WHEN Kaiafa Ledua, a mataisau or traditional craftsmen, first saw the 103 year-old drua, named the Ratu Finau, at the Fiji Museum, he was surprised.
He recalls seeing marks on the canoe which looked like letter “x” and they couldn’t figure out whether the markings had been intented by the traditional craftsmen .
“One thing I noticed while measuring the Ratu Finau was the disjointed designs and the marking on it which was like crosses. We thought the marks were made through time and age but it wasn’t so,” he said.
Kaiafa comes from a long line of traditional craftsmen who are descendants of Samoan and Tongan craftspeople known as the Lemaki clan. His ancestors had settled in Lau and were chosen to be the mataisau for the high chiefs of Lau.
He said a group of New Zealand boatbuilders arrived in the country and took line drawings of the drua. The New Zealanders later confirmed every line or mark on the canoe were made from an axe and was intentional on the part of the mataisau.
“After carefully studying the canoe and hearing the observations of the visiting boatbuilders, I realised we had been cutting our modern camakau and drua the wrong way. We saw that the elders’ designs were asymmetric, there was seemingly no co-ordination in it unlike the western designs, and they used hand span for measurements,” Kaiafa said.
Kaiafa was one of a small group; Dr Peter Nuttal, Samual Nuttal, Moala Tokota’a, Kaiafa Ledua and Setareki Ledua who had embarked on building their own drua using the measurements of the last preserved drua of its kind — the Ratu Finau.
Led by New Zealand-born Samual Nuttal, the group was inspired to revive the drua for fear of it being lost to future generations.
“We wanted to play a small part in the revitalisation of it,” described Sam, who used an inheritance left to him by his late grandmother to fund the project. The vessel had cost a little over $200,000 to build.
Standing at six foot with an unruly shock of black hair, the outgoing 27-year-old said it wasn’t easy putting together the canoe. It took two years of meticulous planning, designing and keeping to the traditional touch while at the same time adding modern modifications.
“A little more than century ago, such vessels were commonplace in Fiji’s waters and throughout central Oceania underpinning a vibrant trading network between island communities. Sadly, no drua are found sailing today and none of any size are thought to have been built for over 100 years,” said Sam.
“Even with this rich sailing history, the country still struggles with unemployment and a dependency on fossil fuels. With a culture being diminished by globalisation, a generation gap in the knowledge of how to build and sail, we were faced with only one question ‘why don’t we build one’?” he said.
It was his first experience of sailing in a drua when he was six that influenced him. It was an old drua owned by one of the crew members, Setareki Ledua’s grandfather, in which he would sail with glee along the Lami foreshore.
We were later invited to sail on the new drua after it was launched.
“Our elders used to say that with many imperfections of the drua, it makes one perfect design,” said Kaiafa. “You notice the hull of the old drua, it’s uneven. One is short and the other is long. The short one is meant to stem the high waves. These uneven design is actually for a reason known only to the craftsmen and the sailors and one that seems to have worked perfectly for them.”
History of the drua
Oral and recorded history show that the ancient Tongans taught Fijians how to build canoes. According to those records, the Fijians rapidly outclassed their instructors and subsequently became known as the best canoe builders in the South Pacific. This may have been because of the fact that the Tongans had only soft wood for their use, whereas the Fijians were able to choose a lasting hardwood from the vast supplies of vesi found in the islands.
History recorded the largest of these ancient canoes (118 feet in length with a platform width of 24 ft) was built at Somosomo, Taveuni, Fiji’s third largest island.
According to historian, Thomas Horne, the canoe was called Rusa e Vanua (Rot on Land) because some chiefs thought she was so big she could not be launched on the waters. While others translated the name as “Destroyer of Land” for a warship that would be used to dominate rivals on opposing islands .
The drua was eventually launched all right and even made trips to the island kingdom of Tonga.
“The designs carried out by our elders in those days were found to be the most efficient designs in the region,” said Kaiafa.
“The Ratu Finau contains within it the secrets of building a drua, that’s why we were really thankful to the Fiji Museum for allowing us to build a replica.”
