 | This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(October 2019) |
Namalata is a village and island in Fiji. It is located in the southern portion of the Vanua Balavu island group, part of Fiji's Lau Islands. The village is a constituent of the larger Lomaloma village.
The people of Namalata descend from the original inhabitants of Mago Island, who were displaced in the nineteenth century.
The Chief of Namalata Village is the Tui Mago.
In the mid-19th century, Fiji's two dominant chiefs at the time, the Vunivalu of Bau (Seru Epenisa Cakobau) and the Tui Cakau were threatened by the Tongan warlord, Enele Ma'afu. They sought the help of the Namalata people while Ma'afu was in Lomaloma, on Vanua Balavu, as they could provide information on his movements.
The island of Mago was then given to Europeans in order to slow Ma'afu's advancement into Fiji, as the threat of retaliation from their respective homelands deterred him from attacking Europeans. When Fiji was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1874, those occupying the island were registered as the rightful owners, thus dispossessing the Namalata people. Mago Island is now owned by actor and film director Mel Gibson.
Laisenia Qarase was a Fijian politician. He served as the sixth Prime Minister of Fiji from 2000 to 2006. After the military quashed the coup that led to the removal of Mahendra Chaudhry, Qarase joined the Interim Military Government as a financial adviser on 9 June 2000, until his appointment as Prime Minister on 4 July. He won two parliamentary elections, but a military coup removed him from power on 5 December 2006. He was later imprisoned on corruption charges brought by the military-backed regime.
Mago Island is a volcanic island that lies in the northwest sector of Fiji's northern Lau Group of islands. One of the largest private islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the pristine island consists of 22 square kilometres (8.5 sq mi) of land. The island is privately owned by actor/director Mel Gibson.
Tovata is one of three confederacies comprising the Fijian House of Chiefs, to which all of Fiji's chiefs belong.
The first three-quarters of the 19th century were marked by tribal warfare, incursions from neighbouring Tonga, and the increasing encroachment of foreign powers. This period also saw the rise of a warlord by the name of Seru Epenisa Cakobau, who forged the first nation-state covering all of modern Fiji in 1871, before ceding it to the United Kingdom in 1874.
ʻEnele Maʻafuʻotuʻitonga, commonly known as Maʻafu, was a Pacific islander who held important titles in two countries in the Pacific. He was a traditional Tongan Prince and a Fijian chief nominated and installed by the Tovata chiefs of Lakeba and Vanua Balavu as 'Tui Lau' in 1869. This title was ratified by a wider council of Fijian chiefs and subsequently formalised under British colonial administration. In 1847, Maʻafu went to Fiji in an expedition to Vanua Balavu to investigate the killing of a preacher.
Taveuni is the third-largest island in Fiji, after Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, with a total land area of 434 square kilometres. The cigar-shaped island, a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, is situated 6.5 kilometres to the east of Vanua Levu, across the Somosomo Strait. It belongs to the Vanua Levu Group of islands and is part of Fiji's Cakaudrove Province within the Northern Division.
The Lau Islands of Fiji are situated in the southern Pacific Ocean, just east of the Koro Sea. Of this chain of about sixty islands and islets, about thirty are inhabited. The Lau Group covers a land area of 188 square miles, and had a population of 10,683 at the most recent census in 2007. While most of the northern Lau Group are high islands of volcanic origin, those of the south are mostly carbonate low islands.
Bau is a small island in Fiji, off the east coast of the main island of Viti Levu. Bau rose to prominence in the mid-1800s and became Fiji's dominant power; until its cession to Britain, it has maintained its influence in politics and leadership right through to modern Fiji.
Kanacea (Kanathea) is a volcanic island with seven peaks in Fiji's Lau archipelago. It is 15 km west of Vanua Balavu. Covering an area of 12.48 square kilometres, it has a maximum elevation of 259 meters.
Vanua Balavu is the third largest island in Fiji's Lau archipelago, and the main island of the Northern Lau Group.
Lomaloma is a village at the south of the island of Vanua Balavu in the Lau archipelago of Fiji. The settlement is part of the tribal district of Tikina, Lomaloma and consists of 9 villages, 13 Yavusa (tribes), 42 Mataqali (clans), and 54 family units known as Tokatoka. The nine villages of Lomaloma Tikina are Lomaloma, Sawana, Susui, Narocivo, Namalata, Uruone, Levukana, Dakuilomaloma, and Tuvuca.
Roko Taliai Tupou (17??-1875) was a Fijian nobleman. He is considered to be the progenitor of the noble household Vatuwaqa in the chiefly Vuanirewa clan and as such, was the first member of this noble household to hold the title Tui Nayau. His reign marked the growth of Christianity in Lau and the slow expansion of Tongan ambitions in Fiji, led by Enele Ma'afu. As this period marked increasing contact with Europeans, records from this point forward in regard to the history of Lau are well documented.
Tuvuca is a small island off Vanua Balavu in Fiji's Lau archipelago, it is a densely wooded and inhabited island and rises 800 feet above sea level at the highest point. There is only one village on the island. Tuvuca has untapped deposits of phosphate.
Sawana is a village on the Fijian island of Vanua Balavu, in the Lau archipelago and is part of the Tikina of Lomaloma.
The history of the Jews in Fiji is intertwined with the settlement of the Fiji islands by European explorers and settlers. Most of these settlers arrive in Fiji via Australia and New Zealand.
Sau Mai Kedekede now more commonly referred to as Sau ni Vanua ko Lau is one of the preeminent titles held by the Paramount Chief of the Lau Islands in Fiji.
Turaga na Rasau is a traditional Fijian chiefly title of the Lau Islands. Prior to Fiji's colonial days, Fiji had many different Vanua with their own Paramount Chieftain which exercised no authority over the other; a saying from the island of Kadavu aptly summarises it "Nomu Turaga o sega na noqu Turaga" or "Your Chief is not my Chief" also the people of Beqa Island were of a similar opinion saying "Qali Cuva Ki Lagi" or "Subject only to heaven" and would bow to no outside Chieftain, but at the turn of the 20th century aspects of the traditional social structure remained, but for administrative purposes three main Matanitu were solidified and formed as they were the dominant consolidated powers at the time being that of Kubuna, Burebasaga and Tovata. With regard to the Rasau while its traditional origins were in Kubuna on Bau the titles traditional authority in modern Fiji is now in Tovata, Lau in particular Lomaloma Tikina on the Island of Vanua Balavu.
The Turaga na Ravunisa is a Fijian Chiefly title of the Lau Islands, in particular the village of Lomaloma on the Island of Vanua Balavu.
Verata is a Tikina in Fiji's Tailevu Province. It is made up of several sub-districts or Tikina makawa, namely: Verata, Namalata, Tai, Vugalei, and Taivugalei.
Charles Walker, CMG is a retired civil servant and Alliance Party politician and former diplomat of Fiji.
Coordinates: 17°20′10″S178°59′05″W / 17.33611°S 178.98472°W