LAPITA In 1917, Maurice Piroutet a French geologist discovered pottery shards along the coast of Fouē in the province of Konē in New Caledonia. The design was similar to the tapa motifs in the Lau group today. The pottery fragments were named after the beach from it was found. The name then was extended to all places in the Pacific in which the shards were found. HOW OLD ARE THE RELICS. There is geological and archaeological evidence of a certain group of people who navigated the Pacific Ocean with distinctive pottery design known as Lapita. Science and carbon dating can determine the age of a relic and the year in which the owner inhabited an island. WHO WERE THE LAPITA PEOPLE? Researchers found that prior to the habitation of the Pacific, a group of people called the Austronesians existed. They are identified through their language family. During those days, the language was not so diverse as today. 3,500 years ago they navigated the Pacific Ocean with their double-hulled canoes called the Drua. Evidence stipulated that these people originated from South China. They brought with them a distinctive pottery design, domesticated animals such as pigs, chicken, dogs and geminated trees such as breadfruit. They are the inhabitants of today’s Madagascar, South East Asia, Bismarck Archipelago near Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, Rapanui and New Zealand.

Fiji is blessed because of its rich and diverse culture and traditional protocol. The manifestation of these cultures and traditional protocols are embedded in the indigenous language. It is also embedded in the traditional protocol the ceremony of nurturing child. This ceremony expresses the love of the vanua towards a child; outlines the ways of the vanua on how a child should be nurtured and cared for. It seeks the blessing of the vanua toward the child so they may grow and have a prosperous life and serving their community.

This article will attempt to explain the ancient spirituality of the indigenous people of Fiji. Indigenous spirituality is important because it describes in totality the significance of the vanua, its worldview and vanua ethos. One must decolonize one’s thinking one is to understand the nature of itaukei spirituality and its ideology. Few research have unpackaged the significance of the vanua, nevertheless in its simplest form; the vanua comprises of seen and unseen elements. Nowadays, some itaukei have abandoned their traditional roles and its customs, some have prohibited the consumption of kava. But on the other hand, they are content with traditional itaukei artifacts and crafts. Others have indicated the irrelevance of culture yet when asked of their identity, without hesitation they state their place of origin. As there are traditional beliefs surrounding yaqona consumptions and traditional ceremonies, there are also traditional beliefs associated to traditional crafts and the ancestral guardians of the vanua. An example of a traditional craft with spiritual powers is the masi, also known as the isulu ni vanua (attire of the vanua), it links the physical and the spiritual world. It is worn by newlyweds to protect them from outside influence before the marriage is consummated, it is hung at homes as protection. (Hulkenburg J, 2009:67, 68). In the past, chiefs were regarded as representatives of gods on earth, they were considered sacred because of the sau and mana they possessed. The vanua is protected and respected because of the powers (sau and mana) the chiefs possessed. Yet, it was unreasonable for the people to continue to revere their chiefs when they cease to believe in their ancestor-gods (Thomason B, 1908:111). In Fiji, both Fijian history and Fijian traditional religion are hard to trace and attended with considerable difficulties. (Tivi. D. 2018:39)

A few islands in Fiji and the Pacific are said to have submerged in the last hundred to thousand years ago. The island of Vuniivilevu is believed to have submerged in the year AD1200 in the Motoriki waters, Lomaiviti (2005). It is one of the islands that is regarded to have been inhabited first before other settlers arrived. Early migrants were said to be tall, muscular and tough and this could be proven with the skeleton that was found in Naturuku, Motoriki in 2002. What was also remarkable about this skeleton was the excellent state of preservation of the skull. It was of a female who would’ve been tall, muscular and tough and was believed to have lived in Motoriki around 800BC (2007). The abrupt collapse of Vuniivilevu would’ve generated waves to nearby islands and one such example is the waves rushing up the valley from Bureta which saw the presence of sea-fish in pristine freshwater rivers. Their ancestor god Rakavono then speared a turtle, a shark, and a ray, all of which immediately turned to stone and can still be seen there, at a deep place in the river called Muloi, near Nasaumatua village, Lovoni, close to the center of Ovalau. When passing through the Davetalevu passage, travelers are forbidden to make noise, and to throw rubbish into the ocean in respect of the sunken island. Certain people who have disturbed the peace at the Davetalevu passage had their boat capsized and are now buried at Uluibau village in Motoriki. A considerably large number of people in Fiji came from Vuniivilevu and dispersed when the island submerged. This includes the villages of Uluibau, Nasauvuki in Motoriki (Rokowaqa, n.d. 1926; Rakadragi, 1979; Draunidalo, 1990; Vulava, 1996); Tuatua village in Koro, the chiefs of Vuna in Taveuni (Rakadragi, 1979); Navure clan in Sawaieke and a group of people in Vadravadra, Gau (Vulava 1996); and also the village of Naimalavau (Vulava 1996). Some reached as far as Kadavu.