From Fiji to Papua: The work of the ‘Vakavuvuli’∗

WHEN THE PRIME MINISTER OF FIJI, RATU SIR KAMISESE MARA, VISITED PAPUA New Guinea in 1974 he laid a wreath at the Fijian martyrs' memorial near Rabaul. The ceremony at the memorial, built to commemorate the deaths of four pioneer Fijian teachers in 1878, attracted widespread notice.1 From a historian's point of view, the graves of teachers scattered along the Papua New Guinea coast?Loyalty Islanders, Niueans, Rarotongans, Samoans, Tongans, Fijians and others?are a reminder that the introduction of 'new ways' in Papua New Guinea was the work, not of white men alone, but of hundreds of Pacific Islands teachers. Many of these teachers were Fijians. Between 1875 and 1935, the teachers' lists from Fiji contained 40 names of those who went to New Britain, 97 who worked in Papua, and 14 who volunteered for the Solomon Islands.2