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Yasawa Islands: Village Protocols

Our first night in Naviti was spent at anchor in a bay just east of Somosomo village where there was a beautiful beach. The reefs are everywhere so we maneuvered through the anchorage until we found what we thought was a good spot. At least it was at high tide! Much to our surprise in the morning, we found ourselves relatively close to a reef, but we were still safe with present wind conditions.

We spent most of the day on shore enjoying the beach. There was no snorkeling at low tide, but it was good to stretch the legs with a long beach walk. In fact, it was so shallow that we couldn’t even take the dinghy ashore. We had to anchor it and walk in. We had a little mishap. Apparently, when Dennis got out of the dinghy, the keys must have escaped from his pocket unnoticed until we returned to the boat and couldn’t find them. They were on a floating key ring, but with the wind, tide and current, who knows where they could be!

A group of young people were brought to the reef just off our stern for a snorkeling outing. Stuart and Dennis went back on shore to look for the keys. Sondra and I stayed on the boat. Fortunately, we had left a hatch unlocked so we could climb down and open the companionway from the inside. I decided to flag down one of the boats that had dropped off the kids. We asked them for help looking for the keys. They asked if we would be happy if they found them. Of course, we said. They took off in the boat and soon had another boat involved in the search. They made us very happy when they returned with the keys! We made them very happy when we gave them some money and juice (that’s what they wanted – being a Methodist area, alcohol is not welcomed in their villages). They invited us to visit their village.

Most tourists to Fiji visit the southern islands within Yasawa, while cruisers tend to go further north to get away from the hotels and into more natural and native areas. There is an expectation that if you anchor in the waters off a village for more than one night, you must go ashore with your sevusevu gift of waka and get the chief’s permission to stay. It is okay to stop for an overnight while on a passage without going ashore.

Once you have presented your sevusevu gift to the chief, you welcome to explore the village and talk with the residents. You are usually escorted by a villager – often a young one. In our first experience in the village of Somosomo on the island of Naviti, we were in the care of a young man named Tewa (not sure how he spells it, so this is a phonetic spelling). Tradition states that once ashore, a visitor should ask for the ‘Turanga ni Koro’ who is the appointed village headman. The duties of this person is to greet you and ascertain your intentions before presenting you and your gifts to the chief and village elders.

Tewa greeted us at the shore and seemed to be a very quiet and serious young man. I was scolded for wearing my sunglasses and visor. Hats, sunglasses, backpacks, shoulder bags, bare shoulders and improper dress are a no-no! I knew that – I am just so used to wearing sunglasses and a visor that I don’t even realize I have them on my head! And I was busy trying to get my sula wrapped around me over my shorts so it wouldn’t fall down! The rule is that your head should be bare.

We had to walk across the muddy and grassy reef to get to the village beach so I had been carrying my sula so it wouldn’t get wet. The next mistake I made was talking to a man holding a small child and playing with the child BEFORE going to the chief for permission. Tewa was very upset that we were taking so long getting ourselves organized when we should go to the chief immediately.

Stuart and Sondra, sailing friends from Annapolis, were with us. Stuart has sailed two Caribbean 1500 Rallies with us. It was fun to have them on board for a couple of weeks. Finally, the four of us got ourselves properly wrapped and were escorted to meet the chief. Fortunately, I did remember to remove my shoes before entering the house. This is proper etiquette here. Men are also expected to sit on the floor crossed-leg style, but luckily since my hip doesn’t allow my do sit that way, women are supposed to sit with their feet and knees together and out to one side.

Dennis, as the ship’s captain, represented our little group. The chief in this village is an elderly woman. We understand that her husband had been chief, but he had died. Their oldest son will be chief next. She had us sign the log, pay our token to the community fund ($20 Fijian – a little over $10 USD per person). She was extremely pleased when he handed her $100 for the four of us!

Then she performed the sevusevu ceremony blessing us and granting permission to be part of their village. The sevusevu ceremony is the central component of all life-cycle rituals, social gatherings, healing ceremonies and community meetings. For visitors, it marks the time and place you are accepted into the Fijian village. As visitors, it is expected that you bring at least a half kilo bundle of kava (which is the dried pepper plant from which the drink yaqona, i.e. kava, is made) as you offering for the sevusevu ceremony. We refer to it as kava, but that is the plant. Each island country seems to have a different name for the drink prepared from the kava plant.

In a formal sevusevu ceremony, there are many rituals and the drinking of kava is at the end. Since ours was more informal in the middle of the day, we were not offered kava. That was fine by me because it looks and tastes like dishwater. I learned that kava is the name of the ‘intoxicating pepper plant’ and waka is the more potent lower portion of the plant.


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