Softly Fiji

By K Vuataki

The loss of the father and the son resulted in war and cannibalism in Fiji. Learn of the original worship of the father and the son in Fiji. How the son took away his protection and the land fell into the period of the Rooster Wars. With the advent of the Christian missionaries in Fiji, the country entered a period of the Return of the Father and Son.

Christian Missionaries then advised cession to Queen Victoria as Defender of the Faith, and arms were laid down on 10 October 1874, to take up the rule of law. The country then entered a period of taking up arms from the coup of 1987, the attempted coup of 2000, the coup of 2006, and the Declaration of a new legal order in 2010.

With the Constitution Commission of 2012, Fiji now enters a period of The Search for Answers as it tries to go back to constitutional rule. The author was called by the Lord to help the Fijian people. This he did from 1986 to 2012 and for the first time he reveals some of the hard facts behind it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449789961

K Vuataki

Kitione Vuataki was born in 1957 on the island of Cikobia in Fiji. As a villager, he was brought to the new civilization that required education as a means of moving the native Fijians forward. He graduated with a bachelor of laws degree from Victoria University of New Zealand, twenty-eight years later in 1985. The author was then called by the Lord to help the Fijian people. This he did after being admitted to the Bar in Fiji from 1986 to 2012. By 2007, he was awarded a General Excellence Award for Outstanding Legal Practitioner of the Year by the Fiji Law Society. As a native Fijian lawyer, he has been involved and is still being involved in a lot of indigenous issues from 1986 to 2012. He is currently residing in Lautoka, Fiji, with his wife, son, and grandkids, who love to come over and stay with their grandfather every now and then.

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Copyright © 2013 K Vuataki.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-8995-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8994-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-8996-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013905856

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/17/2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Period 1      The Rooster Wars

Period 2      Return Of The Father And Son

Period 3      Taking Up Arms

Epilogue

Bibliography

To my grandchildren, that their hearts may be turned to their ancestors as they decide who they shall become; and to those who follow the path of the soft answer to avoid conflict, bloodshed, and war.

ARTWORK

T he pieces Warrior Going Home , Family Prayer , and Taking Up Arms were commissioned from native Fijian artist Apimeleki Vakarau, from Navuso Village, Naitasiri, Fiji. He used to be a flight attendant for Air Pacific. He played rugby to meet work fitness requirements until he met with a terrible accident in a game and became a quadriplegic. He is self-taught, and because of his condition he can only draw sketches on cardboard in ink. He is represented by Tokani Art Agency ( www.tokaniarts.org ).

The pieces Rooster Wars, Cross on the Hill, Christ Preventing Violence, and Christ on the Mountain were commissioned from native Fijian artist Simione Kurucake, who trades as Simto Designs of Dratabu Village, Nadi, Fiji. The redesigning of portraits and photos of Sukanaivalu, Labalaba, Ratu Penaia Ganilau, Ratu Kamisese Mara, and Ratu Iloilovatu Uluivuda was done by Simto Designs. The artwork for Christ Preventing Violence was drawn by Kurucake on the day he was anointed chief of his traditional landowning unit.

The cover was designed by Kitione Vuataki Jnr. It depicts a warrior going home, a lawyer (Kitione Vuataki Snr.), and a person with a placard (Joape Liu Tuikorocau), showing the change from club warfare to law and protest by placard on return of the Father and Son to the Fiji Islands.

None of the artists had access to the manuscript of this book when commissioned to do the artwork except for Kitione Vuataki Jnr.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I must thank Apolosi Seiya for his original idea of a story starting on the island of Cikobia in Macuata in the Fiji Islands and widening into the Fijian and world scenario. This story was changed to be not only a story of history at the macro level, but also one that would provide a peek into the personal lives and feelings of the characters. In certain instances these characters were heroes in their own right worthy of a place in the legends of the native Fijian people; at the micro level, they were heroes in my own life as I walked through some of the turmoil of native Fijian life from 1957 to February, 2013.

Thanks to my wife Titilia Saurara Vuataki and my daughters Miliakere Divuki Vuataki and Keleni Vesinawa Vuataki for their tireless work in typing from handwritten manuscripts during the early stages of this book. Thanks also to Kitione Vuataki Jnr, my youngest son and namesake for the design of the cover page and assisting in the finalisation of this book. Not forgetting the rest of my children for the effort put into helping me complete this book. I must also thank Media Waves and I-54 Investment in liasing with the publishers to help complete this work.

