Historical Background

	Viti Levu								Vanua Levu
	Fiji is known in the Fijian language as Viti. It is a nation composed of roughly 300 islands, located just south of the equator and just west of the International Dateline. The two major islands of the Fiji group are Viti Levu, the largest island with 70% of the population; and, to the northeast Vanua Levu, the second-largest island, which is the location of the proposed cultural center and retreat. To the southeast of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, the majority of Fiji's other islands are scattered over 500,000 sq. km. of ocean.						The original homelands of the Pacific Island peoples were Melanesia and Southeast Asia. The people who were to populate Fiji had adopted sail and outrigger canoes, methods of cultivating root crops, and pig farming. Fiji was settled in three different waves. The earliest wave dates from about 1600 BC. The second wave occured from 400 to 100 BC. According to archaeological evidence (mostly pottery), these early settlers appear to have practiced agriculture, raised pigs and poultry, and fished. The final settlement of Fiji (100 to 1800AD) was a massive movement from Melanesia.
		Ancient Tui fortified compound
	This wave of people practiced a sophisticated form of terraced agriculture, which helped support a large population that may have risen to 200,000. People grew yams and taro, raised poultry, fished and evolved a highly developed culture. As evidenced by their advanced form of agriculture, the pre-contact Fijian islanders were a highly evolved, stratified society, interlocked and interdependent through trade. Different clans were responsible for various crafts or activities such as pottery-making, mat-weaving, canoe-building and salt production. These items were bartered throughout the Fiji group of islands and even as far away as Tonga. Women worked hard and aged early. Men did intermittent hard jobs such as breaking in land for crops. They also performed occasional duties like warfare, house building, and ceremonial lovo cooking in large underground ovens. Fijian society was dominated by a complicated class system. Chiefs often had tremendous personal power,							which was expressed in demand for tribute from conquered tribes and in many bloody human sacrifices. Each "tribe" was broken into several clans, each with its own function in society. Leadership in the tribal units was strictly hereditary and succession often a subject of debate. Rank was inherited through both parents, and in a polygamous society this could be very confusing. A chief might have five different sons from five different wives, each with a different political status. To complicate matters even more, rank could be inherited from one's mother's brothers before it passed on to sons. There might be a number of individuals qualified as chiefly candidates, but those who became chiefs had to stand out from the group. During the reign of Chief Cakobau, a central figure for nearly half of a century and the most influential chief in recorded Fijian history, much of Fiji became politically consolidated and was eventually ceded to Britain. On October 10, 1874 Fiji became a crown colony.
		Fijians greeting European explorers
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