The Ministry of Fijian Affairs was preparing laws to ban the sale of tabua because of an acute shortage of the whales’ teeth, according to an article published in The Fiji Times on January 12, 1980.
The tabua was a vital part of Fijian ceremonies and culture but the supply situation was becoming critical, the senior secretary for Fijian Affairs, Luke Waqa, said.
The article said 10 to 15 years prior, nearly every Fijian family had tabua, but at the time, most Fijians were living without one in the household.
Many Fijians in urban areas had to spend their savings or borrow to buy tabua from pawn shops and Chinese shops when they needed them for special occasions.
And, where once large tabua were offered at a ceremony, often a small one was used because of its scarcity and cost.
Mr Waqa said the problem was caused first by a drain on Fiji’s stock of tabua as they were given away to VIPs, church leaders, expatriates and people taking out of Fiji as souvenirs.
At the same time, the supply of tabua was drying up as the world curbed whaling, in particular the sperm whale which provided tabua. Many tabua were lying on shop shelves after being sold or pawned by Fijians who were in financial distress.
This trend was like Fijians were selling their whole culture.
Mr Waqa said. “Tabua must be preserved.
“In our culture, the tabua is held in high esteem and it is very wrong for Fijians to sell them,” he added.
A ministry’s legal officer was working on legislation to ban the sale of tabua, and this draft was to go to the Crown Law Office for final drafting.
The aim was to stop the trade and the exploiting of Fijians’ need for tabua.
People would need a licence in order to take a tabua out of Fiji legally.
But Mr Waqa said that in the future, Fijians would be urged to either ceremonially present tabua but tell the recipients they should not take them away, or they should substitute items such as a tanoa or a lali.
An example of this sort was a case he saw in a newspaper, where a Fiji Boxing Council official presented a tanoa instead of a tabua to a visiting overseas official.
Mr Waqa said that to his knowledge, four consignments of tabua had been brought into Fiji since 1950.
In 1974, the Customs Department in Lautoka seized a large consignment of tabua illegally imported by merchants.
The ministry itself received two consignments in 1979 through the Fiji High Commission in Canberra and had been selling the tabua at reasonable prices to those who needed them.
But these tabua were running out and the High Commission said it would be difficult to get any more.
Tabua are kept by Fijians for use in marriages, births, deaths, welcoming ceremonies and reconciliation in dispute.
It could not be replaced by yaqona or other Fijian gifts on special occasions.
