IT is something they had been working on from late last year to become a stronger organisation.
And their dreams came true last weekend when members unanimously agreed to change the Fiji Melanesian Community Development Association’s name.
During their annual general meeting in Levuka on Saturday, members agreed that their organisation be now known as the Fiji Melanesian Council.
The AGM was held during the three-day event to commemorate the arrival of the first Melanesian labourers to Fiji from Vanuatu in 1864 and the existence of Melanesian descendants here for 150 years.
Council’s head of secretariat Pateresio Nunu said they also elected Joe Sanegar as the council’s chairman.
“The first meeting of the new council will be held in Newtown, Nasinu on March 28 next year,” he said.
“There was a unanimous decision at the AGM for the name change.
“We are also planning to have the commemoration every five years now.”
Mr Nunu said all tribes of the Melanesian descendants were represented in the new council now.
He said in the past, the FMCDA did not have the equal representation of all tribes, as the majority were only the descendants of labourers from Malaita in the Solomon Islands.
The three-day event was sponsored by the Prime Minister’s Office, Chinese Embassy, Department of Culture and Heritage, Levuka Town Council, Solomon Islands High Commission and Lesley Bryant of the Australian South Sea Islanders.
The Australian South Sea Islanders are also the descendants of labourers taken to Queensland from Melanesian and Pacific Island countries during the blackbirding era.
