In olden day Fiji, war clubs were neither too heavy nor too light.
Historical records show this made them effective and easy to use during battles and at the same time, gave them an “inflicting blow”.
Furthermore, each type of club was designed to specifically suit its user’s physical built, status in the community and personal taste, among other reasons.
Ceremonial clubs were largely heavier than war clubs because they were made for carrying on the shoulders and not for fierce fighting.
Because they were not used for crushing and striking, they had carvings on them using fine and intricate patterns. Some were heavily decorated with inlaid bones and others – with “primitive decorative materials”.
According to an online article on www.new-guinea-tribal-arts.com Fiji had “more styles of native weapons than anywhere else in the Pacific”.
This was attributed to the fact that Fiji experienced “a long history of warfare” and “rampant ceremonial cannibalism”.
Another online article on the Pitt Rivers Museum website concurred that the type of club used in Fiji was “not surprising” given the “nature of Fijian society”.
“Warfare was part of everyday life on the islands whereby the early 1800’s chaos reigned with local feuding and increasingly bloody civil wars becoming commonplace,” the article noted.
“The different type of club illustrates that demand was great. The highly diversified array of Fijian war clubs reveals that the Fijian had devised a weapon for every type of stroke.
Within the founding collection the variety of club type is evident.”
Some museum collections have shown that Fijian weapons sometimes had distinctive notches, drilled holes or even human teeth cut or inlaid into them.
These were done to allow a warrior to ‘keep a score sheet’ of his triumphs in combat.
Among most of Fiji’s war clubs, perhaps with the exception of the throwing types (ula), the bladed and piercing varieties were generally for heavy and blunt blows delivered at close range and often targeted at the skulls.
Hence, they would very often inflict blunt force trauma caused by a forceful impact to the body without necessarily penetrating it.
To enable this, the wood used for weapon design would have been heavy and hard.
The resulting blows easily caused contusions, lacerations and fractures that resulted in blood loss, tearing of soft body tissues, organ failure and injury, the splintering of bones and ultimately death.
To say that Fiji’s tribal wars and the use of war clubs were merely part of Fiji’s history may seem like an understatement.
In fact, it was intrinsically entrenched in the Fijian way of life.
Therefore, in olden days, club-yielding warriors had an important place and role in society.
They enabled chiefs to wrestle and hold power and therefore were an integral parcel of the traditional Fijian leadership structures.
Warriors were also so important to chiefs that they were often buried with their wives and their weapons, a rite normally accorded to royalties.
War clubs were inextricably linked to the old religion and its deities who demanded human sacrifices and war.
According to yavusa Naisogobuli member, Sitiveni Seuseu, the next in line to inherit Nukulau, Ra’s war club, stone axe and conch shells, the war artifacts belonged to two great warriors or qaqa.
“What I heard is the items belonged to two of the village’s greatest warriors, Navakasuasua from yavusa Burelevu and Batirau of Naisogobuli,” Sitiveni said.
Batirau’s totemic animal was the reba, the Fijian sparrow hawk, a bird of prey known for its stealth, agility and attacking prowess.
Sitiveni said whenever Batirau marched into battle, his reba would perch on his muscular shoulders.
The bird acted as a surveillance gadget and was often sent out to survey the land and inform men of Nukulau about the whereabouts of rival armies.
“The reba would go ahead of our warriors and would lead them to the exact hiding places of our enemies.”
While Seuseu and his dad, Sakiusa Bulisuva do their best to protect and preserve the items, a potential threat is looming in Ra.
New charismatic and Pentecostal Christian denominations and groups have for sometime taken a swipe at old traditional artifacts and their custodians.
There seems to be a distorted thinking that cultural artifacts are demonic and keeping them would bring curse of unimaginable proportions to their keepers and the community at large.
In the past, many villages have had to give up their old articles to be burned in bonfire so as to deliver people from death and destruction.
These burning ceremonies are often associated with evangelic and fasting.
While this religious notion may seem like genuine concern, it destroys the fabric of society, made up of people, their knowledge and skills and their creations.
“I will never sell or give away our family heirlooms because as traditional steward chiefs (sauturaga), we are supposed to protect them. No amount of money will buy them,” Bulisuva said.
Most elderly people in Nukulau believe the burning of cultural artifacts like tanoa, tools, war clubs and tabua was an act of sacrilege against iTaukei customs and traditions, and had nothing to with Christianity, salvation and Biblical dogma on eternal life.
Nukulau’s antiquated articles have remained with Bulisuva’s family for over 100 years.
They rarely leave the confines of his home where they are kept at a special place on the wall.
Only during chiefly installations and the death of a high chief or person of high status will the conch shells and war tools be taken out of the village.
“They were passed down to me by my father,” Sakiusa said.
“I do not know about the original owners of the traditional items but what I do know is that it was passed down by my great-great-grandfather to my great-grandfather then from my grandfather to my father.”
“Before my father passed away he asked me to keep the items and pass it on to my eldest son when the time was right. There is a possibility they may have been used during the war.”
Sakiua’s family treats the four artifacts with great respect.
They protect them as if their lives depended on them.
Both war artifacts still have their original lashings of braided coconut husks or magimagi and vivid decorative markings.