Thanks also to all those who provided stories or legends for the oral historical parts of this book and for permission to use materials. All stories and legends are added to or diminished in their telling. It is not so important whether such stories or legends are true; the important part is what can be learnt from them that can become true. It is for this reason that such stories or legends are of use. As an example, I was once about to ask the Lord to show my ancestors to me, but one of them asked me that I not do so lest I see them in their nakedness and sin. For this reason I have relied upon legends and oral stories that I have been told might or might not be true, but I have used the names of the characters in those stories so that principles can be learnt from them.

A soft answer turneth away wrath.

Proverbs 15:1

PREFACE

T his story was written for the rising generation of my people—those who have not been raised on the island of Cikobia or in Fiji—that they may know the legends of their people. The following pages recount some of the changes that took place in our society, along with my personal experiences as an indigene growing up in a shifting culture, including some of the major events that hit Fiji, from the coups of 1987 and 2006, to constitutional abrogation of 2009, to constitutional submissions in 2012 for return to constitutional rule.

From the first war that rocked native Fijian society—what some warriors call the war over a chicken—to the new legal order established in April of 2009, this is a story of conflict resolution where one of the solutions proposed is that the soft answer turns away wrath.

The book also develops a theme of the original worship of the Father and the Son in Fiji, a belief now hidden in the tradition of Tako and Lavo. The book describes how they were lost in the darkness of war by a fight over a rooster, how they were dispersed looking for the peace they sought but could not find, how they were nurtured by those who brought to them the news of the Father and the Son, and how they became a nation and have been involved in peacekeeping duties offshore whilst trying to resolve internal conflicts amongst their own.

To that end the story is based on the oral legends and stories of our people. The names of the deceased have been used in full, but the names of those still alive are in short form to protect their privacy whilst also retaining the authenticity of the book—except for the publicly exposed. Records from the sighting of Cikobia to Cession have also been based on written records, and a bibliography is provided at the end of the book. Some conversations have been recreated based on actual stories, legends, historical notes, or my personal recollection.

The conversation between Roko Suka and the herald on their approach to Cirikalia is one such case. This is based on actual events of Roko Suka seeking peace after the i valu ni toa, or Rooster Wars, and Cikobians call their war clubs Malumu, or softener, to this day. Sources of legends and oral stories are acknowledged at the end of the book. However, conversations at Cession are from an open letter of Wilkinson, the official translator, and are therefore recorded word for word. The same is true of the conversation that took place between Roko Mamaca and Vuataki when Vuataki approached Mamaca to execute judgement for ordering a number of killings. Other stories have been recreated with some liberties taken.

Kitione Vuataki

MapofFijifromCommonwealthSecretariat.jpg

Map of Fiji by permission of Oxford Cartographers

THE ROOSTER WARS

RoosterWars.jpg

CHAPTER 1

N o one knows for certain where the original Fijians came from. We are a brown-skinned people in the great waters now called the Pacific Ocean, a blend of the Micronesian people from the east and the Polynesians from the west as well as some intermixture with those who later came to our lands. They call us Melanesians.

The Melanesian group stretches through the south-eastern Pacific from Papua New Guinea through New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and the Fiji Islands. I am from the Fiji Islands. The name Fiji is a mispronunciation of the word Viti by the Tongans.

The Tongan group of islands lies to the south-east. They are part of the Polynesian group stretching from Hawaii to Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Clouds, now called New Zealand by what native Maori call pakehas, who came to settle there. The Tongans pronounce the letter v as f, so they called our islands Fiji, and European explorers who discovered their islands came to learn of these native Fijians and passed on the mispronunciation.

One such explorer asked the Tongans what kind of people the native Fijians were, but the Tongans bowed and shook their heads sadly. The native Fijians were cannibals, and the Tongans did not have much to say about the sorry state of affairs amongst our people.

However, things were not always that bad. Our people enjoyed their heyday as part of a bigger, glorious tribe in a much larger nation on the main continent, which is now forgotten and darkened by the mists that have since settled over their minds. They had been vitied—that is, broken off from their nation, and they called their islands Viti in commemoration. Nevertheless, those who turned to worship the Egyptian sun god Ra or followed the snake god passed on a story. In this story, our forefathers broke branches to cross from their landing place to where they settled, because they had lost their cutting scythes at sea. Subsequently, the word Viti means breaking off a branch. But this story was cultivated to hide their real origin of being broken off from their ancestral lands.

Amongst the people remained some relics of their forgotten past. In the hills of the Naitasiri district stood twelve stones called Yavusa Gole, or Dispersed Tribes, which faced different directions to commemorate the dispersal of their tribes. In the Nawaka district, the people strictly follow the division of tribes into twelve. Beside the village of Nawaka is a village called Dratabu, named to commemorate the sacred blood and people of Nawaka, led by the chiefs of Mataqali Nalagi, or those who look to heaven.

