Fiji Language Week

Ni Sa Bula Vinaka!

Sunday 8 – Saturday 14 October is Macawa ni Vosa Vakaviti, Fijian Language Week.

To celebrate, we've brought together video interviews with Fijian artists, fascinating blogs, a gallery of Fijian items from our Natural History and Documentary Heritage collections, a colouring-in sheet, and more.

_{Header image: Davui (trumpet shell) with a small hole cut out to produce sound; AWMM 3998. Photographed by Jennifer Carol.}

Join us for onsite celebrations

You're invited to join us for two free performances at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum

FREE PERFORMANCES

Celebrate Fiji Language Week

PAST EVENT

Join the young performers from Mana Performing Arts (School of Fijian Language, Dance and Culture) as they showcase their love for and connection to their language and heritage.

The group will first display and narrate their personal stories and relationships with artefacts belonging to their community. This will be led by Mana Performing Arts group leader and knowledge holder Alipate Traill, who will introduce the whakapapa of the taonga.

This display will then be followed by a performance that will feature a sequence of short dances and songs recalling the legends of their rich Fijian heritage and culture.

Performances like these help to nurture, preserve and sustain the Fijian language by carrying it into the future through the younger generations who will speak, dance and celebrate it.

Community Drop-in

PAST EVENT

Come admire a selection of Fijian textile and fibre treasures from our collection at our special Fijian community drop-in on Wednesday 11 October. Interact with these cherished taonga and learn more about Fijian material culture during these intimate sessions between 1.30PM- 6.30PM. Sessions are limited to 8 people and must be booked in advance.

Click the link below to find out more about Te Aho Mutunga Kore.

TE AHO MUTUNGA KORE

Niu Ulu Cavu. Headdress made of coconut shell and husk. Cautata, Tailevu, Fiji. Collection of Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, 24352.

Mareqeti ni iyau maroroi ni matavuvale kei na tamata yadua

If you would prefer to access this information in another language, click here to see the other options.

Na iyau maroroi ni matavuvale e tiki ni noda itukutuku makawa. Eda na kilai keda ka rawa ni da kila se o cei o keda kei na vanua eda lako mai kina. Na iyau maroroi e rawa ni okati kina na itaba, itaba era maroroi vata tu, ivola, kei na ivola bibi eso. Na kena qaravi ka maroroi na iyau ni neitou matavuvale e rawa ni vakatautaka na balavu ni kena tiko. Na idusidusi oqo ena vukei iko mo maroroya na nomu iyau maroroi ni matavuvale me baleti ira na itabatamata mai muri.

LEARN MORE

_{E dua na itaba makawa mai na Pacific Islands Education Resource Centre (PIERC) akaivi vata kei na imatai ni Dairekita ni PIERC, Le Mamea Taulapapa Sefulu Ioane rauta na 1970s,}

Our people

Learn how our Museum whānau celebrate their heritage in their work

Visitor Host

Fredrick William Hennings

Bula! My name is Fredrick William Hennings and I am a visitor host at the Auckland Museum. The opportunity to purposely serve and thoroughly learn more about my Pacifica community whilst being in the Museum is something that I will be grateful for.

I am Fijian with paternal and maternal links to the district of Wainikeli on the Garden Island of Fiji called Taveuni.

My favourite taonga is the Bouma Masi (tapa cloth) displayed in the Museum at the Pacific Lifeways. This was made in my home island by my relatives.

Vosa vakaviti is very important to me as it gives me a sense of belonging and identity. With the dominance of western culture in our everyday lives including education, vosa vakaviti re-engages me to my roots.

My favourite memory of a Fijian custom is the “Sevusevu”. This entails the presentation of the kava root (waka) to the chief of a village seeking his permission to set foot in his village and also to seek prior forgiveness should any of the visitors misbehaves. This custom embraces the principle of respect, acknowledgement of boundaries, gratitude and kindness.

Associate Curator, Human History, Pacific

Juliana Satchell-Deo

As we move into Macawa ni vosa Vakaviti, Fiji Language Week, I want to celebrate the strength, courage and determination of the beautiful people of Fiji as they continue to work through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The theme for this year's Macawa ni vosa Vakaviti is Noqu Vosa, Ai Vakadei ni Noqu Tiko Vinaka; My language provides stability to my wellbeing. As I think of how language provides stability to an individual’s wellbeing I am drawn to the intersections of home, memory, identity and veilomani: "the act of loving one another".

