Fifty-six years after watching Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara ascend as Tui Nayau, 84-year-old Ratu Qica Gade Vuli will today witness history repeat itself.
But this time, the ceremony is simpler — tailored to modern realities and softened by necessity.
Gone are the days when giant men bore their chief aloft through sacred sites.
“They were big and strong men, those days in 1969,” he says.
Yet the mana remains.
Ratu Qica recalls talanoa with Ratu Mara over cards in Lakeba, and the compassion of a leader who, after the devastation of Hurricane Meli and a deadly tsunami, flew in to rescue his people.
“We lost everything,” he said.
“But Ratu Mara never forgot us.”
Today, neither does he — as the late Ratu Mara’s son, Ratu Tevita, begins his own journey as Tui Nayau. “I am glad that it has been made easier today because of the many challenges especially financial hardships people face,” he said.
“Also the men of today wouldn’t be able to carry those big platforms that our fathers and forefathers carried. They were big and strong men those days in 1969.”
He said it was always an honour to serve their chiefs.
“Ratu Mara was not only my chief but was also a friend whom I used to share some evenings with playing cards and have a talanoa session at his house in Lakeba.
“I lived and worked in Lakeba for a few years and that’s where I also got to see his humility as a chief. He always shared that we should take care of each other and help one another.”
He said Ratu Mara’s compassion was evident when Hurricane Meli and the tsunami struck Nayau in 1979.
“It was Ratu Mara who flew from Suva after hearing of the news and came to Nayau to take us all to Lakeba.
“We lived there for two years while the soldiers rebuilt our villages on Nayau, then we moved back home.
“I was a victim and was in my 40s when the tsunami struck and I had gone to the school in Salia Village to bring my children home.
“No one should ever go through what we experienced because we lost everything and that was the saddest day for Nayau.”
