Since the colonial period, kerekere as an indigenous Fijian mode of exchange has been blamed for stunting the economic development of indigenous Fijians. It has often been reduced to 'begging' and it has been used in connection with terms such as 'corruption', and 'dependency'. This article strives for a more balanced and culturally complex account of kerekere. Business and vanua; modernity and tradition; capitalist and non-capitalist or market and moral economy are often imagined as

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... and irreconcilable by indigenous Fijians and others. This paper suggests that these are false dichotomies, and yet the way they are often imagined as dichotomous by indigenous Fijians has had a significant impact on their entrepreneurial discourse and practices. After surveying the relevant economic anthropology literature, the authors appeal for emic research which applies an integrated approach to contemporary economic activity in Fiji. We draw on ethnographic examples of community-based ecotourism within Taveuni's Boumā National Heritage Park and conclude that contemporary values and practices including kerekere may be strategically crafted and embedded into culturally meaningful expressions of indigenous social entrepreneurship.