Fijians in Extinction
A Pandoras Box of land issues - by Solomoni Biumaiono & Stanley Simpson

Fijians take pride in retaining their cultural identity and tribal ownership of their lands, despite some 200 years of Western civilisation. The British colonial administration before independence endeavoured to bring order to the complex web of Fijian land ownership by documenting all chiefly titles, clans and sub-clans as well land claims.

These were formalised in the Fijian Registry (Vola ni Kawa Bula), the Native Lands Commission (Tabana ni Veitarogi Vanua) and the Native Land Reserves now handled by the Native Lands Trust Board. But many today are questioning the accuracy of the records within the above institutions. Some Fijian clans and sub-clans tracing their origins and family history say the records are flawed, as what they have found contradicts what was documented decades ago, and used as reference by the authorities in land and chiefly title disputes. A number of Fijian clans listed as extinct by the authorities are very much alive and thriving, and some Fijians who were landowners a century ago, are landless today.

Extinct but alive

Viliame Savu is now ruing the day the Native Lands Commission (Veitarogi Vanua) visited his island home of Nayau in the Lau Group in 1939. It was this visit that forever vanquished his ‘tokatoka’ (sub-clan) from the ‘Vola Ni Kawa Bula’ or the Fijian Registry. Through years of research, Savu found out that after the 1939 NLC visit to his village in Nayau Island, his great grandfather was listed as the last of the tokatoka Mata ni Wai.

The commission later recorded that Savu’s great grandfather died without any documented heirs, thereby classifying the tokatoka Mata ni Wai extinct. “My great grandfather was present with our tikina representative at the 1939 meeting and between these two, I don’t know what happened, but after the meeting our tokatoka was listed as extinct,” he says. Savu disputes this extinction classification as his great grandfather had a son who went on to sire many children. He says his great grandfather’s descendants now number more than 100 families who have settled in towns and cities all over Fiji.

Due to the Commission’s decision in 1939, Savu says that all the lands that belonged to his tokatoka are now registered under their main clan, mataqali Dalicewaqa. The land that reverted to the mataqali Dalicewaqa are 5 parcels of land (magimagis) that, according to Savu was given to his forefathers by the Tongan warlord Enele Ma’afu who established a government on many of Fiji’s Eastern islands in the mid 1800s.

“The 1913 Commission established that all the land divisions made by the Ma’afu government cannot be taken away unless that landowning unit is extinct,” Savu says. Savu took the case of his tokatoka before the Native Land Commisison in an effort to have their lands returned. In February this year however, he received a letter from the Commission informing that it could not change the decision made in 1939.

“I will approach them again and see if there is any other avenue for me to take concerning this matter, then I will go to court to seek a judicial review,” Savu says. Questions Mai Life sent to NLTB on the matter in order to obtain some balance, remained unanswered despite repeated attempts. Comments also sought from the Native Lands Commission were not forthcoming. The Commission referred all questions to the NLTB.

Another person pursuing a similar case is Vilisi Nadaku, who is criticising the NLTB and the NLC for not adhering to the regulations and laws they have set down on land claims. “They have set down the rules for us as Fijians. They say these are the rules but the problem I’ve found with the NLTB and the NLC is that they keep changing the goal posts,” says Nadaku. Mr Nadaku’s family is officially registered in the VKB with the mataqali Natamavakarua in the yavusa Navaisere at Naisausau village in the tikina of Namara, Tailevu.

But according to his grandfather, his family is originally from the island of Gau, from the mataqali Lasea in the yavusa of Yadua in Yadua village. “The story of our origins was told to my grandfather by a man from Gau whose name is Solomoni Qioniwasa. He was one of Ratu Sukuna’s followers, who traveled with him around Fiji. He was a ‘dauvagunu’ (shaman). They were like Ratu Sukuna’s bodyguards and he told my grandfather this story,” Nadaku said. Qioniwasa told Vilisi’s grandfather that their ancestor Nailatikau originally came from Gau in the early 1800s, to help Ratu Seru Cakobau coup the Roko Tui Bau and eventually settled in Namara, Tailevu.“He also told my namesake that our land is in Gau and if we didn’t do anything about it to re-claim it, we would also become extinct.” According to Nadaku, the last known mataqali Lasea members who lived in Gau were Setoki Ceinaturaga and his sister Litia Nasalo. Setoki died in 1921 while Litia died in October 1926. Both died without heirs.