FIJI’S national anthem was sung for the first time during an official occasion on October 10, 1971. This is documented in The Fiji Times achives.
Meda dau doka or God Bless Fiji is the national anthem of Fiji.
Reports say the melody was adapted from a 1911 hymn by Charles Austin Miles entitled Dwelling in Beulah Land. The lyrics and music were composed by Michael Francis Alexander Prescott and adopted upon independence in 1970.
The English and Fijian lyrics are not translations of each other, and in fact have very little in common
According to The Fiji Times of that day, which by the way cost five cents a copy at the time, a religious worship service was held at Albert Park where passages from holy books and prayers were read in Fijian, English, Arabic, Gurmukki and Urdu.
In his editorial on Fiji’s first anniversary of independence, editor and publisher of this newspaper Sir Len Usher wrote: “A one-year old child is very much a baby, still heavily dependent on its parents for nurture, still faltering in its steps.
“A better comparison in Fiji’s case would be that of a young man who has left the parental home and has started to earn his own living.
Fastforward to 46 years later, people have seen and witnessed developments which has raised their standard of living-education being one of the key factors.
The noble banner blue-National Flag will be raise up high with so much pride today.
A lot of people will take time to thank the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama for retaining the current flag.
While steps were taken to change the flag, Mr Bainimarama however, was moved after witnessing the way Fijians have rallied around the national flag as the nation’s rugby sevens team brought home Olympic gold for Fiji.
