Page 10 - Islands Business October 2022

Climate Change Climate Change

TILL DEATH DO US PART

VILLAGE HOLDS OUT AGAINST THE WAVES

Walking the Vunisavisavi foreshore.

By Netani Rika people now face a new, slow, insidious invasion which they
cannot hold back. Nature has mounted a two-pronged attack
As the sun sets over Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second largest island, on this coastal village, clawing away at the coastline and
a gong sounds, calling the people to evening prayers. creeping up through the once fertile soil.
Waves crash on the shoreline, inching ever closer to the vil- Research models show that sea levels could rise between
lage and threatening their very existence. eight to 18 centimetres by 2030.
Children quit their games, feet muddied from playing on “Our people moved back to Vunisavisavi from Somosomo
what was once grass, now turned to thick black silt by salt in 1930 on the orders of the [11th] Tui Cakau [Ratu Glanville
water seeping from beneath the soil. Wellington Lalabalavu] who wanted the site to be preserved,’’
This is Vunisavisavi, home to the impressive stone structure Lorima Bulimaitoga told visiting church leaders.
of Lalagavesi and the original seat of the Tui Cakau - overlord “Three men were chosen and we maintain the duty which
of this coast and many of the neighbouring islands. was given to them. We cannot leave. To give up this duty
Today, the Tui Cakau lives at Somosomo on Taveuni, some 28 would be a breach of trust and bring great shame to us and
kilometres away across the sea. our chief.’’
But the people of Vunisavisavi have lived here for close to a Ratu Naiqama - the current title holder - is the great-
century, maintaining a watch over this site which is sacred to grandson of the chief who ordered the resettlement of the
their heritage and that of their lord. village. Under his watch, some villagers have relocated to a
In the 1800s, the first Tui Cakau - Ro Kevu - set forth from hill overlooking the sacred site. Other have moved inland and
this shoreline to conquer Taveuni. The eighth Tui Cakau, Ratu can no longer see the shore.
Goleanavanua, defeated a Tongan invasion forced led by Wa- Less than 10 families remain, stoic in the face of what is
iniqolo in 1862 - a significant moment in Fiji’s history. certain destruction by the ever-advancing waves.
Under the 15th Tui Cakau, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, the “We have heard that some villages such as Vunidogoloa in

10 Islands Business, October 2022