Sigatoka is home to a few of Fiji’s most striking archaeological finds, some of which emerged in the beautiful and enigmatic sand dunes of Kulukulu over the past decades.
The fascinating sand dunes, also a surfing haven, and Tongan warrior/chief Maele Latemai’s hilltop fortress at Tavuni are some of the most interesting heritage sites in this sunny town on the banks of the winding Sigatoka River.
Located within a stone’s throw of the town itself is the village of Nasigatoka (locals pronounce Nasigatoka with a silent s) which is testament to the strong Tongan influence in the province.
Making my way to the centre of the village I was greeted by an abundance of bula, offered in its most natural form by the young children who frolicked in the flourishing greens of this communal setting.
I had entered a rugby town and this was a rugby village if ever there was one.
Nasigatoka villagers who have donned the white jersey include Ratu Meli Kurisaru, Watile Tuinaqiaqia, Rupeni Nasiga, Samisoni Navatu, Ravuama Latilevu and Seru Naitau.
The list goes on.
I passed the village rara where a game between rival villages from this rugby- mad province was in full swing, with wild cheers coming from all corners of the ground.
This village comprises 84 houses with a population of close to 700 individuals, making it one of the largest villages in Nadroga province.
These days a large number of people in the village, particularly youths, are employed in the tourism industry, but life is challenging.
The villagers plant their crops on fertile alluvial soiled 200-acre island that is in close proximity to the nearby Sigatoka waterway.
After turning past the village hall where a group of women were hosting tourists with traditional dance and handicraft items, I arrived at the home of Mesulame Rakuro, the village spokesman.
“Most of the people here are living below the threshold but we are coping by planting our own root crops and vegetables,” quipped Rakuro.
Rakuro, is also next in line to be installed as the village chief but for now has not been referred to as a Ratu (chief in iTaukei ).
After being welcomed into his village home (I had interrupted him while he was enjoying the village rugby game from the comfort of his sitting room), I was taken back in time by this gentleman.
Many in Fiji enjoy a detailed knowledge of their village history, even stretching back centuries and fortunately for me, Rakuro was definitely one of those people.
The 68-year-old belongs to the chiefly Leweinadroga clan, one of only two mataqali in Nasigatoka Village.
The Leweinadroga is linked to the mataqali of the same name in Cuvu village.
I was there to investigate two historical sites within the village dating back to when the Kalevu of Nadroga was making a concerted effort to convert cannibals into Christians.
“According to the USP archaeologists and Fiji Museum experts this place was already inhabited 3000 years ago,” explained Rakuro, who is a former parliamentarian.
“In the 1960s virtually all of the houses in this village were made of thatched bure materials. The first concrete houses were built sometime in the 1960s and 1970,”he explained.
Outside this village home there was an air of excitement as people gathered to watch rugby and share stories.
With their big bula smiles, sunny dispositions and overall gaiety, it’s hard to believe that Sigatoka Village hosted one of the most brutal acts subjected to the iTaukei in living memory.
This was a dark period in the history of the village which had suddenly returned to haunt them in the 1990s in an incident recalled by Rakuro.
According to the village spokesman, the Kalevu of Nadroga’s younger brother, Ratu Osesa Bolawaqatabu was the man responsible for ending the lives of hundreds of the kai colo or mountain people in a campaign to civilise them.
“At the time, Cakobau was spreading Christianity around Fiji, but it was quite dangerous in this province and that is why the Kalevu was charged with carrying out this work,” explained Rakuro.
The Kalevu relied on his younger sibling at Sigatoka to go up to the mountains of Nadroga and Navosa and round up the cannibal heathens who refused to accept what they had deemed to be “Cakobau’s religion”.
When these “heathens” were captured and brought to Sigatoka they were first kept in a large bure where they were subject to constant questioning on whether or not they had renounced their heathen ways.
“They were kept in the bure for three weeks and most refused to give up the old ways,” said Rakuro.
This basically sealed their fate in a time when government forces led by Cakobau was trying to stamp its authority on the land.
According to Rakuro, during the early 1840s, the Kalevu, or paramount chief of Nadroga, sent a delegation to Viwa Island in Tailevu to transport back a Christian missionary to spread the gospel in his province.
However when the delegation arrived at Viwa they were told there were no more missionaries to send but only an iTaukei man who had himself been taught Christianity would instead travel.
This iTaukei man named Lua, who was reportedly a leper, died on the way to Nadroga but not before he had taught members of the delegation including a Ratu Qamuqamu, the basics of Christianity including the Lord’s Prayer.
Lua reportedly died on a reef and was buried at Navala, a village on the Coral Coast.
The current Nasikawa Vision College is located at the exact site where the man named Lua is buried.
“The ratu and his entourage took back with them the basics of Christianity to the Kalevu of Nadroga,” Rakuro further shared.
Full of zeal for his new faith the Kalevu decided to spread the gospel in the most frightening of places, areas that Cakobau’s men didn’t dare step foot on.
The hill communities of the mountain people or kai colo.
According to most accounts, these iTaukei tribes were oblivious to the new religion and had only understood the old ways and customs practised by their forefathers.
Ratu Osea Bolawaqatabu wasn’t very understanding.
“Ratu Osea sent his warriors along the banks of the Sigatoka River converting people to Christianity,” said Rakuro.
“Three rifle men from Levuka accompanied these warriors to make it easier to get the tribes to surrender and accept modern civilisation.”
Using sheer manpower and acting on the authority of the Kalevu, hundreds of mountain people were brought down to Sigatoka Village bound and destined for the noose.
“After three weeks of containment in a large bure they were brought in and placed in front of a judge, a white man from Levuka who was brought in specifically for the job,” said Rakuro.
The majority of the “heathens” were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging, which was carried out in a space where the current centre of the Sigatoka is now located.
Those who escaped execution found themselves bound for Levuka as virtual slaves later to help the government at Nasova build — among other things — the sea wall.
“Some elders from Naroro Village which has people of Tongan descent, were also sent to Levuka,” said Rakuro.
The trial at Sigatoka Village was tragic in that the prisoners barely had a chance to defend themselves in a system of justice that was largely alien to them.
“He (judge) would sit there and deliver his judgments,” said Rakuro, pointing in the direction of a white stone and concrete monument with what looked like a face at the top of it.
The bodies of these “heathens” were unceremoniously dumped in a swampy bog that lay near where the hangings took place on a large tree that now no longer exists.
These were trampled on by villagers until they sunk to the bottom of the bog, never to be seen again — or so they thought.
That is until sometime in 1998 when Sigatoka villagers decided to dig the earth at the centre of the village to build the foundation for a new church.
After discovering the human remains of the “heathens” the village conducted a ceremony and re-interred the bones properly in small neatly enclosed and marked plot next to their new vale ni lotu.
It is also understood that members of the village sought forgiveness from the Methodist Church of Fiji for the wrongs committed on these”heathens” by their ancestors.
Meanwhile according to Rakuro, the white stone with a face like a man in the enclosed plot in the village dates back to when people of the province all paid allegiance to the Kalevu.
“They always used to point to the head on the stone and pledge their allegiance to the Kalevu. That is why whenever people from Sigatoka village meet anyone from the chiefly village of Cuvu, where the Kalevu is from, they will exclaim Uluvatu.” explained Rakuro.
People from Malevu and Sigatoka are still acknowledging one another in this way to this day.
It is an indication that some things, particularly, the most brutual of events, are never forgotten in this province.
