Taukei Ni Waluvu - Nairukuruku - Totemism, Christianity and Political Ascendancy

Totemism, Christianity and Political Ascendancy

The picturesque village of Nairukuruku, home of the Taukei ni Waluvu in the district of Matailobau, was inhabited around 1872.That year fighting had broken out between the converted Matailobau tribes and the tevoro Lomai Colo tribes causing this re-location from Navaulele. "Nairukuruku" - translated means - "an entrance", probably due to its strategic location into the highlands by river and by land. Moreover, the entry and spread of Christianity into the eastern highlands of Viti Levu from this village is well documented. A contending interpretation of the word "rukuruku" is taken from the native indigenous Naga religious cult with that of bygone ceremonies. The cult of Visina corresponded with that of Baal and Rukuruku with Ashtoreth, the ancient deities signifying the creative and the productive powers of nature - e.g. ruku (the feminine) and sina (native spear grass) the masculine symbol. Thus the name Nairukuruku has a relationship and significance to the clans creative totemic symbols towards the feminine fertility.

Image:Nairukuruku Village in foreground, on Christmas Day 1875. Looking south-west from Taulevu ridge with Wainimala river flowing from right to left. Highest feature is Nariko peak in left farground. Other features shown are Nacau and Ulira peaks in right mid-ground. Established a few years earlier after re-locating from Navaulele, the village is surrounded by a dry moat. The large bure within the village is the church. Notably two homesteads outside the village to the west are that of the native minister and Ratu Viliame Batiratu's residence by the river named yavu- ni-turaga levu. Artist: Constance Gordon-Cumming (1837–1924).Today, with a population of 300, five mataqali’s or clans reside together in Nairukuruku village. They are namely: Siko Natabutale (chiefly clan), Nawaita (warriors), Nabubuco (chief’s elders), Nakorowaqa (heralds), and Navitilevu (warriors).

The chiefly clan's totemic plant and animal, the Vico - native spear grass and the Vo loa - black mud fish is the living heathen symbols to the tribes masculinity and warrior class. Traditionally the Yavusa Siko is bati and protectors of the feminine totemic tribes representing fertility such as the Waimaro clan of the eastern highlands. The Siko Natabutale clan's treasured feminine Radiniwaimaro statuette in Taulevu village attests to this.

Deed of Cession Commissioner Commodore G. J. Goodenough and Reverend Frederick Langham also visited Nairukuruku on 21–22 January 1874 which was then the foremost Christianized village in the upper Wainimala river of Colo East. At Nairukuruku Goodenough makes a proclamation prohibiting white settlers the use of native Fijians especially the belligerent 'Kai Colos' as plantation slave labour. According to Siko Natabutale clan history Ratu Viliame Batiratu representing his uncle the Taukei ni Waluvu, Ratu Meli Davetanivalu who was frail, was part of the Vunivalu of Bau, Ratu Seru Cakobau’s entourage to Levuka Ovalau for cession on 10 October 1874. As a village loyal to the new religion of Christianity and later central government, Nairukuruku was a potential target for attack by non-Christian neighbours resisting Cakobau's interference in their affairs. Nairukuruku became known as ‘na Bau ni Colo’ or ‘the Bau (island) of the highlands’ due to its rise as the seat of political power. It became the call centre for all Colonial visitors into the eastern highlands of Viti Levu.

The first European females to visit Nairukuruku and indeed the highlands were writer Constance Gordon-Cumming and Reverend Fredrick Langham's wife Ann Elizabeth, who had accompanied the minister to the Christian enclave village where they spent Christmas in 1875. Ms Gordon-Cumming mused, “indeed we are the first specimens of the race whom they have seen!” During her three day Christmas stay at Nairukuruku she also captures in her annals, a mass Christian marriage ceremony, a mass native school examination and native life in general that was coming into contact with western civilization. Her water-colour painting of Nairukuruku village and its spectacular surrounds on Christmas Day 1875 is a rare depiction of Viti Levu's eastern highlands landscape.