"We have to remain hopeful about the future and we have to think constructively," she said in Dunedin on Friday.
It was unclear what the short-term outcome would be and whether everyday life would soon return to "business as usual".
There were concerns about a potential upsurge in skilled people leaving Fiji and some Fijians had also become anxious about their personal safety, she said.
A University of Otago law graduate, Ms Jowitt is a lecturer at the University of the South Pacific (USP) School of Law, which is based in Vanuatu.
She returned to Otago University for a two-day conference as part of a seven-strong staff and student delegation from the school.
She said people, understandably, had somewhat differing responses to the recent events in Fiji.
Some were reluctant to engage with Fiji's military-linked leadership because of concerns about recent developments.
She was not a "coup apologist" but a realist who believed that careful and constructive dialogue, undertaken in good faith, was vital as Fijians sought a way to return to democracy as soon as possible.
