art, and Society.
Audrey Flack
2011-2012 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Audrey Flack is a pioneer of Photorealism and a nationally recognized painter and sculptor. Her philosophical use of the mystical and the myth is seen in such series as The Art Muse and Recent Pages from an Ancient Past. All of Flack's works can be seen as self-portraits. She either uses her own face, as in the photographic works Recent Pages from an Ancient Past, or bases her prints and drawings on photographs of her goddess sculptures. In all her work, Flack celebrates the beneficial power of women.
Renee Spierdijk
Spring 2012, Visiting Scholar
Renee Spierdijk lives and works in England. As a visiting artist, Renee Spierdijk proposes to continue the exploration of her subject matter -- portraiture of girls and women, domestication, politics, and religion. Biography & Project Abstract
Muriel Magenta
2011-2012, Visiting Scholar
Anne Swartz
Joan Snyder
2010-2011 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Snyder is an internationally acclaimed artist and pioneering feminist artist, who graduated from Douglass College (BA, 1962) and Rutgers in 1966 with a MFA. She is a recipient of a MacArthur Genius Award (2007) and was inducted into Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni in May 2011. Throughout her career Snyder has combined oil, watercolor, acrylic, pencil, glitter, fabric, bark, straw, herbs, beads, paper mache and other materials in her paintings to create uniquely fluid surfaces. Her paint is applied as thick and heavy, light and washy, or propelled onto and dripped down the canvas to create vibrant expressionistic works.
Hana Iverson
2009-2011, Visiting Scholar
Neighborhood Narratives is a locative media education project, in which Iverson employs the neighborhood as social practice to explore questions about place, embodiment, and social engagement inside of mobile and other alternative forms of distribution. Iverson approaches the education environment as a communications network, situating conventional disciplines of media and art production within structures of social exchange. An important aspect of this model is its position both inside and outside of the academy and the extension of the classroom to the city, locally and internationally, via social computing and physical interfaces. The Neighborhood Narratives Project has been hosted at Temple University, New York University, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick and Drexel University and networked between New York, Philadelphia, London, Rome and Tokyo.
Neighborhood Narratives website
Gwen Raaberg
Spring 2009, Visiting Scholar
Cecilia Vicuña
2009-2010 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Cecilia Vicuña is a Chilean-born artist who lives and works in New York City. Renowned for her "precarious" installations in nature, which address ecological issues, Vicuña bridges the space between art and poetry, integrating multiple media into her work. Her visual language speaks to the past and the future by exploring parallels between the ancient indigenous worldview of the Americas and the worldview of particle physicists which includes concepts of entanglement and the multiverse.
Renée Cox
2008-2009 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Renee Cox is one of the most controversial African- American artists working today. She often uses her own body clothed or nude to celebrate black womanhood and criticize a society she often views as racist and sexist.
Berni Searle
2007-2008 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Berni Searle, who works primarily in video and photography, lives and works in Capetown, South Africa and New York City. Her art works examine the conceptual intersection between personal and social identity as it relates to history, memory, heritage, race, and gender.
May Stevens
2006-2007 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Ms. Stevens is a pioneering feminist artist, known for her large scale paintings and smaller scale works on paper.
Molly Snyder-Fink
2005-2006 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Molly Snyder-Fink is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Snyder-Fink has been working as a documentary filmmaker for over a decade and has been involved in every aspect of the process from pre to post-production.
Miriam Schapiro
2004-2005 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Miriam Schapiro is known as a leader in two art movements: the Feminist Art Movement and the Pattern & Decoration Movement. Schapiro was a painter, sculptor, and a printmaker whose artwork blurs the line between fine art and craft.
Hung Liu
2001-2002 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Known for paintings based on historical Chinese photographs, Hung Liu's subjects over the years have been prostitutes, refugees, street performers, soldiers, laborers, and prisoners, among others.
June Wayne
2000-2001 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
June Wayne, helped to pioneer a revival of fine-art print making in the 1960s when she founded the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles. Wayne gained an international reputation starting in 1960 when she began to invite leading artists to collaborate with professional printers at Tamarind and create artist's prints. An accomplished artist in her own right, Wayne's unusual taste in subject matter led to paintings, lithographs and tapestries about DNA structure, atomic fission and organic chemistry.
