Confederacies are not traditional

Timoci Gaunavinaka, Nausori

I fully support the statement by Ratu Tevita Momoedonu in the omission of the mentioning of the three confederacies during the traditional welcoming ceremony for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Suva’s Albert Park. Some have took to the social media to criticise Ratu Tevita and the Vanua o Vuda for the omission without knowledge of how the confederacies were invented in the first place.

The three confederacies implemented by the Colonial government upon Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna’s advice was never part of the iTaukei traditional structure. It was implemented to simplify and consolidate the administration and governance of our iTaukei people in an era when most of us lived in villages.

After a few decades, the structure has lost the purpose of its invention and has become incorrectly interpreted to represent a traditional structure which in fact was never traditional to begin with.

My late paramount chief, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba II before him and Ratu Alifereti Finau, before them were never subservient to the Tui Cakau as the confederacy structure seemed to suggest.

And so were the list of Tui Nayau before them in Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba I, Ratu Viliame Vuetasau, Roko Malanivosa, Roko Rasolo, Roko Niumataiwalu, Roko Tuidelaivugalei and Roko Saunivanua. No Tui Nayau in the past 200 years has been subservient to the Tui Cakau.

The mentioning of the 14 provinces by the villagers of Vuda in their presentations is therefore suffice. It covers all the provinces of Fiji and no “Vanua” is left out.