Measuring at around 13.4 metres, the Ratu Finau is small by drua standards. It was built in 1913 on Fulaga in southern Lau. It was the last drua ordered to be built by Ratu Finau Uluilakeba the fifth Tui Nayau and held other titles in Lau.
According to Dr Peter Nuttal, a research fellow at the School of Marine Studies at the University of the South Pacific (USP), Ratu Finau Uluilakeba was approached by the government in the early 1900s for a large drua to be used for the copra trade in Lau and Lomaiviti.
“The government heard there was a large drua available and offered £50 (quite a lot of money in those days). But when they went out and inspected it, it was quite rotten.
“The chief, Ratu Finau, said they could build a new one but for £50. It would only be a saucoko drua (a size smaller than the original) so not big enough for the government’s purposes,” Dr Peter said.
But a JB Turner heard the story and offered to pay the price. Dr Nuttal said Ratu Finau saw the opportunity to preserve the knowledge of drua building, which was already starting to disappear.
According to Kaiafa, the chief lamented that English schooners seemed to then populate Fiji waters especially in the ruling kingdoms of Bau and Lakeba so he took advantage of the offer from Mr Turner.
“I strongly urge the Government of today to do all necessary to preserve the Ratu Finau so we have this knowledge for future generations of mataisau and the kai wai,” Dr Nuttal said.
Referring to the markings referred to earlier, he said: “Yes, the markings of the craftsmen are still evident in the construction of the Ratu Finau. But how much is the craftsmen, how much is the shape of the original logs and how much is the change wrought over time from sitting on land for a long time? We don’t know.
“And this is one of the riddles we now have to solve and one of the reasons we have been so careful to try and accurately replicate the exact hull shape so we can test out the actual shapes left by the mataisau in the water.”
Launch of the
I Vola Siga Vou
On October 30, 2016, the 51-foot Fijian double hulled canoe which Kaiafa and the crew were building was finally launched from the banks of the Navua River much to the delight of sailors and supporters who came to witness the occasion.
It was the first Fijian drua of its size in over 100 years. It had taken crew the two years of hard work.
Keeping with Fijian and Kiwi contemporary boatbuilding traditions, the launch involved speeches, kava, champagne and some beer. The crew celebrated with family and friends along with the elders of Serua and Korova who guided the young boatbuilders.
But none could be more proud than Samual and his father Dr Peter who both started the project along with Moala, Kaiafa and Setareki who helped see the journey through.
The I Vola Siga Vou is built from planks and powered by huge triangular sails made from a tarpaulin (a shift from the traditional pandanus matting). Either end can be the bow (front), so to change direction the entire rig has to be shifted to the opposite end of the boat.
“To sail the drua you need to have really strong men manning it,” said Moala as Kaiafa and Setareki quickly shunted the rig to the other end as they changed direction while sailing.
“It takes skill and timing and of course good navigators,” the weatherbeaten sailor said with a smile.
Standing on the deck with a look of satisfaction on his face, 19-year-old Setareki quietly smiled.
The Fulaga, Lau native is a descendant of master navigators. His grandfather used to sail a double-hulled canoe along the waters of Suva in the early ’80s and ’90s
“This is a lifetime experience, to take part in the building of a drua and getting to sail it,” he said.
“I can’t describe how happy I am to be part of something that my ancestors were well known for,” he said as the team from this newspaper enjoyed the sailing around the Suva waters aboard the I Vola Siga Vou.
“My heart bursts with pride everytime I’m doing this. It’s something that should be protected and kept alive. We know for certain that your ancestors were fantastic builders,” said Dr Peter.
“Their designs come from many generations of experience. I can’t stress enough how important it is that this knowledge is preserved and handed down. We hope that the little project we have started can lead to many, many drua being built and sailed and not only in Fiji but Tonga, Samoa, Uvea and all of central Oceania.
“The drua were the finest and fastest ships of their day in the world. As climate change builds, they are such a fantastic symbol of resilience and pride and local knowledge.”
For now the young men are working towards getting licensed and are awaiting approval from Investment Fiji to operate commercially. They plan to start a drua cruise business where tourists could enjoy sailing one of Fiji’s well known double hulled canoes and promote what was once a proud culture.