Siri Berg, Straight Line and Bars, 1996, Oil and linen, 3 panels each 30 x 20 inches
Siri Berg
1999-2000 Estelle Lebowitz Endowed Visiting Artist in Residence
Siri Berg explores the visual qualities and artistic possibilities inherent in classic literature, musicology, the Kabbalah, found industrial objects, and the careful blending of paints to create wholly unique spectrums of color.
Carolee Schneemann
Carolee Schneemann is an American visual artist, known for her discourses on the body, sexuality and gender. Her work is primarily characterized by research into visual traditions, taboos, and the body of the individual in relationship to social bodies.


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Wedding Venue in Singleton, Hunter Valley
Congratulations on your engagement and thank you for considering the Hunter Convention Centre at the Charbonnier as a venue for your wedding ceremony and reception.
Wedding Venue and Packages
The Hunter Convention Centre - catered by Charades restaurant - offers a complete range of wedding ceremony, reception, decorating and menu packages.
If you wish, our Head Chef will happily create a special menu tailored to your specific needs or budget. Our decorators have a vast collection of beautiful and dramatic, traditional and modern wedding designs; with a range of optional extras should you wish to add additional special touches to your day.
Our dedicated Function Co-ordinator and Restaurant Supervisor will free you of the detailed planning and coordination developing a 10-page wedding planner to cover all the catering specifics. Then on your special day, our entire team will be here to ensure everything runs to plan - from red carpet entrance to guard of honour departure. Your job ... to relax, enjoy and savour your magical day.
All our Hunter Convention Centre wedding packages include special gifts for you:
- The Hermitage Suite (King bed) including breakfast in the morning
- Celebratory sparkling wine and chocolates
- Complimentary use of the hotel grounds for your wedding day photographs
- Special accommodation and breakfast rates for all your guests.
Photo Gallery
View our photo gallery to see why we are the perfect wedding venue for you.
Wedding Reviews
Read about past wedding experiences on our wedding review page.
Event Enquiries
Call today on 02 6572 2333 or toll free on 1800 657 277 and we will be delighted to meet you to discuss dates, arrange a tour of our hotel and to help you make your wedding dream a reality.


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A delicate blending of the past and present, the home is graced with wrap around porches, glistening hardwood floors, high molded ceilings, crystal chandeliers, tall windows and clawfoot bathtubs.
We are so proud to have four newly-remodeled rooms to offer our overnight guests. One of our four Bed & Breakfast rooms is sure to be perfect for you.
All rooms include high speed internet, hair dryer, television, Refrigerator, Iron & Ironing board, with a washer and dryer available on the premises, and a seasonal outdoor swimming pool for all of our guests to enjoy.
The Wilson House Restaurant & Inn, is located in Wilson, NY on the shores of Lake Ontario in Niagara County. In close proximity to Niagara Falls, Lockport and the Buffalo region.
Since its opening in 1992, the Ramada Hotel & Conference Center, formerly the University Inn, has enjoyed a reputation of being the most unique hotel and conference center in Western New York.
Imagine a 100% smoke free sophisticated boutique hotel, whose focus is delivering guest peace, serenity and renewal. Quite deliberately the Hotel Indigo Buffalo-Amherst has been designed as an oasis.
The Buffalo Niagara Marriott is minutes away from the splendor of Niagara Falls and majestic waterfront in downtown Buffalo. It is the place to be for your next meeting, function, or leisure getaway.
Welcome to the Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Niagara Falls, New York Located just a few miles from Niagara Falls in Canada, guests of our Niagara Falls, NY hotel are sure to enjoy our premium amenities and close proximity to Niagara Falls International Airport (IAG) and to one of the greatest natural wonders in the world. ...
The Amherst Courtyard by Marriott will exceed the expectations of today's business and leisure travelers. Centrally located, we are just minutes from Downtown Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
Modern - Heart of shopping district; US Route 62; 5 mi to Falls.
Located only 4 miles from the famous Niagara Falls State Park, this new Hampton Inn offers guests free hot breakfast daily, free WiFi, fitness center, heated indoor pool, free parking and more.
Your guests will love the ALL-NEW Four Points by Sheraton Niagara Falls. With a capacity of up to 300, free parking and complimentary bridal suite, what's not to love?
