The body of Adi Litia Tavanavanua was taken to Bau at 10 am on Thursday, December 13 where she lay in state in the vatanitawake (meeting house on Bau) until her funeral the next day.
According to The Fiji Times, Adi Litia, a direct descendant of Ratu Seru Cakobau and step-mother of the Governor-General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, died at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva after a short illness.
She was 84 and the great-grand-daughter of Ratu Cakobau, who with other chiefs ceded the country to Queen Victoria of Great Britain in 1874.
Born in September 1900, Adi Litia was the daughter of Ratu Penaia Kadavulevu, the son of Ratu Cakobau’s eldest son – Ratu Epeli Nailatikau.
Her mother was Adi Funaki of Tonga. She was interred at the mausoleum of the chiefly families of Bau.
Then President of the Senate, Mr Wesley Barrett, led a group of senators to Bau island to attend the condolence gathering known as reguregu.
The Governor-General, Ratu Sir Penaia also led mourners from Cakaudrove to the island. Adi Litia was the patron of the Soqosoqo Vakamarama and was involved in social welfare work.
She was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Fiji in 1982.