In the distant hills of Sabeto in Nadi lies the shape of two sleeping giants looking toward heaven. Whilst the silhouette of Vomo Lailai Island is a face looking to heaven, its southern face is that of a native Fijian longing for Vomo Levu Island. Along the coasts of the Vitogo district live the Naduanitu people—those who say that there is only one God—whilst in Drauniivi, there are dinking places of the twelve tribes and the place of salt for Lot’s wife. Above them stand the two highest mountains in Fiji: the Tomaniivi, which means Adam and Eve. The British later tried to rename it Mount Victoria, in honour of their queen.

In the hills of the Nalawa district, to the west of Namatakula and on the coast of Nadroga to the south, are the Father and the Son, who are remembered by custom as Tako-Lavo. The word Tako means Father, and Lavo means Son.

The mana that fell from heaven in the desert is fondly remembered in the great oratory tradition of our people by saying mana after blessings have been pronounced. All such blessings ending with the words mudu o—to end with He who comes in the pillar of the clouds, though it was later changed by snake worshippers to say, to end in Nakauvadra, which is a mountain range where their leader, Degei, had become a snake worshipper.

White streamers hang from the roof of our burekalou, our house of God. Behind these veils, the priests would not go, for to do so would be to look upon God, and this was not allowed.

God would come over to the meetinghouse to prepare the people for the day. The cock would crow three times to signal that the people should assemble to meet with the One who would prepare them for the day. There were many spirits in the land, some remembered in Nadi by the name Lutumailagi, which means fell from heaven. These spirits lay in wait for the people so they might entice them and turn them away from the Father and Son.

The Son came one morning and found the people asleep. In His wrath He gathered up His cloak that protected the land and swore that He would bring others to till and develop the earth and to feed on the fat thereof. Yet the people were asleep because of the root of a plant called yaqona, which they had pounded and mixed with water as drink.

Upon the departure of the Son, the people put this drink in a vessel and called the vessel tanoa, or cut by Noah, for the drink was as muddy as the flood waters in the days of Noah. The great snake wallowed in the flood, and the people drank of the poison of the snake. They became lazy, and the skin of some grew scaly. The white streamers in the meetinghouse were let down into the tanoa, and the yaqona became an offering to this new god. The people started to bless each other with the word kalougata-kalou meaning god, and gata meaning snake or sharp.

The land fell into darkness. This is why the Tongans in the south-east, as remnants of Joseph, shook their heads sadly, for the twin sons of Judah had fallen asleep in the land where the first day in the world began, their tale written into the soil according to the tradition of our people—two giants asleep.

CHAPTER 2

H ow the two original twins arrived, where they landed, and where their descendants lived is steeped in much mystery and secrecy to this day. Nevertheless their secret is kept, and some lay claim to being their descendants in the land.

There are two other twins of whom much is spoken and much is debated. They are the sons of Waicalanavanua and Adi Sovanitabua-Nakaunisabaria the elder and Cirinakaumoli the younger. Their similitudes grace the current coat of arms of Fiji, with the elder holding a spear and the younger, a war club. Legend speaks of how they were born and how, whilst they were bathed by their mother in a pool, a scroll was found close by. The scroll forbade them to shed blood.

The twins grew up and became strong in the hills of Nakauvadra. The hills were named after the Vadra—pandanus plants that grew on the island of Navanualevu in the islands of Narokorokoyawa to the west in the Malolo group of islands. The name Narokorokoyawa was given to commemorate their arrival and bowing down to give thanks whilst the Promised Land was still far away but in sight. The Promised Land later came to be called Viti Levu, or the Big Break.

As they settled in the land, their young men journeyed with champions from Fiji to play veitiqa in Tonga. This was the sport of throwing javelins from a sling. They won the tournament and won the much-prized Turukawa, a rooster whose crowing was like thunder.

Their maternal grandfather, King Degei, liked the Turukawa and took it for his own. The twins shot it down, and this started a war. Degei, as one of the leading chiefs, called warriors from throughout the land to make war on the twins. The Mataisau Clan, a group of carpenters, backed the twins, and their fortresses of mighty vesi trees were impregnable.

Roko Suka and Ro Namelasiga, sons of Rokovakaturaga in Dreketi in Rewa, heard the call, and the two brothers left their aged old father for the war with their entourage of warriors. On the way through Naitasiri, the older brother told the younger brother to return to Dreketi and look after their father.

