THE sound of schoolchildren learning rhymes and poems greeted a group of journalists as they entered the village of Daku — located about half an hour’s drive from Suva — early this month.
The journalists were part of a climate change workshop field trip which touched on the villagers’ experience of the issue.
The low-lying village of Daku — completely surrounded by mangroves — has been tested many times by forces of nature, which prompted a visit to see the impacts of climate change on the village.
Daku Village development committee chairman Olota Rokovunisei said it would take about $2 million to fill their land and elevate it above sea water level.
And as the visitors traversed the village grounds to observe some of the latest projects undertaken in the village to mitigate against the tides of rising sea level, one is struck by the determination of the village elders to raise the village ground by two metres.
What was also fascinating was that this project was first started more than 70 years ago in 1937.
It was a project led by one of their leaders — the late Ratu Emosi Saurara — a figure who intrigued historical observers, was feared by the colonial government at the time and held in awe by his followers who held him up as a prophet, for he led many projects that were considered “ahead of his time.”
His former home now used as a village meeting house held framed photos of the villagers dated from the late 1940s as well photos of their village church from when it was built in 1946 to present. The striking red roof of the church now stands picturesquely at the head of the village although weather beaten and in need of repairs.
According to the village elders the wood to make the church were brought by bilibili (a raft made of bamboo poles lashed together) from Nadarivatu in Tavua.
Such a feat is mind-boggling when you consider the distance from Nadarivatu, which is more than four hours drive on the mainland.
What also caught our eyes were old framed photos of flags which hung above the village elders as they deliberated in the meeting house including an old flag of Ratu Seru Cakobau.
Photos as well of the British royal family including Queen Victoria hung proudly among the regalia. It seemed bizarre until we learnt of its historical ties.
“The village of Daku was often submerged in water back then and Ratu Emosi led the way to raise the village grounds from the swamps to where it is now,” said village headman Eroni Domonatani of Anitioki, one of Daku’s three villages.
He adds the flags commemorated significant developments or achievements the villagers achieved under the leadership of Ratu Emosi.
“Our oral history states our people were originally from Lovoni, Ovalau, from the yavusa Nasaumatua. When our people left Lovoni, we settled at Moturiki Island (southwest of Ovalau) then the Vunivalu of Bau brought us to Bau Island while he negotiated for a piece a land where we could stay. The vunivalu made a request to the Turaga ni Batiki or chief of Batiki to give us this portion of land which is now our home. Before the village was in disarray, there was no order in leadership until Ratu Emosi came about with his changes,” adds the 68-year-old.
And changes Ratu Emosi did carry out.
According to Alan Tippett, an Australian Methodist missionary and anthropologist who spent 20 years in Fiji, Ratu Emosi led a “revival of his own run-down village, raising its levels from swamps by a highly organised transfer of coral rock from elsewhere.”
In a book ‘Where Nets were cast – Christianity in Oceania since World War II’ author John Garrett quoted Mr Tippet saying Saurara was also a “dilemma and a threat to the churches old order…”.
Mr Tippet was well acquainted with Ratu Emosi at the time and was witness to many of his works, which he recorded in his journals from the early 1940s.
“Acknowledged as a prophet, he (Ratu Emosi) created a new rara (green space) and built a large church. In nearby villages he organised fishing and carpentry; he had been trained in carpentry at Davuilevu. In Nausori’s market not far from Daku, and he sold old mangroves as fuel for a sugar mill,” described Tippet.
“He devised a uniform and a flag for the Daku people. As a dedicated reader of the Bible in Fijian, he made charts showing the role of Daku in the renewal of Bau and its former glory. His ancestors had fought as allies of the Bau in the religious wars before the conversion of Ratu Cakobau to Christianity.
His reading of the Bible and his acknowledged admiration of previous Fijian prophets who had predicted a new Fiji, free of colonial overlords, but still loyal to Queen Victoria’s successors led him to a vision of a new Jerusalem on Fiji soil where the ensigns of Daku, Bau and Britain would wave together, but where the power would be Fijian, no longer imported from any other source other than the bible and the church.”
Mr Tippet who described Ratu Emosi as “a bit eccentric, but a man of ability and vision” was by then building a bakery and a place for sewing.
However, after witnessing and hearing Ratu Emosi at one of his talks at an annual meeting of the Bau/Ra Division of the church at Nasautoka in the Wainibuka river region, Mr Tippet reported in his journal of hearing “the almost hypnotically attractive Emosi directing a Bible drama of his own devising… “which he suspected was being influenced by literature circulated from the Watch Tower Press (Jehovah’s Witnesses)”.
Mr Tippet wrote that while he admired what Ratu Emosi had done for his village Ratu Emsoi had to be kept under observation “or there would be trouble on our hands for both the Methodist Church and the Administration”.
Later on Ratu Emosi and his village were disciplined by the colonial authorities and the church. Author John Garrett in his book- ‘Where Nets were cast – Christianity in Oceania since World War II’ said Ratu Emosi “overstepped the bounds of public order when he forcibly expelled a small dissenting group of Catholics from Daku.”
Ratu Emosi was arrested and detained by the colonial government in a mental hospital, but was released on bail on condition that he not live in Daku.
Thus ended what had been an eventful history of Daku in its quest to upgrade its village. However, the journey continues to this day.
The village has an uphill climb to meet the costs, but they cling to their history with such intensity as seen by their old regalia in their meeting house.
