In 2018, The Sunday Times spoke to a gentleman named Jese Koroinacika during a trip to Taveuni. He talked about an incident that he would never forget. It happened on December 17, 1953, the day Queen Elizabeth II smiled at him.
He was a 20-year-old soldier when the Queen inspected the guard of honour that he was part of during her first visit to Fiji.
“I am proud to have participated during the Queen’s first visit as guard of honour and hope the Prince will enjoy his stay in Fiji,” Mr Koroinacika told The Sunday Times.
He said the Queen and him saw eye to eye without saying a word. “I remember she was very young and pretty and had just been crowned.
She was not tall so I had to struggle a bit to see her in the eye,” he said.
“We did not talk. She just gave me a smile and moved on along the row of guards.”
He said it was an honour to participate in the Queen’s visit. Such was the power of the Queen – to create awe, to mesmerise and to stir the imagination of humans and of the world.
Therefore her passing this week was a huge loss to all the citizens and countries of the world.
The Queen was no stranger to Fiji and Fijians. She will always exist in our minds and hearts.
The people of Fiji have always shared a peculiarly close relationship with the British monarchy, the Queen and the royal family.
Its explanation is simple. It is steeped deep in our history.
On October 10, 1874, paramount chiefs from Fiji signed a document on Ovalau ceding the rule and governance of these islands to Great Britain in exchange for protection from the Crown.
Since that time and despite our boisterous political past, the British royal family has always a special place in Fijian hearts.
This is why it is not uncommon to find that many of our homes still have the Queen’s portrait hanging on the wall, gracing a page of the old family album or lying idle in a wooden chest among antiques.
For instance, Koroinacika told The Sunday Times in 2018 that he still had a photo of the Queen when she inspected a guard of honour he was part of during her visit to Fiji in December 1953.
During an interview in 2018, Litiana Vulaca, 85, told this newspaper that she also kept a photo of the Queen pictured with Adi Cakobau School’s founding principal, Frances Lillian Charlton.
It was taken during the royal’s visit to the school on December 18, 1953. Litiana served the Queen tea on that day. But to understand the affection we have for the Queen, let’s go back in history and take a look at a few of her visits. I
n 1953, when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburg came in the Royal Yacht Britannia, they were welcomed in the Suva Harbour by a flotilla of traditional Fijian canoes from Lau.
On land, Suva came to a standstill as people, numbering thousands, stood silently in the sun and cold, on roadsides and public spaces, to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty.
Fiji laid out for her printed masi to walk on, our very own version of the west’s “red carpet” welcome. Seventeen years later, during Fiji’s first Independence Day, it was Prince Charles who represented his mother.
He read out a message from the Queen and gave then Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara Fiji’s instruments of independence. “…there has always been mutual faith and confidence between Fiji and Britain in peace and war,” the Queen said in her Independence Day message of October 10, 1970.
“This relationship has stood the test of time and will, I believe, endure in the future.”
Indeed, it has endured to this day. In October 1973, on her way to open the Sydney Opera House, Her Majesty stopped briefly again in Fiji, stepping out into brilliant Nadi sunshine.
On the tarmac she was greeted by PM Ratu Mara and Governor General Ratu Sir George Cakobau.
She reportedly had the best Fiji fish and cold meats for lunch, Fiji duck for dinner and her room at the GG’s bure in Lautoka had tagimoucia flowers, flown in especially from the foot of Taveuni’s tallest mountain peaks.
In 1982, the Queen made another historic trip here.
This time, she opened the Great Council of Chiefs meeting on the island of Bau and bestowed a royal honour on Governor General Ratu Sir George, who received the Royal Victorian Chain linking back to King Edward the VII in 1902.
Government hosted a banquet at the Grand Pacific Hotel attended by 200 guests, from among Suva’s creme dela creme, and the next day the Queen added her royal voice to a strong choir of 1000 voices at the National Stadium where hundreds of scouts and girl guides lined mats on which she walked.
Even three-year-old Timoci Lalanabaravi of Tamavua Village was among those who flocked to Suva.
He was caught on The Fiji Times camera, wearing a superman costume. Lautoka put on a great show on the final day of her 1982 visit.
She had a special interest in Sitiveni Tukai’s coronation medal, a soldier who was among those in a Fiji contingent that marched to London during her coronation six months earlier.
As the world continues to mourn the passing of her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II, we too the people of Fiji have heavy hearts.
Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama tweeted that we would always treasure the joy of Queen Elizabeth II’s visits to Fiji along with every moment that her grace, courage, and wisdom were a comfort and inspiration to our people, even a world away.
Former prime minister and The People’s Alliance party leader, Sitiveni Rabuka said while Fiji mourned her passing, we must celebrate a life very well lived.
Mr Rabuka said in war and peace, the Princess Royal, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, later to be Queen Elizabeth II, stood earnestly in graceful resolve, honour and dignity amid the turmoil of human history.
Former prime minister and Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry said the nation mourned with the people of Great Britain.
Mr Chaudhry said the Queen was held in high esteem and with deep affection by the people of Fiji as a beloved matriarch who for the last seven decades signified peace and continuity in the face of the traumatic changes we have undergone as a nation.
The Queen passed away peacefully at Balmoral Castle on Thursday afternoon. She was 96.
Until we meet on this same page, same time next week, stay blessed, stay healthy and stay safe!
