Shirley Firth

Biographic Data

ID148067
NAMEShirley Firth
GIVEN NAMESShirley
FAMILY NAMEFirth
SIGNATUREFIRTH S
AFFILIATIONSAustralian National University
ORCID0000-0001-8559-9347
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS44
TOTAL CITATIONS85
AUTHOR COUNT40
EDITOR COUNT4
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1972
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX5

  • Colin Newbury (1929–2025)

    Peter Hempenstall, Shirley Firth et al.ARTICLEJournal of Pacific History2026

    Colin Walter Newbury was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 4 March 1929.1 His father, Walter, had survived the Western Front as an under-age army volunteer as well as the Spanish flu pandemic and ma...

  • Fiji’s Foreign Relations, 2006–23

    Open AccessShirley FirthARTICLEJournal of Pacific History2024

    From the time he assumed control over Fiji after the 2006 coup, military commander and self-appointed prime minister Frank Bainimarama was determined to assert Fiji’s independent stance in foreign policy. This was especially so after 2009, when he established an authoritarian state ruled by decree. He forged new diplomatic relations with Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia, and emphasized Fiji’s go…

  • Understanding Oceania: Celebrating the University of the South Pacific and its collaboration with The Australian National University

    Matthew Allen, Stewart Firth et al.BOOKUnderstanding Oceania2019References: 27

    This book is inspired by the University of the South Pacific, the leading institution of higher education in the Pacific Islands region. Founded in 1968, USP has expanded the intellectual horizons of generations of students from its 12 member countries-Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu-and

  • Grappling with the bomb: Britain’s Pacific H-bomb tests

    Shirley FirthARTICLEGlobal Change Peace & Security2018

    The Doomsday Machine provides an

  • Pacific–Asia Partnerships in Resource Development

    Shirley Firth, Stewart FirthARTICLEJournal of Pacific History2016

    "Pacific–Asia Partnerships in Resource Development." The Journal of Pacific History, 51(1), pp. 80–81

  • Australia’s Detention Centre and the Erosion of Democracy in Nauru

    Shirley Firth, Stewart FirthARTICLEJournal of Pacific History2016Cited by: 6

    Since 2013, the Nauru government has undermined democracy by reducing the independence of the judiciary, treating opposition MPs as potential traitors, curbing freedom of speech and restricting visits by variously defined groups of people who include journalists, Australians and New Zealanders. New Zealand responded by suspending its aid to Nauru’s justice and border control department. Australia, by contrast, has said little. The Nauru governmen…

  • The Mood in Melanesia after the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands

    Open AccessGeorge Carter, Shirley FirthARTICLEAsia & the Pacific Policy Studies2015References: 1

    Melanesia is becoming a region of many partners, expanding diplomatic options and a new sense of independence. The wider context of the new Melanesian assertiveness is one in which C hina is a rising power and I ndonesia is forging closer links with the western P acific. The impetus to F iji's new assertiveness arose from the diplomatic isolation imposed upon it by A ustralia and N ew Z ealand after the 2006 military coup. Papua New Guinea's new …

  • Trading with the Dragon: Chinese trade, investment and development assistance in the Pacific Islands

    Kate Hannan, Shirley FirthARTICLEJournal of Contemporary China2015Cited by: 6

    Chinese development assistance, raw material exploitation, investment and trade increases in their region are causing Pacific Islanders to ask: ‘Why are the Chinese interested in Pacific Island states?’ and ‘Why has there been an upsurge of the Chinese influence in the Pacific?’. This article seeks to add to the debate on that issue by examining the nature and the evolving purpose of Chinese engagement with the small island states of the Pacific.…

  • The Fiji Election of 2014: Rights, Representation and Legitimacy in Fiji Politics

    Shirley FirthARTICLEThe Round Table2015References: 1

    Fiji’s 2014 election was its first in eight years, first under the 2013 constitution, and first using a common roll of electors with proportional representation. In the new parliament of 50 seats, the coup leader of 2006, Frank Bainimarama, emerged triumphant. His FijiFirst Party won 32 seats, with the Social Democratic Liberal Party, a successor party to earlier indigenous Fijian parties, winning 15 and the National Federation Party three. The e…

  • Eduard Hernsheim, die Südsee und viel Geld: Biographie

    Shirley Firth, Stewart FirthARTICLEJournal of Pacific History2014

    Eduard Hernsheim (1847–1917) was a pioneer trader who built a network of trading stations in Palau, the eastern Carolines, the Marshalls, the Gilberts and the New Guinea islands, including the Gaze

  • Australia's policy towards coup-prone and military regimes in the Asia-Pacific: Thailand, Fiji and Burma

    Shirley FirthARTICLEAustralian Journal Of International…2013Cited by: 3References: 4

    Events in Thailand, Fiji and Burma in 2006 and 2007 focused attention on Australia's foreign policy response to regional coup-prone states and military regimes. Australia's official reaction to these events took different forms: for Thailand, a mild rebuke that brought no change in Thai–Australian relations; for Fiji, condemnation, the imposition of sanctions and a call for the people of Fiji to rebel; and for Burma, a change of policy that broug…

