FijiViti

People reached Fiji about 3,000 years ago. The Lapita potters, who sailed east from the Bismarck Archipelago, left their stamped pottery at Bourewa and in the Sigatoka dunes, and later waves mixed Melanesian and Polynesian ancestry. By the time Europeans arrived, Fiji was a patchwork of chiefdoms grouped in rival confederacies, with Bau, Rewa and Cakaudrove the strongest, linked to Tonga by trade, marriage and war.

Tasman passed the northern reefs in 1643 and Bligh sailed through in his launch after the Bounty mutiny in 1789, but the reefs and a reputation for cannibalism kept outsiders cautious. Sandalwood cutters came in the early 1800s, then bêche-de-mer traders, beachcombers and Methodist missionaries from Tonga. Levuka on Ovalau grew into a rough trading port, and firearms turned chiefly wars into bloodier affairs.

Ratu Seru Cakobau of Bau styled himself king of Fiji but was burdened by debts claimed by the United States and by settler unrest. In 1874 he and other chiefs ceded the islands to Britain. The first governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, ruled through the chiefs, froze most land in clan ownership and banned its sale, and, needing labour for the new sugar plantations without disturbing village life, turned to indentured workers from India.

Between 1879 and 1916 about 60,000 Indians came under five-year contracts known as girmit (from 'agreement'). Conditions on the plantations were harsh, and most stayed after their term, leasing cane land they could not buy. By the 1940s Indo-Fijians outnumbered iTaukei, a fact that shaped every political debate that followed. Fiji became independent on 10 October 1970 with a constitution that balanced seats by ethnic group.

When a coalition seen as Indo-Fijian-led won in 1987, Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka staged two coups and Fiji left the Commonwealth. A 1997 constitution brought reconciliation, but in 2000 George Speight held the prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry hostage in parliament for 56 days. In 2006 the military commander Frank Bainimarama seized power, saying he would end ethnic politics; he ruled by decree until a 2013 constitution and 2014 elections. In 2022 voters narrowly returned Rabuka, now a civilian politician, and power changed hands without violence.

The iTaukei word vanua means land, but also the people who belong to it, their chiefs, their graves and their customs. A person is born into a mataqali (clan) within a yavusa (larger kin group), and the mataqali holds land that cannot be sold. About 87% of Fiji's land is held this way, leased to farmers, hotels and the state through the iTaukei Land Trust Board, which pays rent to the clans.

Every village has a hereditary chief (turaga) and a village headman (turaga ni koro) who deals with outsiders and daily business. Above them sit provincial councils and paramount chiefs of the three confederacies, Kubuna, Burebasaga and Tovata. The Great Council of Chiefs, abolished under Bainimarama, was restored in 2023, and chiefly titles still carry weight in politics, church and business.

Village life turns on reciprocity. Relatives may ask each other for things through kerekere, and refusal is awkward; big events are funded by pooled contributions of mats, kava, food and money. Solesolevaki, communal work for the village, still builds houses and clears paths. Visitors are drawn into this web the moment they present kava at a sevusevu.

The same system explains a lot of practical rules. Beaches, reefs and fishing grounds (qoliqoli) belong to villages, so resorts pay them, and so should you ask before walking onto a village beach or fishing. A reef may be under tabu, a temporary ban on fishing ordered by the chief to let stocks recover. Land leases for Indo-Fijian cane farmers have expired by the thousand since the 1990s, pushing many into towns or abroad.

Yaqona, the dried root of the pepper plant Piper methysticum, is pounded to a powder, kneaded in cloth in water and served from a wooden bowl (tanoa) in coconut-shell cups (bilo). It tastes earthy and numbs the lips; the effect is calm rather than drunk. In the past it was a chiefly drink prepared with formal rites; today it is Fiji's social glue, drunk in villages, offices, taxi stands and at every family event.

The sevusevu is the ceremony in which a visitor presents kava to ask for acceptance. Your guide or host speaks for you, the village spokesperson accepts the bundle and chants a welcome, and from then on you are under the village's protection. Some of your kava is then mixed and shared. Sit cross-legged, face the tanoa but do not step across the circle, clap once, say 'bula', drain the cup, and clap three times.

Kava is a real cash crop. Kadavu, Taveuni, Vanua Levu and the Lau islands grow much of it, and the price swings with droughts and cyclones; exports to Australia, New Zealand and the US have grown since Australia relaxed its import rules. At the Nadi and Suva markets it sells as whole roots (waka), chips (lewena) and powder. Buy waka for a sevusevu; it shows more respect than powder.

