THE Fijian flavour stood out during the four-day celebration of The Queen’s birthday at Windsor in England.
The 45 members of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces were crowd pleasers with their official march and the band antiques that is common to Fiji.
The final pageant on Sunday, May 15, was attended by The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh and many members of the royal family.
She was delighted with the singing of Isa Lei and on the big screen were shown some pictures of her drinking yaqona during one of her royal visits to Fiji, and a painting of the large 19th century drua, like the small one in the pageant.
The traditional hand-built Fijian sailing canoe which was specially commissioned for the major forthcoming exhibition, Fiji: Art and Life in the Pacific, was a dramatic feature of The Queen’s 90th birthday celebration pageant.
The canoe was shipped early to the UK at the behest of the pageant organisers in order to participate in the 90th birthday celebrations, before eventually displayed to the public at The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, from October 15, 2016 to February 12, 2017.
The military band left UK yesterday to return to Fiji, having been hosted by the Fiji High Commission during their visit.
University of Anglia’s Professor Steven Hooper informed The Fiji Times that Saturday’s performance was attended by the Fiji High Commissioner to the UK, Jitoko Tikolevu and his wife, Commander of the Fiji Military Forces Viliame Naupoto and UK High Commissioner to Fiji Roderick Drummond and his wife.
“All were guests of His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. On Friday, May 13, six members of the Fiji delegation, including Lieutenant Colonel Serevi Vananalagi and Joji Misaele, attended a tea party in Windsor Castle, where they met The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
“Col. Vananalagi carried the Fiji flag in one of six Jaguar cars with representatives of the Commonwealth as passengers that performed at high speed in the arena.”
Meanwhile, the exhibition at the University of East Anglia would be the largest and most comprehensive exhibition about Fiji ever assembled, it will reveal stunning sculptures, textiles, ceramics and ivory and shell regalia, taking the visitor on a journey through the art and cultural history of Fiji since the late 18th century. Stunning paintings, drawings and photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries provide context for the Fijian artworks.
The beautiful 8m-long double-hulled sailing canoe, or drua, built in Fiji in 2015, was funded by the German National Exhibition Centre in Bonn. It is made entirely of wood and coir cord, with no metal components, and results from a project to preserve traditional canoe-building skills in Fiji. It is a small version of the great 30m-long vessels of the 19th century, the biggest canoes ever built.
More than 270 works of art, including European paintings and historic photographs, are being loaned to Fiji: Art and Life in the Pacific by exhibition partner the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge, and by Fiji Museum, the British Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford) and museums in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Exeter, London, Maidstone, as well as Dresden and Leipzig in Germany.
