Hundreds of years before the arrival of the first European in Fiji, homemade salt was produced in settlements along the Sigatoka Sand Dunes.
These early settlers prepared salt by evaporating saltwater in special clay dishes using the power of the sun.
They were thought to be the first pre-contact salt makers in the Pacific.
Hundreds of years later, the successors of the industry emerged. But unlike those who were the first to master salt-making, the new breed of salt producers extracted salt by boiling seawater.
From its early subsistence use, salt slowly developed into a market commodity “for prestige and trade and an agent of social change” and today it is used as a seasoning in foods, cooking, cosmetics and for preserving food.
But between 1976 and 1994, Wai the salt-making district, lost about 11 hectares of its mangroves and three hectares of salt grounds.
As the natural ecosystem where salt was sourced from got depleted, salt-making halted and its associated knowledge and skills slowly disappeared. For many years, salt was never produced again in the district.
In 2000, through the intervention of the World Wide Fund for Nature, Lomawai Village restored its lost glory.
The revival of salt-making made villagers realise the importance of protecting the mangrove forest.
The Lomawai seawater wells are surrounded by a mangrove swamp that helps filter saltwater that comes from the sea.
The swampland plants also act as national barriers and protect the local population from cyclones, flooding and heavy rain.
In the olden days, Lomawai villagers took salt as a gift when visiting other villages or traded them for other food produce or traditional artefacts from other villagers. Salt was also presented during special traditional occasions.
Making salt, like many traditional cooking, is labour-intensive and largely done by women.
Firstly, one has to first dig a six to seven-foot circular pit in dried-up areas on the mangrove swamp flats.
Butani said traditionally, seawater was harvested from the pools to coincide with the mango season and the onset of dry weather.
“Dugout sediment is piled along the circumference of the rounded well to help protect the brine inside,” said retired high school teacher and leader of Lomawai’s Soqososo Vakamarama, Mereani Butani.
“The digging will have to go down four soil layers until seawater starts to spring up and coral can be seen.”
“From what I’ve heard, the cooking of salt was an activity done once a year, around the time when the mudflats were at their driest,” she said.
Once a brine pool was filled up, it may supply seawater for several years of salt making before it ran dry.
“When the pools fill up we can use seawater in them for some four to five years before they dry up again. Once a pool gets dry we have to dig a new well on the mudflat.”
In the olden days, women dressed up while preparing salt.
It is said, special chants were sung by the men while women dipped their pails into the well to collect brine.
Then later, while salt was cooked, women would stir the hot brine while dressed in skirts and went topless.
“The idea was to appease the kalou vu (traditional deities) and get them to give more salt,” Butani said.
At the cooking stage, mangrove firewood was used to supply the fuel needed to keep the furnace firing for up to 48 hours.
When brine started boiling, it demanded constant stirring and careful attention.
“At boiling point, hot splatters would form white crystals on the side of the pot. At this stage, you have to keep stirring the hot liquid until it evaporates,” Butani said.
“This boiling can take up to 24 hours, if the firewood is good, or otherwise you’d be cooking for 48 hours.”
Once cooked, salt is taken off the fire and transferred into another pot. Drabs of water are added again at this point, put on the fire and stirred further until completely dry.
The pot is removed from the fire and put out in the sun for a day or two so that the salt will complete its drying. The sunlight will further bleach the salt and make it turn white.
The salt is then put into moulds and allowed to stand and dry further. Then the moulds are removed before solid salt blocks are wrapped in aluminium foil to preserve moisture.
Lastly, special baskets using the stripped inside parts of young mangrove aerial roots (tiri) are woven to store the salt.
In the olden days, salt baskets would be hung above the fireplace to help preserve it. They were taken down, scraped roughly to remove soot and then the white crystals were collected for cooking before the basket is put back.
Salt and mangrove plants seem to have a mutual relationship.
The people of Lomawai believe that without their mangroves, they cannot produce salt, because they function as a filter for saltwater coming from the sea.
Also, without the protection of mangroves, Lomawai salt production would be halted.
The mangrove area is considered to be of ecological importance as well as a natural protection for the effects of climate change.
Preparing salt has no taboos except that women are supposed to be in a happy and positive mood.
“A woman who cooks salt needs to have good virtues,” Butani said.
“If you hate someone or have negative thoughts, salt won’t form.
To ensure that the knowledge and skills in traditional salt production is transferred to the younger generation, teenage girls learn about salt making once they turn 14.
“As an elderly woman, it is my job to teach young girls how to make salt so that our traditional knowledge and skills are not lost,” Butani said.
The women of Lomawai are now happy they have a new salt-cooking house.
Their last workshop, a bure, was damaged during cyclone Yasa.
With the new facility, salt can be cooked during wet weather because has an indoor stove. Cooked salt can also be stored safely.
There are moves to refine Lomawai’s salt production processes and packaging so that the women of the village may get the government’s stamp of approval in the form of the “Fijian Made” brand.
They believe this will take their salt-making initiative to new heights.
“We would love to have the Fijian Made brand eventually. It would be everything we could ever dream of,” said Butani.
Fiji Arts Council director, Peni Cavulagi, said by capitalising on the tradition of solesolevaki, the villagers of Lomawai could achieve commercial success and further uplift the living standard of their families and community.
Lomawai’s new cooking house has been possible through stimulus grants made available through Phase II of the OACP-EU Development Minerals Programme implemented by the UNDP with the partnership of the Fiji Arts Council.
The program promotes business continuity of artisanal and small micro-enterprises as well as enhancing health and safety arrangements in the workplaces of ASME’s, (Artisanal Small-Scale Micro Enterprise) in the COVID-19 context.
It has a strong focus on promoting gender equality, with the two artisanal groups engaging a significant number of women to be able to practice their craft, earn an income, and promote community and social cohesion.
The support also ensures that the men and women work in a safe and hygienic work environment, can use proper technology and equipment, and the burden of physical labour is reduced.
In addition, the artisanal groups can have their unique branding using their traditional motifs, trademarked, together with the Made in Fiji logo as quality assurance.
The Fiji Arts Council mobilised resources from Government, through the Ministry of Education, Heritage, and Arts, to ensure that the support to the artisanal groups were facilitated fully.
Mr Cavulagi said the program not only earned the women of Lomawai income, but it also helped them revive important aspects of their culture and traditions.
“The people of Nalolo, in the village of Lomawai, have been traditionally using masima (salt) which as a product is not only their cultural property but their source of income.”
“The role of women in the village, therefore, is important. They are agents of change and through this them, the community makes use of their talents.”
Mr Cavulevu said unity, respect and cooperation were crucial values women of Nalolo could tap into to make their small business venture a success.
“Salt making is their identity. It is a cultural property passed from generation to generation. They can use it to produce income or make a living but they need to protect it and do it together in a co-ordinated way, with love and respect of each other”.
History being the subject it is, a group’s version of events may not be the same as that held by another group. When publishing one account, it is not our intention to cause division or to disrespect other oral traditions. Those with a different version can contact us so we can publish your account of history too — Editor.
