Point Of Origin | Cousins trace roots

FOLLOWING their trip to Fiji in 2012, Mark Pirie began to plan for the next phase of this journey.
Mr Pirie and his cousins Barry Coster, Judith Miller, Jennifer Menzies and Adrianne Gudlaugsson visited Fiji again this year to retrace their roots. They were accompanied by their respective families.
“We were keen to visit Fiji as a way to introduce Fiji and our history to my daughters,” Mr Pirie said.
“My wife and I began organising this trip when she suggested that we ask our extended family if they’d also like to come. It grew from just us coming over and going to show our kids around into a once-in-a-lifetime family reunion, where we have all contributed pieces of the puzzle to form a better overall picture of our family.
“We have about 50 people on a family mailing list, all our direct relatives. Not everybody was able to attend, but we have 13 of those able to make it, so, we’re really happy with that.
“During our trip, we’ve kept bumping into people who are keen to help. People will say ‘I know where that was, for example, the Suva Boys School’.”
The group visited the remains of the Penang Sugar Mill at Rakiraki, and the original homestead of their paternal grandfather. Mr Pirie said they had often read about the family’s trips and outings in Rakiraki, especially to Tovu Island, something which the group decided to partake in.
“It was there in the memoirs of my great aunt. She described in great detail how they would paddle out from the Penang River, out across the coral shallows, then deep, and go to Tovu Island for their holidays and how they prepared the food to go.
“They would bake rich fruit cakes, lather meat in lard so that it would keep (fresh) and go out there for a number of weeks at a time.
“So, on our trip we hired a couple of long boats and went out there with this whole group. We got to have lunch out on the island just as they did. I didn’t want to go to the island without permission, I didn’t want to just trespass, so I managed to track down the owner of the island in Los Angeles.
“We were having a good old chat about our history with it, and he said, ‘Yeah, give Dawn a call. Dawn’s a caretaker. She’ll arrange access for you’.”
Mark managed to speak with Dawn, who assured the family they could visit the island. And, just as they were leaving Rakiraki, they bumped into someone at the petrol station, who turned out to be Dawn.
“She’s like a long-lost grandmother. She’s so sweet, she’s a larger-than-life figure. And she was very excited about our story.”
The group also visited the Suva Yacht Club, where they discovered that Mr Pirie’s father, and his cousin Barry’s dad, Peter, were both avid sailors who had their names engraved on trophies displayed at the site.
“There’s a perpetual trophy in the cabinet, which has my father’s name on it. He was the very first winner of that trophy in 1935. We were excited to find it, so we kept digging in the trophy cabinet and found one for Barry’s father Peter Coster — my mom’s brother. It was very exciting to see proof that they existed
here.”
During their trip to Fiji, they also visited the old Boys Grammar School.
“We didn’t really know where the Girls Grammar School was, but the principal of the existing Suva Grammar School told us it was an education department building and pointed us in the right direction.”
They also visited the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, where some of Mr Pirie’s great aunts worked as nurses.
And the Suva Olympic Pool, previously known as the Suva Sea Baths, where Mr Pirie said they enjoyed swimming competitions and “many a hot day was spent”.
“It’s really just piecing this tapestry together. The best thing is that my kids now have this information. I know at their age, they’re not that interested in family history. They’re sort of coming along to please dad. And also, it was a trip to Fiji.
“But best of all, is that they now know the context of where we came from, and to be able to see, feel and smell these places and then be able to say ‘I know where that is. That’s where my people were’. That’s important.”