Supposed descendants of a dwarf race, the people of Suva had it good.
With a picturesque coastline, abundant freshwater streams and hundreds of acres of fertile soil to plant their crops, Suva villagers were seemingly content with their lot.
Covering roughly 250 square kilometres of lush land, they had no shortage of earth to live and farm on.
Their land was spread out over rises, wide spaces and included two hill towns named Nauluvatu and another named Vatuwaqa.
“Mataqali Nauluvatu occupied the cliff up at Reservoir Road and the second mataqali Vatuwaqa was situated around where Flagstaff is located,” explained Fiji Museum registrar Ratu Sela Rayawa.
Nauluvatu was the tragic scene of the last stand of the Suva people when scores of Suva people decided to jump to their deaths to avoid being captured and eaten by the people of Rewa during a tribal conflict in the 1840s.
“There were only two mataqali in this whole area and for now this is all that we have,” said Ratu Sela.
However, both mataqali had to submit to the authority and power of influential paramount chief Tabakaucoro.
Other than the very descriptive account of the Fiji Museum’s first director Colman Wall, written way back in 1919, there isn’t any other scholarly work on ancient Suva village.
Oral accounts from Suva people were taken and recorded by Wall at around the turn of last century.
What we do know is that the Suva people were ably led by a powerful chief who decided to establish a new village site more prone to attack from their enemies, for reasons unknown.
Tabakaucoro eventually forced the people of Suva to leave their hilltop fortress towns to reside on the beautiful setting on a lower lying area along the present Suva foreshore adjacent to the Bowling Club.
Suva village was established just 11 years after the arrival of beachcomber Charles Savage and the sandalwood era and just 19 years after Suva was formed, the first printing press was established at Lakeba in Lau.
In a little over four years after the Bible were being printed in Lau, Suva was burned to the ground and most of its inhabitants eaten by the people of Rewa.
Suva had been a tranquil setting with large shady trees and a forested environment that must have been a cool respite for people of this area of Viti Levu’s eastern division.
The central village they would come to call home is where the present Thurston Gardens is located.
Similar to oral traditions of other areas in Fiji passed on through the ages the Suva people arrived at their present location after trekking through the mountainous area of Viti Levu.
According to old stories passed on from generation to generation and ultimately related to Wall, the Suva people had journeyed to their eventual village site from the upper reaches of Viti Levu.
“The Suva people claim to have crossed the central tablelands of Navitilevu from Saivou on its northern slope above the Vitilevu, their leader being Tabanimaqoveve (branch of the crooked mango tree) who on the male side is claimed to have been an immediate decedent of Degei and hence was of chiefly rank and so his person was sacred so that no one of lesser rank dared attempt to strike him in open warfare,” Wall stated.
Tabanimaqoveve’s mother was believed to be a princess of the veli, a dwarf race who were once the primitive inhabitants of Fiji.
“This lady, as was customary introduced into the Suva clan her own tribal worship of na leka (the short one) who was supposed to be visible to his votaries as a small white dog.”
Wall notes the exodus to the new site was initiated by Tabakaucoro, who from all accounts, had paramount supremacy of the people that lived within his domain.
“The founding of the town of Suva cannot have taken place later than 1820 and so completely did he (Tabakaucoro) strip the other towns of its inhabitants that even Kai Qiomila, who till then had remained at Uluvatu, was compelled to join the general exodus and both hill towns were left deserted,” wrote Wall.
“Tabakaucoro ranked as a powerful chief, he was not only Tui Suva, with his following of carpenters and fishermen, but he would for his own clansmen and allies muster nearly one thousand warriors and he was also a vasu to Bau, with all the privileges that went with that dignity.”
The Suva people not unlike others from others regions of Fiji, had deeply rooted beliefs in supernatural beings.
In short they were steeped in tribal worship of dwarf gods, or veli, who supposedly lived in the forested area they called home.
“Passing over the raised track across the moat (opposite the lawn tennis pavilion) one entered the town and right in front towered he temple of Ro Vono, situated on what is now the east side of the present little ornamental water; and behind it shaded by the nokonoko trees was the mound sacred to na leka, God of the Dwarf denizens of the wild,” wrote Wall.
According to Wall’s research Suva was named after a little mound of earth rendered sacred to its early inhabitants.
“To the old Fijian Suva a little hill was the mound on which the temple of Ro Vono stood and in which was concealed the sacred stone vatu bulia from Vatuwaqa on which stood the chiefs when they were seated at their inauguration.”
And this mound gave the name of the town but the name of Suva was never applied by them to any other place.
Fiji Museum archaeologist, Elia Nakoro, said Suva village was similar to other villages along Rewa Delta area in that it was heavily fortified.
“Suva was part of Rewa and ring ditch formation were very common in the Rewa area at the time. It was not easy getting into the place,” said Nakoro.
Apart from the moat system Nakoro said there was a bamboo palisade that fortified the village and like similar set-ups at the time, a wrong turn could mean certain death.
Suva Village historian Kali Katubadrau said the old village was “a very beautiful place to live in” and this was one of the reasons that embittered their enemies.
“The total village area according to our records basically covered 295.5 acres of Class A land. We had two beautiful beaches at Weleti and Nasese and we had an amazing view. It was definitely a lovely village,” said Katubadrau.
“This was one of the reasons I guess why the white settlers wanted our ancestors to move away because it was well situated.”
The space near the clock tower was the burial place of the taukei landowners and in later the gable end of the house of the chief Tui Buia and almost on the beach road and halfway between Cakobau Rd and the gate entrance to Government House.
Apparently there was a creek running through where Albert Park is located and this is where villagers would wash their feet after coming back from their plantation before entering the village.
The bure of Ratu Ravulo who founded Suva was located “a little further in and close to it stood the house of laca levu — the high priest of the temple.
Where the tennis courts now stands was the burial place of the chiefs of the “nai usa ni maru” and this according to Wall, was where the fiercest fighting took place the day that Suva was burned down by the people of Rewa on April 7, 1843.
In 1845 Cakobau began taking steps to rebuild Suva and return its people to their own homes and the last time that the war drum was beaten in Suva summoning the warriors to the fray towards the close of the Vugalei war about 1965 when aided by an inroad of the Naitasirti clan and the people of Waimanu they took and burned the towns of Lami and Tamavua and brought their inhabitants, prisoners to Suva.
As by that time the Suva people had become Christian and the ovens that were used to roast bokola now only prepared feasts of dalo and turtle meat.
In 1879 Jack Horne, then director of Forestry and Botanic Gardens Mauritius visited Fiji on invitation from Governor J B Thurston.
He recommended inter alia the establishment of a Botanical garden and Plant Introduction Station.
This work was approved and by 1905 large number of interesting and exotic trees had been established by Knowles, director of the Agricultural and Botanical Department, who in 1912 assumed control of the gardens.
In time the site of the one of the most horrific massacres in Fijian history would be transformed into a tranquil garden that continues to attract visitors to this corner of the southern hemisphere.
* This is Part 1 of a Three Part series on Thurston Gardens.