CONSIDERED as the elders of the iTaukei race, the people of Vatukacevaceva in Rakiraki know that Degei, the son of Tura who some believe was the forebear of iTaukei people had a sister whose story simply vanished into the mists of time.
In Vatukacevaceva she is known as Gata, which is the iTaukei word for snake.
However, one wonders whether this is the same Geta who the people of Namama claim to be the sister of Degei and whose story we read about a fortnight and three weeks ago.
According to the people of Vatukacevaceva she had accompanied her father Lutunasobasoba and her siblings from his two wives but history is not clear on whether her mother was Naiovabasali or Ranadi who is said to have originated from Cevi (Thebes in Egypt).
In the beginning
According to stories recorded from the Native Land Commission and other sources as recorded by Albert Parke in his book Degei’s Descendants: Spirits, Place and People in Pre-Cession Fiji, Tura hailed from Turkestan (Turakisitani or, Esia in iTaukei folklore) and married Ranadi with whom they had two children — Lutunasobasoba and Kubunavanua.
Tura’s second wife was Naiovabasali, and their children were Degei, Waicalanavanua, Nakumilevu, Rokola and Erovu later moving to Tanganyika.
Three giant canoes, the Kaunitoni, Kaunitera and the Duiyabaki later set out from Tanganyika and sailed east until they came to the Solomon Islands.
Lutunasobasoba was captain of the Kaunitoni, Kumilevu of the Kaunitera and Kubunavanua of the Duiyabaki.
Legend has it that when the Kaunitoni first entered Fiji waters, its crew landed at a place called Yavuni and it is from this place that a woman by the name of Bulouniwasawasa was dispatched to Rotuma.
However stories do not specify whether she was sent to Rotuma for a reason or whether she was banished.
Rotuma
A Rotuman myth has it that when the Kaunitoni passed by the island of Rotuma, a woman was put ashore and became Hanitema’us, the wild woman of the woods and perhaps representing the earliest inhabitants of Rotuma.
Parke, in his book, says that according to early records Hanitema’us tried to stop Raho (the first of the people from Tonga and Samoa who supposedly founded the Rotuman population) from breaking up the island.
Story from Vatukacevaceva
Vatukacevaceva village elder Tario Nabuli was kind enough to share what he knew of Gata.
According to stories passed down by his elders, Mr Nabuli said Gata was the sister of Degei and that she was part of the group which arrived on the Kaunitoni.
Mr Nabuli said Gata had conceived a child during the exodus across the oceans and the father of the child was believed to have been Degei himself.
Story does not say whether it was out of shame or in an effort to preserve their honour that the elders on board the Kaunitoni banished Gata to stay out of their sight, remaining in the hull of the great canoe. However, Mr Nabuli said that prior to the pregnancy, Gata had not been mentioned at all.
“Gata’s pregnancy was discovered when the canoe berthed somewhere along the Asian continent with many saying her child was the result of her liaison with an Asian foreigner,” he said.
“When the canoe reached Fijian waters, Degei had banished his sister to a place where ‘he was not known’.”
As an avid listener to these legends, one would question why she was ever banished.
Was it because her child was really the son of Degei her own brother?
One has to question the logic of a sibling banishing another in a new land knowing the dangers that certainly lay ahead.
Is Gata the legendary Geta whose stony remains with that of her only son have been etched into rocks on the mountains behind Namama village in Macuata to remind them of their ancestry?
These are questions that a reader alone can answer after reading through the stories that have ensured in the past few weeks.
Back to Rotuma
According to the Rotuman legend, Hanitema’us landed on Rotuma from the Kaunitoni that later went on to Fiji bearing her seven brothers from whom the iTaukei race is descended.
During the voyage, one of the brothers impregnated Hanitema’us and the other brothers were so ashamed that they decided to put their sister ashore at the first place they came to regardless of whether it was inhabited or not.
As they sailed towards Fiji they came to Rotuma and so put Hanitema’us ashore at Unu Itu’muta.
She moved from there to Tagroa and Maftoa on the west end of Rotuma.
Here ends the story of Geta, the sister of Degei, which for the most part has been relegated to history.
* Next week: Shark of stone
