WHAT HAPPENS ON TAVEUNI STAYS ON TAVEUNI

I cannot remember details of the few days I spent on the Fijian island of Taveuni. The event occurred so long ago, and my aged and declining memory will only release tantalising glimpses of that strange visit.  If you are Fijian and reading this, you will understand how hard it is for people to believe I was invited to drinks in the home of Ratu Penaia Ganilau on Taveuni. That I was in the company of two Fijian princesses, Adi Samanunu Cakobau and one of Ratu Penaia’s two daughter, Adi Sivu Ganilau I think, makes the story sound even more fanciful, but it happened.

Sometime in the 19^th Century Christian missionaries decided how to spell and how to pronounce Fijian words in English. They made it more difficult than was necessary and explanations are needed occasionally. So, the title Ratu is used by Fijian men of chiefly rank and Adi – pronounced Andy by me and others – is used by woman who are of similar status. The English pronunciation of Cakobau is Thakombau. I apologise for this bit of pedantry.

Let me begin by telling you who Ratu Penaia, Adi Samanunu and Adi Sivu were. Ratu Sir Penaia Kanatabatu Ganilau GCMG KCVO KBE DSO ED, to give him his full quota of honours and gallantry awards, was a great Fijian personality called ‘Ratu Penny’ by Queen Elizabeth II who liked him a lot, as did most people who met him. He was a hard drinking, Rugby football loving soldier and statesman. He was to become the last Governor General of colonial Fiji and the first President of the Republic of Fiji soon after it achieved independence as a nation in 1987. Adi Samanunu was the daughter of the late Ratu Sir George Cakobau the Paramount Chief of Fiji and also its sometime Governor General. He was the grandson of a reformed cannibal and King of Fiji, Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau.

Adi Samanunu Cakobau became a diplomat and government minister. She was a Fijian chief in her own right and a gracious lady even when she was young. Kipling, the much-maligned Imperial poet, would surely have said ‘she walked with kings – nor lost the common touch’. If he had, he would have been right.

Adi Sivu Ganilau has taken a leading role in demanding compensation for the Fijian sailors probably contaminated by radioactive fallout during the British nuclear weapon tests over the Christmas and Malden Islands – now known as Kiribati – in 1957. Orange Herald, the largest British nuclear weapon was released from a Royal Air Force Valiant bomber and explode high over Malden Island on 31^st May 1957. Amongst those present on board a Royal Navy warship in the vicinity was a contingent of 39 Fijian Naval ratings. Ratu Penaia visited them as one of three Fijian’s notables invited to observe the test. He was one of those who went ashore on Malden Island after the event. His feet were too big to fit protective rubber boots, so he went without, and it is likely that he was contaminated by radioactive fallout. He was to suffer from Guillain-Barre syndrome and died of leukaemia and sepsis in December 1993. Fiji finally paid its own remaining veterans of this and other British nuclear tests some compensation in 2015. Has the UK government offered to help? Probably not.

There were two Pacific island trading companies of note doing business in Fiji. I worked for one of them and probably set back its attempts to enter the tourist industry. The rival company had built a hotel on the Island of Taveuni and invited travel agents and airline representatives to sample its delights. I was amongst them as was Adi Samanunu and Adi Sivu. We were there at the same time as an Australian TV crew. They had discovered that you could send a waiter up a coconut tree to throw down a few nuts. You could slice the top of the nuts and pour in generous measures of vodka which blended with the cool coconut water, and you had a superb but near lethal beverage which encourages you to appreciate the qualities of the hotel and to recommend it to potential clients.

Amongst our pleasant duties in the cause of tourism we were invited to Ratu Penaia’s stately home. It was made of natural material and the roof was supported by hardwood ridge posts. I vaguely recall some fine Tongan or Samoan mats. These mats are highly valued, and the Tongans used to bring them to Taveuni and trade them for beautiful red perroquets, or, it is whispered, the loan of a few wives for a while. The latter exchange may have benefitted Taveuni’s gene pool.   The beautiful birds are sometimes called Red Shining Parrots or Taveuni Shining Parrots and are now endangered. There are still some in western Tonga.

Ratu Penaia offered his whisky in bottles with a generous invitation to ‘help yourselves’ which made close observation of the architecture difficult. It also makes the accuracy of some of this story suspect, but I like it this way.

When a Fijian chief’s residence was built in pre-Christian days each ridge post required a human sacrifice. One of the chief’s team of skilled craftsmen willingly gave his life for the honour being buried in the post hole. A sobering story.