Roko Suka reached the battle front to find many mighty and noble men fallen. The first to fall was Teki, a mighty warrior of Nalawa. Roko Suka disarmed the twins and handed them over to their father, Waicalanavanua. Vueti, the champion of Verata, hit a tree with his war club, and water spewed into the impregnable fortress, and the carpenters were dispersed into the land. The twins were exiled with them. Attempts by Degei to bring the twins back whilst they were still in Ra failed. He offered so many whale teeth for their return that the people named the place Cakau ni Tabua, or Reef of Whale Teeth.

There were those who said the twins left Fiji and took the advancement of the native Fijian people with them, except for the mana they had left behind. There were also those who noticed a people who crossed the land from Nakauvadra to Naitasiri and began to make war on the people. These warriors, accompanied by the twins, became known as the Cause of War. The elder twin settled in Naitasiri and the younger twin travelled to the northern lands and settled on the island of Taveuni, where the new day began.

Wrath was on the land for the blood that had been spilt, and a dearth of food swept through the land. The famine was very harsh. After the traditional wiping away of war paint, Roko Suka decided to take his Dreketi warriors out of reach of this stupidity. A lot of blood had been spilt, and for what? A fallen bird that would not even feed his own bodyguards, let alone his troop of warriors.

What utter stupidity, to go to war over a chicken! he exclaimed in utter amazement. He went down the hills of Nakauvadra, where the king of Qelema had waited for his Vaileka, or short-club warriors¹. Roko Suka decided to take the same route, and he and his warriors travelled to the Wainibuka and rested awhile in Nayavu with the Roko Tui Bau. With so many young warriors in his entourage and many pretty maidens and bored housewives in the village, this led to a number of heated arguments that made continuance of their journey an absolute necessity.

They continued on to Ucunivanua in Verata, where his kind relatives provided him with a twin-hulled canoe and a captain to take them down the coast to Rewa. Rather than return to Rewa, he decided to go up north, so sick with the war was he. He had contemplated it again and again, but he could not fathom for himself heeding the call to war over a dead chicken. Even curses could not repair the lives of those lost and the poor carpenters who had been dispersed in the land.

Unbeknown to him, the war was much more than that. Degei had become leader after the death of Lutunasobasoba. Whilst Degei’s elder brother worshipped the Father and Son, Degei worshipped the Egyptian god Ra, whom he could see at sunrise every morning. The Father and Son were not seen except in the tradition of Tako and Lavo. Waicalanavanua, a prayerful man, worshipped the Father and the Son. His name meant The earth melted, which was prophetic of when the Son would come and the earth would melt with fervent heat. The cock Turukawa had been taken to herald the rising of the sun god rather than to wake up the people to meet Him who came in the cloud to the meeting house.

The twins had been forewarned not to shed blood for this, but they had disobeyed, and warriors had now tasted blood. The Father and the Son forbade the shedding of innocent blood, and Roko Suka knew that a new song would now be sung in the land—the song of the end day, of war, of dog soldiers and the glory of the Kalokalos, the mighty star warriors who had boasted over that mad struggle over a dead cock. He knew that he had to take his warriors out of this.

He heard that a number of canoes from Verata had sailed up north to a big land called Vanua Levu. To that land he went, and he landed at Solevu. Whilst he journeyed ashore, the canoe captain took the canoe along the coast until they met again at the tip of the island called Udu. The whole island had been settled, and the canoe captain decided to settle on an uninhabited spot in Udu point. Roko Suka surveyed the empty sea and spotted the misty shadow of an island at sea.

Have you seen smoke on that island? asked Roko Suka.

I have not, replied the captain.

I will go and settle there, Roko Suka quietly said to himself, and hopefully escape this madness of war over one stupid chicken.

The island looked so lonesome floating by itself. I will call it Cirikalia because it floats by itself, away from everything else. Hopefully there, my people can make a fresh start.

He and his entourage of warriors and their women boarded the twin-hulled canoe and set sail for Cirikalia.

CHAPTER 3

R oko Suka studied the island with much interest as it started to take shape before his eyes. He saw three hills and mentally noted that any inhabitants of the island would have their fortresses there. If the island were uninhabited, then he would certainly set up three fortresses, with the main one in the middle and the two on the side to prevent any outflanking manoeuvres if they were to be invaded by outsiders.

He said to his Matanivanua, or herald, "The middle mountain will be our main fortress. We will call it Korotuku because each warrior will have to be hauled up by vine or sinnet rope to reach the top. The mountain on the right will be Namasi, where my right hand shall be. The mountain on the left will be Caukaci, where I will call my allies in times of war.

We do not want war, but to prevent war, we have to be seen as ready for war. Hopefully we will not use this again. With this, he hefted his heavy war club made from the strong, twisted roots of a vesi tree. From henceforth we will call our war clubs malumu.

