Susana Yalikanacea who hails from Ono- I-Lau shared her story of how she celebrated Fiji’s first independence day in Ono-i-Lau 50 years ago.
“I was in Class 6 then when we were told that a plane would bring the new national flag that was going to replace the Union Jack.
“The plane came a day before independence day. A few hours before it arrived there was a bushfire near the school.
The school head master Sitiveni Gaunavinaka told us to go and put the fire out. “At the same time stressing to us that ‘as soon as you hear the plane rush back to the school play ground and stand in line’.
“Armed with green branches and sticks we went out and actually had the fire under control.
“We were still making fun of each other because of the loaloa on our faces.
We heard the plane
“I tell you in one turn and one tune we started racing back towards the school shouting and yelling selo selo and pointing towards the sky.
I looked up to the sky I did not see anything yet I was shouting at the top of my voice selo selo and we were asking one another while running kaivei kaivei a waqavuka?
“We were racing in the bush bare footed dui sanima ga mai a loga karuka kei na loga gasau dui yasava ga mai a ona wakolo.
Everyone was in line by the time the plane was trying to eject the parcels. It was like we were racing with the plane.
What the plane did
“The plane had three rounds around the school and was really flying so low dropping off the bags of orange juice in rounded plastic bottles, parcels of small Fiji flags, medals, bags of sweets, apples and oranges and of course the new Fiji flag.
“You can imagine the excitement of the school kids 50 years ago.
A veitoqotoqo kei na qoroqoro kei na sosokiki jumping around not to step on the scattered sweets, bottles of juice and fruits on the ground.
Every single thing was given to the head master and was distributed to us on Independence Day.
* Susana Yalikanacea, who hails from Ono-I-Lau, is a senior agriculture officer at the Ministry of Agriculture