  • New Developments in the International Relations of the Pacific Islands

    Shirley Firth, Stewart FirthARTICLEJournal of Pacific History2013

    Two new developments are shaping international relations in the Pacific Islands. The first is the American response to the rise of China, and the second is the coming of new external players. Each

  • Reflections on Fiji since Independence

    Shirley FirthARTICLEThe Round Table2012Cited by: 2

    Fiji's post-colonial journey has been fraught, a promising beginning hobbled by political instability, periodic military coups and stagnant economic growth. Political disagreements over the best form of political representation have featured prominently in Fiji's political discourse, with no enduring resolution in sight

  • Culture and Context in the Teaching of Pacific History and Politics

    Shirley Firth, Stewart FirthARTICLEJournal of Pacific History2011

    Teaching a university course raises numerous intellectual issues and at least two practical ones — what will be included, and how the teaching will be done. Issues of this kind arose at Macquarie U

  • Fiji’s Coup Syndrome

    Jon Fraenkel, Shirley FirthCHAPTERThe 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji2009

    Fiji's 2006 coup was, in some ways, curious by international standards. It was not driven by poverty or economic backwardness, although that is often a 'common denominator' amongst coups. 1 Samuel Huntington's claim that successful coups are confined to countries with income per capita at less than US$500 scarcely fits the experience of Fiji, where average income is more than four times that. 2 Fiji would also sit awkwardly alongside Samuel Finer…

  • The Fiji military and ethno-nationalism: Analyzing the paradox

    Shirley Firth, Stewart Firth et al.CHAPTERThe 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji2009

    Despite three years of regular public criticism and threats by the commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF), Commodore Voreqe ('Frank') Bainimarama, most people in Fiji during the period 2002-06 thought he would not overthrow the government of Laisenia Qarase. The rank and file in the RFMF were solidly ethnic Fijian and had backed Qarase's SDL party in large numbers. Bainimarama had put Qarase into office, and the RFMF had initial…

  • The enigmas of Fiji’s good governance coup

    Jon Fraenkel, Shirley Firth et al.CHAPTERThe 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji2009

    Fiji’s December 2006 coup defied the assumptions upon which that country’s post-independence history had hitherto been written. Until then, it had been assumed that the indigenous Fijians would control the country’s politics. Even in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, when numbers of indigenous Fijians and Fiji Indians were close to parity, election victories by parties with predominantly Fiji Indian support had each entailed constitutional crises (Apri…

  • The 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji: A Coup to End All Coups

    Graham Leung, Noel Cox et al.BOOKThe 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji2009Cited by: 32References: 2

    This book explores the factors behind - and the implications of - the 2006 coup. It brings together contributions from leading scholars, local personalities, civil society activists, union leaders, journalists, lawyers, soldiers and politicians - including deposed Prime Ministers Laisenia Qarase and Mahendra Chaudhry. The 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji: A Coup to End All

  • Politics and state building in Solomon Islands

    Stewart Firth, Sinclair Dinnen et al.BOOKPolitics and state building in…2008

  • From Election to Coup in Fiji: The 2006 Campaign and Its Aftermath

    Shirley Firth, Jon Fraenkel et al.BOOKFrom Election to Coup in Fiji2007

    "In May 2006 Fiji held its tenth general election since independence in 1970. In a country with an unenviable history of electoral trauma, the mood was apprehensive - not least because of controversial public statements against the incumbent Qarase government being made by the commander of Fiji's military forces. Despite a record number of parties and candidates, the winners were the heavily church-backed SDL, the party of choice of the majority …

  • Changing Hindu attitudes to cremation in the UK

    Shirley FirthARTICLEBereavement Care2003

    (2003). Changing Hindu attitudes to cremation in the UK. Bereavement Care: Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 25-28

  • A Reflection on South Pacific Regional Security, mid-2000 to mid-2001

    Open AccessShirley Firth, Stewart FirthARTICLEJournal of Pacific History2001Cited by: 2References: 2

    (2001). A Reflection on South Pacific Regional Security, mid-2000 to mid-2001. The Journal of Pacific History: Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 277-283

  • Hindu Widows in Britain: Continuity and Change

    Open AccessShirley FirthCHAPTEREthnicity, Gender and Social Change1999

    Widowhood marks a most important change in gender relations in all human societies. The aim of this chapter is to examine how becoming a widow affects lives of Hindu women in the UK. This is based on anthropological fieldwork that I carried out in Westmouth (a pseudonym), over a period of many years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.1 During this time I developed a close contact with the local Hindu community and eventually interviewed 12 widows …

  • Dying the Good Death: The Pilgrimage to Die in India's Holy City

    Shirley Firth, Christopher JusticeARTICLEJournal of the Royal Anthropologica…1999

  • Death and Bereavement Across Cultures

    Shirley FirthARTICLEMortality1998