But that means ‘soft’, said his herald in disbelief. How can we be soft in defence or even in war? Our enemies will kill and eat us if we are soft toward them.

We just came back from a war over a chicken! Roko Suka spat out his words with distaste. "What did a great warrior like Teki die for, or for what were Cirinakaumoli or Nakausabaria exiled for? What were the carpenters dispersed for? And why did we go to war?

From now on, we do not go in haste. We find out the reason, and if there is some other reason behind the conflict, we look to that reason and see how it can be resolved and stopped. Every action we take has a consequence, some of which will run through generations. We cannot bind latter generations with our mistakes of today. Now we do not even know whether the carpenters will ever return to their lands. Must the future pay for the ill of their forefathers?

The herald had no reply to that, but he felt the warmth of a counsellor hearing wisdom from his own pupil, for he had taught this young man from the day he had been taken away from his mother by the traditional practise of kali for the elders to bring him up. What about those coming at you with arms, with no time given to you to think of other options? the herald asked, testing the depth of the young warrior chief’s reasoning.

Well this malumu will soften them, won’t it? the young warrior chief replied as he swung his war club the way the herald had taught him.

The herald laughed, enjoying the humour of the moment. So long as it is the exception and not the rule, the herald said, squaring his shoulders more formally to keep the distance of their respective office, as some of the younger warriors had gathered around to enjoy what they thought was a good laugh.

The herald looked out at the waves, trying to envision what future lay in front for them on Cirikalia. As they approached the lonesome island, the waves were ferocious, like the ones back home in Nasilai. Roko Suka’s keen eyes spotted a safe landing place where they could beach the double-hulled canoe. The great pandanus sails were lowered as his scouts jumped overboard and vaulted up the stony beach quickly to flush out any hidden war party ready to receive them. But there were none, and they went ashore with their clubs, spears, slings, bows and arrows, and what provisions they had with them.

Roko Suka called out the formal greeting to the land and whoever would be listening. "O au qo! he shouted, meaning It is I, but the bushes and the hills answered not. They set down their provisions, and he said, We will call this land Nalala, for it is uninhabited. We said our greeting, none answered, and we settled here."

The settlers took out earthen pots and ate leftover provisions of dried fish with cooked yams from the land. They called the place Saqayani, as that was the place where they had cooked their food. They then searched the whole island but found it deserted, though there were signs of an earlier people in the form of shellfish shells and shards of pottery left on beaches and foreshore areas on the island. The people had either been passing through or had settled for a while and moved on.

Finding none to make their sevusevu (presentation of new arrival) to, Roko Suka ordered that yaqona be mixed in a hollow stone they found on a hill on the foothills of Namasi. He looked out to sea from his vantage point and saw huge waves rushing in from the sea to break in white froth on the horseshoe reef to the east and the stony cliffs of the island to the north, south and west.

I will rename this island Ciqobiau, for it is a receiver of waves, said Roko Suka after reflecting on the waves buffeting the foreshore of the island. In short, we will call it Cikobia, and from here we will receive all who may come. The horseshoe reef will be called Namotubuco, for here we will form our new beginning like the new sandy islands of Nukubuco back home. He looked up at his wife from Beqa Island, who smiled in return, as he had always told her he had to sail past Nukulau, Mokuluva, and Nukubuco to get to her on Beqa Island.

He then divided the land amongst his four sons—Roko Nauluvesi, Drakadraka, Dakuvatu, and Celeasiga—and the four sons built villages. Ro Drakadraka remained with him in the head village of Nalele. Roko Suka became the Tui Cikobia, and on his death, he handed the tribe to his youngest son², making him king.

This did not sit well with one of the sons. He gathered his sons and told them to kill him, cook him in an earthen oven, wrap his body in leaves as would be done to a baked pig, and take his body up to Nalele, where his younger brother resided. The body was to be accompanied by baked yams. The food offering was to be put in the village green and the food offering announced to his younger brother, the new king. If his younger brother and his people put forward their hands to receive the food and to eat, they were to be killed.

His sons³ recoiled from this terrible plan except the youngest. Our father’s word is law, he said as he took his battleaxe and plunged it into his father’s chest where he lay. They then did according to their father’s wish—dressed themselves and their people in battle dress and took the offering, with their clubs, axes, spears, and bows and arrows in their hands.

A spy from the other village had noted all this and sped to the young king to tell him of this terrible deed. The young king told his herald not to receive the food offering and to announce that none was to put his hand forward to touch even the slightest morsel from this most heinous offering.

The incensed warriors arrived with their presentation, and it was not received, for the younger brother would not put forward his hand to his elder brother. Instead he honoured him and his brother’s sons with a proper burial. He continued to honour his father’s wishes that the younger rule the elder, for so it had been foretold concerning their ancestors of a forgotten past.

