Lala Mara - Statue Proposed

Statue Proposed

Adi Lala was succeeded as Roko Tui Dreketi by her younger sister, Ro Teimumu Vuikaba Kepa, who also served as Minister for Education in the Qarase government from 2000 to 2006.

The women's organization Soqosoqo Vakamarama i Taukei announced on 21 July 2005, the day after the first anniversary of Adi Lala's death, that it was setting up a foundation that would help build a statue of the late Adi Lala, who was the founder of the Soqosoqo Vakamarama and its president until her death.

The period of mourning for Adi Lala ended on 20-21 September 2005, with a ceremony at the chiefly village of Cuvu in Nadroga, where her mother was from. Attended by large delegations of chiefs and commoners from the Kubuna and Tovata as well as her own Burebasaga Confederacy, the ceremonies included the presentation of more than two container-loads of gifts including tabua (whales' teeth), masi (tapa cloth), canoes, mats, and lavish quantities of food, and culminated in a feast. Earlier, Ro Epeli Mataitini, the Younger brother of the official Vunivalu (a senior chief) of Rewa, had spoken of the love and respect that Fijians had for Adi Lala. While humans planned their future, he said, God always had the final say in people's lives, which was why it was so important to appreciate and maintain the links that bound Fiji's chiefly clans together. He called on younger Fijians to learn from the older chiefs who, despite political differences, cherished their links to the different tribes that make up the nation.