With easy access to the New York State Thruway, the Quality Inn? Airport is conveniently located directly across the street from the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
The Homewood Suites by Hilton? Buffalo-Airport hotel, located less than one mile from the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport, is the ideal hotel choice when you visit Buffalo, New York.
Guests at the Barton Hill Hotel & Spa will find luxurious accommodations and exceptional personal service.
Located adjacent to the Walden Galleria Mall with easy access to I-90 and only minutes from Niagara Falls. Plus, we're only 4 miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Our all-suite Buffalo Galleria Mall hotel prides itself on exceptional service and amenities for corporate, leisure and group travel.
Hosts Louise & Tom Yots welcome you to the Park Place Bed and Breakfast in Niagara Falls, NY. This authentic arts and crafts property, within walking distance of Niagara Falls and Canada.
It's your holiday, your special time, so why not enjoy it at a beautiful, comfortable, friendly place that serves hot, delicious breakfasts!
Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel is the largest hotel in Western New York, offering 26 levels of pure luxury and putting Niagara Falls on the map as a premier resort destination.
This upscale Niagara Falls hotel offers 391 newly renovated guest rooms and suites, as well as over 17,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, located in the heart of the downtown tourist area.
Here at the Quality Hotel & Suites we offer 213 rooms & suites. We have a special way of saying welcome.
This elegant & exclusive Georgian mansion is designed from classical antiquity. Its perfect Victorian-style location on a bricked, private street offers guests quiet seclusion in Niagara Falls.


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"Book a Tournament"
For Tournament Play
Alhambra Municipal Golf Course
630 S. Almansor Street, Alhambra, CA 91801 • (626) 570-5059
1. A $50.00 non-refundable deposit is required before any tournament date can be secured. Only written tournament requests are considered and are on a first received basis. Reservations are accepted 12 months in advance.
2. All groups requesting four (4) or more starting times are subject to tournament conditions. All participants must agree to abide by the Alhambra Golf Course Rules.
3. Starting Time – Please present our starter with a copy of your pairings sheet upon arrival the day of the tournament.
4. Notice of cancellation, increase or decrease in number of participants must be made ten (10) days prior to the tournament. At that time, commitments become firm and all fees must be paid on that date. The $50.00 deposit will be applied to the total due. THE TOURNAMENT/EVENT WILL BE CANCELLED IF FULL PAYMENT IS NOT RECEIVED TEN (10) DAYS IN ADVANCE. (Group Representative initial: ______) Absolutely no refund will be given for participants that do not show. The golf course reserves the right to fill from the call sheet any unfilled or late foursomes within a tournament group.
5. Fees charged will be those in effect the day the tournament is played. Fees are subject to increase without notice. CREDIT CARDS ARE NOT ACCEPTED FOR TOURNAMENT PAYMENT.
6. FOOD & BEVERAGES, OR COOLERS PURCHASED ELSEWHERE ARE NOT PERMITTED ON THE GOLF COURSE. A mobile beverage cart is available most days for your convenience. Please contact our Almansor Court Restaurant and Banquet Facility at (626) 570-4600 to schedule the mobile cart or for your food and beverage needs.
Tournament/Event Date: __________________________ Tournament/Event Day: ____________________________
No. of Participants: ___________ Start time: _________:_________ (For Tournaments -Tee Times or Shotgun)
(circle one)
Tournament/Organization: __________________________________________________________________________
Tournament/Organization Chairman: _________________________________________________________________
(Please Print Name)
Email Address: __________________________ Best Phone: _________________ Other Phone: _________________
Mailing Address: __________________________________________________________________________________
I, as representative for the above organization, do hereby agree to the conditions relative to conducting a tournament at Alhambra Golf Course. I understand that I am responsible for informing our tournament players of the Alhambra Golf Course Rules and Regulations for the golf course and golf carts. Further, I/we understand and accept there is an inherent risk of personal injury associated with the game of golf, and agree to hold the City of Alhambra and its agents harmless for any incidental injury that may result. Further, I/we agree to be accountable and will pay for any damage to the golf course and golf carts resulting from our negligence or any violation of rules and regulations as a result of our use of the Alhambra Golf Course.
X________________________________________________(Signature of Tournament/Event Representative)
Terms & Conditions (PDF)
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