The remaining brothers recognised that there would be intrigue and war amongst themselves. They therefore agreed to a law that any two disputing warriors must enter a cave fully armed with their weapons of choice and not come out until one was dead. This would be fair and prevent the seed of discord spreading amongst them to a crisis point that could destroy a whole tribe or weaken them against any onslaught from offshore. They called the cave where these conflicts were to be settled Qara ni Laba, or Cave of Murder.

Though Roko Suka had tried to get away from war on the mainland, he did not realise that they carried the seed of war amongst themselves. Young unmarried warriors went on raids along the mainland coasts looking for bearers of warriors. Women were picked for their builds and ferocious spirits. Thus came the saying amongst the people, A good mother is a strong woman, strong in spirit and the bearer of many warriors.

Roko Naulivesi⁴, the chief’s eldest son, was given a whale tooth and told to go back to the island of Beqa to get a wife from his mother’s people, for that was how the prophecy was told from their ancient forgotten past. The young chief got hungry for turtle meat on the Macuata Coast whilst en route to Beqa.

The Macuata people had also come from Ra, and their chief resided on the island of Macuata-I-wai. Naulivesi arrived whilst the fisher folk of Kia Island were preparing turtle meat for their chief. The chief brought a piece of turtle meat to his young friend, and they made a pact. Naulivesi gave him the whale tooth, and the Tui Macuata gave him his fan of war. They would be Qali Veitabani, or allies of equal status.

Naulivesi said, Whenever a chief of Macuata is anointed chief, my people shall send him hot pudding from our earthen ovens. So shall it be that in his times of war, my warriors shall rush to be at his side.

So it was that Macuata chiefs took wives from the Cikobian people and Cikobians took wives from the Macuatans. Naulivesi never reached his mother’s island of Beqa, and returned to his own people.

Matawalu of Verata arrived on Cikobia with his sons. He told of tales of war on the mainland and how he would seek peace in the open sea. His warriors spoke of a new tradition amongst the people: A young baby boy would not receive a name until his first kill. His name would either be a brand of honour for bravery or one of shame for cowardice. Matawalu had earned his name in the field of battle. Though he only had two eyes, he was called Eight Eyes for his quickness in battle. It was as if he had eight eyes. His warriors knew that no one was to be close to him during battle, for he would kill anyone that was close to him. It was this frenzy, this thing that seized him during the blood thirst of battle, that sent him out on this long journey to get away from the incessant violence and bloodthirsty spirit that now ravaged the land.

Matawalu, being from the chiefly senior kingdom of Verata, was asked to leave one of his sons on Cikobia but was told of a group of islands to the east that lay vacant. He easily reached these islands by keeping the hills of Namasi at his back whilst following the shining sands at the bottom of the sea. He found the island of his choice and named it Naqelelevu. One of his sons settled up north amongst the Futuna people, who were of Micronesian extraction, and marked the borders of the islands of our people.

The last to arrive on the island of Cikobia was Matua, from the Korotabu tribe in Ra. He also was fleeing from the ravages of war. He was a righteous man who retained the old ways of a now forgotten celestial past. His war cry was "Korotabu ni Siga",⁵or The light shines on the Holy City, referring to a holy city, now forgotten, over which a light was to come.

This war cry saved him numerous times in battle, and he always wondered whether he would ever see this city and the beautiful light that would shine over it. His people were in the craze of battle, and many had sought power from spirits in the land who were only too willing to help for the sake of yaqona drinking or food offerings. Even the chief, Degei, was said to be a snake and not a man. So much had his people fallen into idolatry and witchcraft that it pained his heart that the Father and the Son had been forgotten by his people. The land of settlement of Nakauvadra had come to be called Ra, and some said it was so called after Degei’s Egyptian god.

Nevertheless, he knew that one day the light would shine again on the holy city, and he bestowed his war cry to his descendants forever. I am a descendant of Matua through my father, and I recite the stories of the lives of my people and our constant fight against the ills of war. My mother’s father is a descendant of Matawalu, and her mother is a descendant of Roko Suka. I am therefore a descendant of the settlers of Cikobia and Naqelelevu, who left the mainland because of war.

Roko Suka’s people ceded the north-eastern side of the island and its people to Matua. A peak on Namasi Mountain was named after him. He named an island on the coast of the land ceded to him Korotabu, which means Holy City, in remembrance of his people, and on that island is his grave.