Since the COVID-19 pandemic closed borders, I have not been able to return home and be with my family and this has impacted on my wellbeing. Fiji is home. Fiji is where I go to ground myself, recover and connect with language and place - it is my wellbeing. I miss Fiji. I miss the embrace of catching up with cousins in Nadi before the drive from Nadi to Suva. I miss stopping in Sigatoka for a break and then taking the Korotogo back road so I can see our old house and remember all our beautiful neighbours and friends. Throughout the drive I am surprised by all the changes along the way and yet I am in love with what remains unchanged. My heart would race as we approach Veisari, and I would remember swimming at Bamboo, and I knew we are so close to home. I miss the feeling of anticipation as we would reach Lami Town and then go up Nasevou Street - my eyes would fill with tears as my mother would hold me and I would miss my beloved father even more.

The time spent in Fiji would be a celebration of language and wellbeing and especially veilomani, the spaces would be filled with family and friends; with meaningful talanoa between my mother and sisters and all the vakaji from my brother.

I am so grateful for the Fiji family and friends we have in Aotearoa and how they convey veilomani through language and sharing spaces where all our wellbeing is nurtured.

I want to pray for all of Fiji as they move through this ongoing crisis and Loloma levu to all our Fijian families in Aotearoa. I wish you all a blessed Fiji Language Week. I hope you all celebrate the value of language and how it provides stability to your wellbeing.

Vinaka vaka levu sara.

Long reads

Have a moment to spare? Take a deep dive into some of our stories

BLOG

A taste of iTaukei plants

We all enjoy the bounty of botany everyday – perhaps without even realising it – in the form of our 5+ a day.

While working on a research project in Fiji, Ricky-Lee Erickson and Yumiko Baba of our Natural Science team encountered a rich botanical diversity in a range of delicious forms.

Read on to discover Fijian botany at its most flavourful.

Read blog

CENOTAPH STORIES

Ben Peckham: The Advocate

Ben Peckham served in the New Zealand Army from 1990 until 1997 including service in Bosnia. In this interview we consider his life before, during and after service. Ben's experience has made him a passionate advocate in the veteran support space. He believes the incredible wrap-around support he received during some of his hardest times should be the default experience for other personnel.

Read blog

BLOG

The mystery of the masi broadsheets

Manufactured from bark-cloth (masi) and carefully fringed at the edges, two issues of the Fiji Times dating to 1908 and 1909 presented more questions than answers when they first arrived at the Museum.

Newspapers across the Pacific have never been printed on barkcloth, so what led to these particular papers being printed on such a material?

Read blog

From the collection

Get to know some of our taonga

FROM THE COLLECTION

Davui

This davui (Charonia tritonis) has a small hole cut into the shell towards the tip which when blown into, produces a loud call that carries over distance.

Used for signalling and on important occasions, the davui generally produces a single note. One variety of davui which are associated with western Viti Levu, have a blowing hole cut into the end of the shell instead of the side and have a small finger hole bored near the mouth of the shell allowing a variation in pitch.

Acquired in 1929, this davui was part of the Edge-Partington collection.

_{Image: Davui (trumpet shell) with a small hole cut out to produce sound; AWMM 3998. Photographed by Jennifer Carol.}

Learn more

Specimens from Fiji

Here you can explore a small selection of the specimens, and click through to explore even more of the collection.

Bryozoa

Bryozoans are colonial invertebrates and while this specimen might look like algae, it’s actually an animal and made up of many tiny zooids.
^{AWMM MA167444}

Menimus clarkei

This beetle specimen is the Holotype, or name-bearer, that carries the scientific name of this species.
^{Type specimen: AMNZ21831}

Cone shells

Cone shells are predatory marine sea snails that are venomous – the Marbled Cone (Conus marmoreus) was the first species of cone shell to be described by Linneaus in 1758.
_{AWMM MA124583}

Orange fruit dove

The Orange fruit dove (Ptilinopus victor) is a stunning orange and green dove which is only found (endemic) in the Fijian forests of Vanua Levu, Taveuni, Rabi, Kioa, Qamea and Laucala.
^{AWMM LB6559}

Masiratu

Masiratu (Degeneria vitiensis): there are only two species in this genus and family both only found in the forests of Fiji.
^{AWMM AK121546}

Do you know how to say "no worries" in Fijian?

Booking and Sales Co-ordinator Vasiti Tupou is here to teach you a few phrases in Fijian.

COLOURING-IN SHEET

Colour in the plants and patterns of Fiji

Try your hand at this colouring-in page that features patterns from Fiji as well as the iconic masiratu (which you can learn more about in this blog).

Download now

Visit the archive

There's more to see in the Macawa ni Vosa Vakaviti archive

More to see

Visit our archive of Fijian Language Week content from previous years.

Visit the archive

Image: Cone shells (Conus marmoreus), MA124583.