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Fiji@50 Fiji@50

1973 for his work in The Gingerbread Lady. In 1978, Rasigatale
was instrumental in the establishment of the cultural centre
at Pacific Harbour; he was its chief performer, choreographer
and director. Rasigatale’s troupe became the face of Fiji’s
budding tourism sector unwittingly shifting meke as a form of
traditional performance art (integral to storytelling, the com-
memoration of important events and paying tribute to histori-
cal figures as would’ve been received from the gods through
the daunivucu or composer) to tourism entertainment. Dance
remains a critical feature of Fiji’s tourism industry, through
the work of companies such as Vou and Rako.
Local fashion references in the national archives began in
the late 1950s and the 1960s, around the Hibiscus Festival,
which started in 1956. This era was heavily influenced by the
concept of debutant and colonial era style. Fabric art was
huge in 1970s as embodied by Tiki Togs by Cherie Whiteside,
who was the first to hand-print materials, representing masi Semisi Maya next to one of his creations_from the Dennis Wheatley Museum (Left)
motifs. The Hibiscus Festival marks the first time Fijians and a model wears modern suluvakataga at the recent Wearing Fiji event .
walked the runaway in haute couture. In 1957, Penelope
Kakali Verebasaga (nee Qiolevu) is believed to be the first led to the era of Laisa Vulakoro and Seru Serevi’s vude tunes.
to wear a gown created from masi. From the grand balls at Fiji has a rich repository of original songs. Iliesa Baravilala, a
the Great Pacific Hotel to the baby shows on the peripherals former teacher who wrote poetry for the Fiji School Journal
of the festival, it was undoubtedly a time when women and in the late 1960s, started adding music to the 400 poems he’d
men channelled their fashion alta-egos and Fiji emerged as a written, most of which became local hits. He was awarded a
glamorous location for fashion shoots. Ratu Sukuna was the Medal of the Order of Fiji in 2017 for his contribution to our
first to wear a suluvakataga when he was knighted in 1946. music repertoire and mentorship for performers who are now
When Ratu George Kadavulevu Cakobau travelled with his big names in the business, including Jimmy Subhaydas, Lagani
wife Adi Lelea to London for his knighthood ceremony, they Rabukawaqa, Mereani Bogidrau, Mili Vosailagi, Georgina
presented the classic isuluvakataga and sulu-i-ra combina- Ledua, Akata Taulawa, Jale Mareau and Simi Rova.
tion to the world, while our national airline crew uniforms Can we afford to lose the arts?
have represented Fijian style for six decades. In 1991, Adi Conversations and records for this brief reflection indicate
Litia Mara walked down the isle to wed Henry Dugdale in a that we have not cared as much as we should have for our
Western-style dress created from indigenous materials grown creative agency. There are milestones to be celebrated but
in Vanua Balavu. The neckline featured sisi and pearl flowers we also need a serious and collective rethink of how to break
symbolising her island home of Tubou (Lakeba in Lau) and the this state of reverie, or we risk losing fundamental compo-
bustle was created from finely-beaten seavu-like barkcloth, nents that make us a people. Our creative industry is at the
while the main parts of the gown were made from heavier brink of collapse by governing systems that are failing, and
masi. The dress was Adi Litia’s vision, realised by New Zealand which may have inadvertently led to the fragmentation cur-
designer Annie Bonza, and has influenced wedding gowns in rently experienced. Further complicated by COVID-19, the
Fiji and for Fijians around the world to this day. artisans who are surviving are able to do so because they have
Fiji’s music scene in the early 1960s was a dynamic, multi- strong leaders who aren’t afraid to try new approaches – the
lingual, multi-genre space. For the Indian diaspora, the con- VOU dance company and the recent Wearing Fiji project
ceptualisation and performance of music shaped a sub-culture are in intense survival mode, seeking out new partnerships
that provided a unique cohesive thread around a settlement and opportunities. We may have a chance at protecting our
identity. As academic Kevin Miller writes, many of the inden- organic, traditional music and dance, but we need to reach
tured labourers who decided to stay in Fiji were illiterate out to the practitioners before that knowledge is lost. The
so the oral performance of scriptures and stories, songs that rural memory of our sugarcane farming homesteads and the
recorded history and lamenting the injustices they’d been critical role of faag mandali must be visited. There is a pro-
served, was crucial for the maintenance and transmission of liferation of performance spaces, there is hope in initiatives
Indo-Fijian culture. The composition of Fijian classics simi- like the Poetry Shop and organic exhibitions, however there
larly maintained the story telling and history-recording roles. is a strengthening lullaby that pandering to the popular and
Sakiusa Bulicokocoko changed the way iTaukei music was the monetisation of art may kill creative spaces. Our action
played. Born in either 1950 or 1951, Bulicokocoko broke the in the next decade will determine the future of our creative
rules both structurally and lyrically. He was playful and was industries or we risk losing the soul of our kinship.
almost boisterous in his application of rhythm and beats, ad-
libbing at random, ushering in a genre of iTaukei music that editor@islandsbusiness.com

Islands Business, September/October 2020 33