CHAPTER 4

R oko Suka’s people were not able to totally escape the wrath of war that now gripped the main island of Viti Levu and had spread into the whole group. A canoe of Tongan warriors had landed on the island and had climbed up the trunks of a great Yacawa tree growing on the foothills of the fortress Korotuku . The Cikobians slashed its topmost branches, pulled them into the fortress, and tied them down with sinnet ropes made from strands of coconut husks.

The tree trunk was strung fast like a bow, but to the Tongan warriors, it looked like a bridge into the fortress above. Unsuspecting, all of them but one climbed up the trunk. Just before their leader could jump into the fortress, the wily Cikobians slashed the sinnet ropes with their axes. Freed of the sinnet’s binding power, the trunk lashed out, and the poor Tongans were dashed into the rocks below. The last of the Tongans, called Yalasolo, was burnt and speared in a cave. He had resorted to try to escape the acrid smoke from burning dried coconut leaves that had been placed in the cave’s main opening.

King George of Tonga required Ratu Seru Cakobau to punish this offensive behaviour.⁶ Ratu Seru was then at war with the Rewans over the sacking of Suva. It had not gone unnoticed that a number of Rewans had been disappearing up north to the island of Cikobia. It was also known that there were Veratans and Ra people on the island. He sent his Matanivanua to ensure that this distinction was recognised to prevent further anger to their allies in Ra and Verata, for his close allies of Viwa had strong Ra connections. He sent a flotilla of war canoes up north to bring the Cikobians to heel. Namosimalua⁷ was in command of the fleet.

The flotilla was spotted in the distance by the Cikobian sentry on guard duty.

Flags of war, he yelled out to the elder supervising the scouts on that day.

Whose flag is it? asked the old man.

Bauan flag, replied the young warrior.

Only small things come from Bau, said the old man wisely. Thus came the saying amongst my people that reputation and past success do not decide who will win today. Bau was one of the strong kingdoms of the time.

The women, children, and old folks were hidden in their hiding places with their batches of guards whilst warriors prepared in the Korotuku and Namasi fortress. The Bauan warriors landed and walked barefoot onto the rocky island. My people had already learnt the art of making sandals from dried stalks of banana leaves. With these sandals they could easily run over sharp rocks in a fight.

The herald from Bau had brought a tapa cloth. With this he covered the path to the fortress and village of Matawalu’s sons, as well as to the fortress and village of Matua. He then pitted his army against the descendants of Roko Suka. The Navuratau warriors ran circles around them on their well-protected feet, whilst the warriors of the mainland were hindered by the sharp rocks that cut into their unprotected feet. All the Bauan warriors were killed except for their commander, their herald, and their guards. They satisfied themselves in burning the deserted villages of those they regarded as Rewans, though that distinction was not known to be of any cause for division amongst the Cikobian people themselves. None of the fallen warriors were eaten; they were honoured with burial. It was the message of friends to Cakobau: Why come to war against us when we have had no cause to war against you?

Cakobau did not heed this warning and demanded that the Tui Cakau, Tui Bua, and Tui Macuata punish this insolence. So it was that the armies of these great nations gathered in Visoqo, where the mighty warrior Vueti of the Nakauvadra wars had sought refuge from the fighting and craziness of the mainland. Here his descendants were being asked to host one of the greatest gatherings of the northern armies in Fiji’s history.

Cikobia looked lonesome indeed; it appeared to be three rocks when viewed from the distant horizon of the Macuata coast. Its scouts had already brought word of the impending invasion. Yavita, the chief of Tunuloa, the long-club warriors of the Tui Cakau, had Cikobian blood himself, and he took his warriors across to see his relatives on the island.

He arrived on the island to find the fortresses and the Cikobian army prepared for war. The elders came down to counsel with him. He emphasised the size of the warrior forces that were assembled at Visoqo. The elders took time in considering their options, and the sun rose over their heads, and the rocks beneath their feet grew hot.

Yavita’s leading warrior—"Marou, in their dialect—jumped about on the hot rocks as the heat got to his unsandalled feet. He urged his chief and the elders to hurry with their conference. He was hungry for war; his heart would pump and his javelin would seek the sun to fall on a marked opposing warrior, whilst the song of the wind would sing in his ears as he would run headlong into the fray, his battleaxe swivelling in his right hand whilst his short club smashed heads on his left. There were names to be won, and yet his beloved chief continued to parley with his relatives. To the Marou it was the war that mattered, not the cause or the side they were on. Like a hungry dog of war, he jumped about impatiently on the hot rocks whilst he waited for Yavita, who was his chief and master. For all of his valour, all that we remember of him is his jumping about on the rocks, which are called Vatu Katakata, or hot rocks", to this day.

