Page 17 - IB Jan 2018

Indigenous rights Pacific voices ABC makes changes for Advertorial Protect the Pacific’s tuna
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From Page 25
The VKB has been manually recorded
and updated by designated officers since
the first sitting of the Native Lands Com-
mission in the early 1900s. The other
registers are the Evidence Book, the Tribal
Statement known as Tukutuku Raraba,
the First VKB Register, First Demarcation
Register or Yalayala Vakaviti, and the
Register of Native Land and Customary
Fishing Rights. What a physical page of the VKB looks like
Evidence Book register is a collection procurement of ICT goods, services and
of sworn statements from the various works for ITC and government ministries
provinces, Yavusa (clan), Mataqali (tribe) and departments. It also develops the soft-
and iTokatoka (extended family) which ware of different government ministries
recorded statements about their tribal land, and departments in accordance with its
chiefly title, traditional social status and An extract from the Customary Fish- policies and projects.
genealogy or Vola ni Kawa. ing Rights Register. The steering committee also facilitates
The Tribal Statement contains the his- consolidation and centralisation of differ-
tory of migration of indgenous Fijians in ent Fiji government’s ICT requirements,
each provinces and tribes. The First VKB data storage, systems and third party soft-
Register on the other hand holds all the ware licensing by utilising government’s
names of the indigenous people who lived Data Centre.
during the Veitarogivanua (chiefly title
and land boundary tribunal) sitting in the Cleansing Process
various provinces; Since the beginning of this comput-
The First Demarcation Register has the erisation process, Katonitabua said they
sworn statements of Fijian land boundar- grappled with a few teething problems. The
ies in each province and the Register of ministry noted as an example that there
Native land is a record of surveyed native were about 2000 people who were well
land boundaries and their owners in all of above 100 years old. They knew that was
the 14 provinces in Fiji. Its accompanying impossible so they re-checked and verified
customary fishing rights register records An extract from the Tribal Statement register, with the relevant provincial councils.
iqoliqoli or coastal fishing boundaries and or Tukutuku Raraba. “We are working closely with the pro-
their rightful owners. This will go in parallel with the comput- vincial councils to ensure we have accurate
These registers are kept by the Native erisation work being carried out by India’s and correct details.”
(iTaukei) Lands and Fisheries Commis- Yalamanchili Software. Yalamanchili’s local Other challenges include variation in
sion- a statutory body constituted under partner is the Suva based Pacific Technolo- details recorded digitally from manual
the Native Lands Act 1905 and the Fisher- gies Limited. records, missing catalogued members,
ies Act 1941 to decide and settle disputes Pacific Technologies in its website says irregular generation of reports and double
regarding land ownership, fishing rights that in partnership with its technology entries of records. Katonitabua said their
and customary chiefly positions. provider from Yalamanchili Software Ex- cleansing process would not be completed
Given the change in time and the need ports Limited and Systems Solutions Pty overnight. But they would give it their ut-
to move with it, the work on digitising the Ltd of Fiji provides its customers in Fiji most best to ensure that the data presented
VKB started in 2014 mainly to address and the Pacific Islands with the best in were accurate and were the same as the
growing demand and greater accessibil- the ICT knowledge, experience, technical manually recorded registers.
ity. In the past, one would need to travel resources, products, support and services
all the way to the VKB office in the capital to the ICT industry at an affordable price. Archiving old registers
to access their geneaological records. This The company listed Nisar Ali as its man- The iTaukei Affairs permanent secretary
will soon be a thing of the past. aging director. Ali is the Director of the Fiji said old registers would not be discarded
Government’s Information and Technology as these would be kept for those who
Security of Data and Computing Services. The Fijian Gov- wanted to verify their personal and family
Katonitabua said data in the VKB is se- ernment’s Decree 17 of 2013 on Reform history. He said his ministry has its own
cure. He said data is currently being hosted of Information Technology and Computing filing system and they are keeping all the
in a server in the ministry as well as in the Services, announced the establishment of registers. It is also working closely with
Fiji Government’s Information, Technology an ITC steering committee. the National Archives of Fiji to preserve
and Computing Services (ICT) server at the Ali is part of this committee which is Fiji’s tribal records. This includes scientific
Suva suburb of Berkley Crescent. At the headed by the Minister of Communica- archival conservation works on the VKB
same time, the VKB team would continue tions and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed registers so it could be available for a very
to manually record new entries and edit Khaiyum. Apart from overseeing the daily long while.
existing records to ensure accuracy and operations of ITC, one of the many func-
security of information. tions of the steering committee includes r mememarau@gmail.com

Islands Business, January 2018 17