Lasakau Sea Warriors - Bau History and Ethnology

Bau History and Ethnology

The importance of Bauan history to pre-colonial Fiji has often been emphasised by scholars. In tracing its ascendency, Scarr succinctly posits, "The rise of Bau was rapid, and was due partly to the natural ability of her chiefs, and partly to the advantages gained from the first use of firearms. The Bau chiefs claimed descent from certain elements of the Fijian mythical Nakauvadra mountain range migration. Whom, having come to Verata, divided and wandered widely; in the final stage of their wanderings they settled, in comparatively recent times, on the coast near their present island, then named Ulu-ni-vuaka (The Pig's Head)."The Kubuna people on Bau (Ulu-ni-vuaka) island became embroiled in a struggle for power involving their chiefs that subsequently involved other tribal kingdoms of Fiji. The relationship between the Roko Tui Bau as sacred King and the Vunivalu Tui Kaba as his warlord hence underwent a role inversion in the early nineteenth century.

Originally Bau island was occupied by the Butoni, a predatory tribe of sailors and traders. About 1760, the Bau chief Nailatikau seized Ulu-ni-vuaka and expelled the Butoni, who thenceforth were rovers, wandering to many parts of the Group establishing settlements at Lakeba and Somosomo. The Butoni however, continued to owe a degree of allegiance to their conquerors, and their canoes were always at the disposal of the chiefs of Bau for the transport of property and warriors.

The Vunivalu of Bau, Nailatikau was succeeded by Banuve, who, during a period of nearly thirty years, consolidated the young state's position and carried out an ambitious scheme of improvements to the island. He reclaimed wide areas of the adjacent reef flats, and built stone canoe-docks and sea-walls as a protection against erosion. To provide manual labour, he allowed fishermen from Beqa and craftsmen from Kadavu to settle on the island in the areas known as Lasakau and Soso.

The Lasakau people of the Yavusa Nabou clan trace their roots to Delailasakau Naitasiri and the Nakauvadra ranges foothills where their original ancestral home or yavutu was located. The clan re-located to Bau from Beqa Island on the invitation of the Vunivalu Ratu Banuve. This was after the banishment of the Levuka and Butoni people from Bau around the 1760s. A branch of the Lasakau clan from Beqa headed South to Yale, Kadavu Island. In addition an earlier migration of the Lasakau clan had also journeyed from Nakauvadra to Wainibuka with the Rokotuibau and on to Kubuna at Tai ko Bau with the Butoni and Levuka clans.

The seafaring exploits of Bau's sea warriors, recounted through the lineage of the Lasakau Nabou sub-clan of Mataqalikira and in particular the two chiefly households of Nacokula and Nadrukuta reflected the Machiavellian and martial mores of the times. Through the chiefs of these two households, Bau's fortunes were intrepidly pursued by the Vunivalu Tui Kaba. Ratu Pope Seniloli the Vunivalu of Bau (1883–1936), in his sworn statement at the Native Lands Commission in 1933 for the Village of Lasakau asserted, Ai tokatoka ka liu ko Nacokula. Sa bula eso na kena kawa. (The leading family is of the household Nacokula. The descendants are alive).Oi rau vata ko Nacokula kei Nadrukuta (Nacokula and Nadrukuta are of the same household). A vale ruarua koya e rau i liuliu ni kai Lasakau kece edaidai ( These two households are the present leaders of the Lasakau people) In his detailed drawing of the Islet of Bau in 1856 Joseph Waterhouse (minister) singles out Cakobau and Lasakau chief Kolivisawaqa II residential site or yavu from all others, signifying their eminence.