Hindu temples, the Methodist church and the state all use kava in their own way: it opens meetings and welcomes dignitaries, and heavy drinkers are a public-health worry. For a visitor, a few low-tide cups are the right amount. Kava is best avoided with alcohol, medication or in pregnancy.

The ship Leonidas landed the first 463 indentured labourers at Levuka in May 1879. Recruited in north India and later in the south, workers signed contracts they often could not read, cut cane for the Colonial Sugar Refining Company and lived in crowded 'lines'. Men far outnumbered women, suicide rates were high, and campaigners in India, among them Gandhi's allies, pushed for an end to the system in 1916–20.

After indenture, families leased small cane farms or opened shops, taxis and later law and accounting firms. Fiji Hindi grew from the mix of Bhojpuri, Awadhi and other dialects spoken on the plantations. Hindu temples in the South Indian style, like the Sri Siva Subramaniya temple in Nadi, and mosques in every sugar town mark the cane belt from Sigatoka to Ba and on Vanua Levu around Labasa.

The coups hit Indo-Fijians hardest. Since 1987 well over 100,000 have emigrated to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US, and their share of the population has fallen from about half to about a third. Many who stayed now lease land on shorter terms or have moved to towns, and politics since 2014 has tried, with mixed results, to build a common Fijian identity.

For visitors, the Indo-Fijian presence is most visible in food and festivals. Diwali (October or November) is a public holiday with lamps on verandas, sweets shared with neighbours and fireworks. Temple firewalking in July and August follows days of fasting, and Holi colours some towns in March. Girmit Day, in mid-May, remembers the first arrivals.

Fiji's reefs cover about 10,000 square kilometres. The Great Sea Reef off Vanua Levu is one of the longest barrier reefs in the world, the Great Astrolabe Reef rings Kadavu, and the Somosomo Strait between Taveuni and Vanua Levu pumps nutrient-rich water over the soft corals of Rainbow Reef. Beqa Lagoon off Pacific Harbour hosts shark dives in a marine reserve funded partly by diver fees paid to local villages.

Fijians were master canoe builders. The Lau islands, close to Tonga, built the drua, double-hulled voyaging canoes up to 30 metres long that carried chiefs and warriors across the region; one survives in the Fiji Museum. Canoe and voyaging revival projects since the 2000s have rebuilt traditional vessels and use them to teach navigation and climate awareness.

The ocean is also the threat. Cyclone Winston in February 2016 was the strongest storm ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere at landfall, and rising seas have already forced villages such as Vunidogoloa on Vanua Levu to move inland. Fiji plans for dozens more relocations and has been a loud voice for climate action; it presided over the COP23 talks in 2017.

For visitors, the sea sets the rhythm. Boats run by day, reef passages carry strong currents, and resort house reefs vary from rich to bleached. Choose operators who brief on currents, do not stand on coral, and use reef-safe sunscreen; some villages charge a small reef fee that funds their marine protected areas.

The iTaukei kitchen is built on root crops and coconut. Dalo (taro) and tavioka (cassava) fill the plate; fish, pork or chicken and greens are cooked in lolo, fresh coconut cream squeezed from grated flesh. Kokoda, raw fish cured in citrus and dressed in lolo, is the dish most visitors remember. Rourou and palusami use taro leaves, and ota, young fern tips, turns up as a salad.

The lovo is the feast. A pit is lined with stones heated in a fire, and parcels of meat, fish, root crops and palusami wrapped in banana or breadfruit leaves are laid on them and covered with leaves and earth for two to three hours. Families make lovo on Sundays and for weddings and funerals; resorts hold weekly lovo nights with a meke dance performance.

Indo-Fijian cooking is everyday food for everyone. Curry houses in Nadi, Lautoka and Suva serve goat, chicken, fish and vegetable curries with rice or roti, dhal on the side and tamarind or mango chutney. Roti parcels are the working lunch; bhajia and samosas are the market snack. Sweets such as gulab jamun, barfi and gulgula appear everywhere at Diwali.

Chinese-Fijian restaurants, the third strand, serve chop suey and fried rice in every town, and imported canned corned beef and tinned fish have become village staples. The Nadi and Suva markets are the best places to see everything together: heaps of dalo and bele greens, bundles of kava, sea grapes, curry spices and fresh coconuts.