Nakorowaiwai killings
IN 1873, the battle of Nakorowaiwai became one of the bloodiest attacks by military forces under the directives of Ratu Seru Cakobau’s government known as the Kingdom of Fiji.
Describing the fighting, one of the vigilante farmers who supported Cakobau’s campaign against the people of Vatukaloko, Georgius Wright, said the superior arms used by the invading forces caused the native warriors of Nakorowaiwai to retreat.
According to Wright: “A helter-skelter rush was made over the stony ground down the hillside, and, with a spring, all of those in the van found themselves up to their waists in mud and water, through which they scrambled as best they could….” “… after the first village was fired the remnants of the enemy attempted to escape to the other village … but nearly all of them were overtaken by the allies and killed.”
Mosese Ritova, an elderly of Nananu Village in Ra, said Cakobau’s forces moved in on villagers “from the mountain at Vatunisauka”.
“This was done to prevent our ancestors from escaping uphill toward the Nakauvadra mountain range. So from the hills they set up their guns and bombarded the village and set it on fire,” Ritova said.
Few hours after the ambush, the village of Nakorowaiwai was left in ruins. Out of nearly 300 people who are believed to have been there at the time, only a few escaped.
The ruins remain within private pastoral land and passing years have left them overgrown and obscured by shrubbery and trees.
Accounts of the Nakorowaiwai battle and physical evidence provided by field surveys conducted by researchers indicate a settlement scheme which comprised a “battlement for war” associated with an unfortified living site and minimal construction on the flat on which the fortification of Nakorowaiwai was situated.
Wright stated some women and children were sent inland for safety and the people of Nakorowaiwai had prepared themselves well for war.
Tabua (whales’ teeth) was sent throughout the Vatukaloko and nearby areas to gather support against Cakobau’s approaching forces.
Warriors from nearby villages had arrived to man the war fence. However, nobody expected the enemies to come from the hills.
Accounts from as early as 1918 say the native allies were made up of the people of yavusa Nacolo, Nasoqo, Nakorosaqo, Mali, Nubu, Naliwani, Korosavaulevu, Navatu and Raviravi.
Their warriors were dressed in war attire and their bodies were boldly painted. They had white streamers trailing from the back of the neck, and were performing rituals to psyche themselves up for warfare.
When Cakobau’s forces advanced within 500 feet of Nakorowaiwai, they sent a herald for the second time, demanding Koroi i Latikau’s killer, Vudanakaukau would sur
render himself.
This call was blatantly rejected with a defiant cry challenging the intruders to “come and meet the ovens”.
According to present-day accounts, Sadiri the war priest, who was believed to possess the power of “invulnerability”, spread out mats and cried out to his warriors, “who is brave enough to sit on the mats to stop the guns? I am!”
“He sat on them, fanning himself, taunting the approaching troops,” Kaplan and Rosenthal noted in a paper published in the Journal of the Polynesia Society (JPS) titled Battlements, Temples and the Landscape of Tuka.
Wright and other Europeans’ recollection of the war noted the native warriors recruited from the Ra to help in the attacks had “hung back”, expecting to prepare “a war fence themselves, and to fight for a number of days”.
“But the European notion of war was different. Major Fitzgerald sent out a party of Europeans and Moturiki-trained men to attack the closer village of the two,” Kaplan and Rosenthal said.
“Firing continuously, the men arrived within about 150 feet, and then charged over the stony ground down the hillside, through a muddy area up over the embankment, where they grappled with the Nakorowaiwai warriors.”
Sadiri the “invulnerable” priest showed himself through an opening in the fighting fence.
He was shot by two Europeans and the fence and the village were taken.
“People were found in their houses and killed. The village was set afire and, as the thatched houses began to burn, those within them tried to flee, but by then, the coastal warriors had rushed in and killed all the people they could capture,” noted Kaplan and Rosenthal.
“Those who attempted to flee to the second village (Vale Lebo) were caught and killed as well. A few escaped into the bush while a few women and children were saved to be taken captive by the Europeans.”
Ritova said the brutal attacks on Nakorowaiwai were launched to gain supremacy and to force the Vatukaloko people to accept Christianity and give up their own religion.
The Fiji Times of March 26, 1873, gave some graphic descriptions of the attack on Nakorowaiwai describing it as “a horrible massacre”.
The paper said in the horrible massacre women and children were shot down as they ran from their burning houses and children were thrown into the fire or had their brains dashed out.
It is said a man from Nacakena named Sionasa, was among those who escaped the massacre and related stories of the killings of the people of Vatukaloko.
The destruction of Nakorowaiwai was a setback for the Vatukaloko people. Some were taken to Bau and others to other parts of Fiji. Others sought refuge within Ra. Their land was taken from them as punishment.
As Tom Burness returned to his plantation on the land they had sold him, and as Warden Leefe and Ratu Isikeli sent out search parties to apprehend the villagers who had fled, the members and allies of the Vatukaloko polity assessed the implications of the success of Cakobau’s forces.
In July of 1873, several mountain chiefs came down to Togavere Village to soro (ritually apologise and concede defeat) for their participation at the battle of Nakorowaiwai.
They signed a document, saying they accepted Christianity and obeyed the Kingdom of Fiji under the command of its monarch – Ratu Cakobau.
Several requested a Christian teacher be stationed in their “towns”.
In January 1875, Amineasa Tora was appointed by the Viwa Methodist Mission to the post of Fijian teacher in Drauniivi Village, also within the vanua of Vatukaloko.
“It might have seemed Cakobau’s Government, now empowered by Jehovah, had triumphed over these inland people,” Kaplan and Rosenthal said.
But, instead, out of the ashes of Nakorowaiwai there arose a new mobilisation for Vatukaloko autonomy.
A ritual and political base emerged at the site of Vale Lebo and at coastal Vatukaloko settlements, led by an oracle priest.
His name was Navosavakadua.
By the middle of 1873, as the news of the Nakorowaiwai massacre cooled down, another problem was slowly shaping up before Cakobau and his team.
While the attack on the people of Vatukalolo seemed like a success, the brutal killings at Nakorowaiwai left many white settlers unsettled and worried about the future.
And as other “rebel” natives in the Colo areas continued to challenge the Kingdom, many started to doubt Cakobau’s ability to maintain control over the group.
As this deep feeling of doubt took root, coupled with the Americans’ debt claims, the idea of a cessation became stronger and viable. Settlers started to resent a leadership led by natives. This grew by the day until issues finally got out of hand in the Kingdom’s court.
Finally, Thurston on behalf of Cakobau and other prominent chiefs of Fiji including Ma’afu, began negotiations with Queen Victoria’s government to annex Fiji to Great Britain, under which the people of Fiji would remain subjects for almost 100 years.
■ History being the subject it is, a group’s version of events may not be the same as that held by another group. When publishing one account, it is not our intention to cause division or to disrespect other oral traditions. Those with a different version can contact us so we can publish your account of history too — Editor.
...the brutal attacks on Nakorowaiwai were launched to gain supremacy and to force the Vatukaloko people to accept Christianity and give up their own religion.
MOSESE RITOVA