Nevertheless, the elders knew the truth passed down from our ancestors: every war is different; each has its own factors that must be taken account of. This was not a war by foreign invaders in which all must be annihilated if they came in war paint. Nor was it a war from a faraway place, such as Bau, in which the level of engagement required some show of courtesy for the leading chief and the herald of the warring party—especially when the herald that came was the chief herald of Bau to Verata. Those that had amassed at Visoqo were relatives. That called for different considerations. The defence against the warring Tongans had been based on mental preparedness, and the one against the Bauans had been one of open physical confrontation on the place now called Sogoibau, or Containment of Bau, but against a greater force of close relatives, diplomacy was needed.

Amongst them were the king of the Bua Kingdom and his warriors. Roko Suka had been named Tamanikaivuya (meaning father of the Vuya people) in Bua whilst his people sojourned there with the Vuya people. Some of the Vuya people were now settled with the Kai Macuata at Naduri. Again a fragment of the people related to Matua were there. Naduri was a chiefly village of Macuata; its name was related to that of Naduria in Rewa, where Ro Namelasiga had planted his staff to claim the land as his own. The Tui Cakau of the Cakaudrove Kingdom was there. Many friendly exchanges had been made with this Tui Cakau over the years, culminating in Yavita and the people of Tunuloa becoming his long-club warriors to make peace between the Tui Cakau and the warlord of Natewa. They were all gathered at the village of Vueti’s descendants, who were relatives of Matawalu.

There were also the people of Mamilevu to consider. Their village on Cikobia was called Nautovatu. Some of them were descendants of Riou of Namuka, who had married the daughter of the Tui Cakau. The army of warriors that were on the Macuata shores were gathered in the village of Riou. Vueti of Namuka and Roko Suka had become friends after the Rooster Wars, and their respective descendants were now living as tauvu, or friends, in the district of Macuata.

Any war that took place there would be long, because the hills of Caukaci were a reminder to latter-day generations to make a call to the hidden forces of Cikobia, which had been scattered all over the great waters that later became known as the Pacific. Also scattered in secret places in Fiji were established units that could make war on the towns of these invaders whilst their main force was away at sea, attacking Cikobia. Defence, in this case, meant not only defending, but attacking from unknown quarters as well.

Cakobau had warriors fighting for him brought from as far north as the Ariki of the Seven Canoes, to be later known as the Cook Islands. The people of the Seven Canoes were now settled in Aotearoa in the south. There were also Cikobians living in the land of the Ariki of the Seven Canoes, some in Tonga, Samoa, Futuna, and Tikopia, near the lands of the Buka people. A canoe of the Buka people had landed in Yaqara in Ra and made its way down the Wainibuka. The elders had to think hard before they risked the seeds of the fathers being sown elsewhere in case Cikobia was totally annihilated in a war. The threat of total annihilation required the return of these dispersed seeds, just as they would return to defend the land of the Holy City if the call came, though none of them knew where the Holy City was at that time.

To avoid a long war and possible annihilation from the large army gathered offshore, they decided before the sun went down for twelve elders to cross the sea with Yavita to the Tui Cakau and seek peace by the traditional way of our people known as veisorosorovi (meaning seeking forgiveness or friendship). This involved each of the twelve elders presenting a whale tooth. The whale teeth foretold, from a forgotten past, that life would come from out of the dead. The elders were to say, We are already dead; give us life. If you give us life, we will also give you life, that you might not walk away from here with many dead warriors and many widows to be sent after them on their journey to the place of the dead.

Yavita and his entourage of elders went across the sea and landed at Visoqo, providing much relief to a lot of the assembled warriors when they saw the symbol of life in the hands of the Cikobian elders. They also saw the smallest whale tooth in the hand of Yavita and knew what it stood for. By that symbol, he said, I do not need big size or quantity, nor the numerical strength of numbers, to be received by you. I come as one of you—one of your blood and strength of your bones. This unspoken message was understood and not spoken.

The three chiefs assembled with their local host, the Tui Namuka (called by our people the Strong One because of the valour of his ancestor Vueti), a friend of Roko Suka and a relative of Matawalu. The twelve elders knelt before them with their twelve whale teeth, and in front of them knelt Yavita, a well-known and favoured warrior of the Cakaudrove people.

I hold the smallest of whale teeth in front of you because I am one of you, said Yavita. Behind me are the elders of the people you desire to attack and kill in battle. Their only desire is to be left alone in peace. They are nothing but three lone rocks in the distance. He paused for emphasis, looking behind him out to sea, where the three mountains of Cikobia looked like three rocks in the distance.

"This is Viti; the strength of Bau is here. Likewise the strength of the three suns blazing over the whole of Vanua Levu comes to attack the three rocks on the horizon. There is nothing there, and the people wonder where their heroism or bravery is