Rotuma


Rotuma is a self-governing heptarchy, generally designated a dependency of Fiji. Rotuma commonly refers to the Rotuma Island, the only permanently inhabited and by far the largest of all the islands in the Rotuma Group. Officially, the Rotuma Act declares that Rotuma consists of Rotuma Island as well as its neighbouring islands, rocks, and reefs across the entire Rotuma Group. The dependency is situated around 500 km west of the French islands of Wallis and Futuna and a similar distance north of the Fijian mainland. Its capital is Ahau, a hamlet consisting of a number of colonial-era buildings. Rotuma exists as a dependency of Fiji but itself contains its own socioreligious pene-enclave known traditionally as Faguta where the chiefs and their villages adhere to the practices of worship, festival dates, and French-based writing system of the Marists, based at Sumi.
The island group is home to a large and unique Polynesian indigenous ethnic group which constitutes a recognisable minority within the population of Fiji, known as "Rotumans". Its population at the 2017 census was 1,594, although many more Rotumans live on mainland Fijian islands, totaling 10,000.

History

Origins according to oral history

Rotuma was first inhabited according to record by people of Tahiti Nui, Marquesas, and Rapa Nui. At that time, it was known as Siria. Little was known about the exact years of migration from these far Eastern Kingdoms of those times. The only information known was that Rotuma was used by these three Kingdoms as the royal burial ground for the Kings and Queens of Tahiti Nui and Rapa Nui.
Rotuma was known as Siria by the indigenous peoples of Tahiti Nui and Rapa Nui as it was named after the star which lies exactly above the location of the island. Thus, the people of those days prayed to a mythical figure known as Tagaroa Siria. In remembrance of this old royal burial ground, a certain species of seaweed was given as a token of blood ties to remember the old and special bonds between Tahiti Nui and Rotuma. This particular species of seaweed is a delicacy amongst the islands, but it only grows on Tahiti and Rotuma. This seaweed species was said to be given by a Princess of Bora Bora. The princess' name was Teura of Bora Bora, who married the legendary Prince Te-Fatu of Rotuma.
The first foreigner to arrive in Rotuma is sometimes named in oral tradition as Bulou ni Wasa, who arrived with her seven brothers. The name of the canoe that brought her and her family was known as Rogovoka. Her brothers left her on the island and made their way to Fiji. When she disembarked on Rotuma onto a rock which her priests called Vatu Vonu, the rulers of Rotuma are said to have immediately given her the name Tafatemasian, coincidently the same meaning as Adi Rarama ni Wasa. Without meeting her, some say Prince Sarefua and Princess Tefuimena decided that she be installed immediately as the ruler of the island as a gesture of welcome and therefore persuaded her to stay and rule the island.
Later settlers of the islands are believed to have come from Samoa, and were led by a man named Raho. In 1896, the scholar Friedrich Ratzel recorded a Samoan legend about Samoans' relationship to Rotuma:
"Thus the Samoans relate that one of their chiefs fished in the vicinity of Rotuma and then planted coco-palms on the main island. In a later migration the chief Tokaniua came that way with a canoe full of men and quarrelled with the Samoan chief Raho about who had the right of possession."

Rotuman Revolution

While Tongan forces invaded and occupied the island at one point in the 17th century, managing to consolidate their hold over the island and its people, eventually the Rotumans rebelled. According to the Acting-Resident Commissioner of Rotuma W.E. Russell, Rotumans ultimately overthrew their Tongan occupiers in a bloody uprising that took place over a single night.

European contact

's Map is among the most important artifacts to have come from late 18th-century European–Indigenous encounters in the South Pacific region and features, in Epeli Hau‘ofa's terms, a "sea of islands" extending for more than 7,000 km from Rotuma in the west to Rapa Nui in the east and more than 5,000 km from Hawai‘i in the north to New Zealand in the south. The earliest known confirmed European sighting of Rotuma was in 1791, when Captain Edward Edwards and the crew of HMS Pandora landed in search of sailors who had disappeared following the Mutiny on the Bounty. Some scholars have suggested that the first European to sight the island was, instead, Pedro Fernandes de Queirós; his description of an island he sighted is consistent with the characteristics and location of Rotuma. However, this possibility has not been conclusively substantiated.

France, Catholicism, and Coquille

In 1824, French surgeon and naturalist René Lesson arrived in Rotuma onboard the vessel Coquille. Lesson observed that the Rotumans had no awareness of an afterlife; his revelation of such an idea therefore made French Catholicism, the official religion of the state of his employ, the Kingdom of France, the first faith shared with the Rotumans. His catechising would subsequently be formalised and reinforced by French Marists two decades later, most especially in the formerly conjoined chiefdoms of Faguta, Pepjei and Juju, as well as extending into neighbouring districts, especially Itutiu.

Whaling

A favorite of whaling ships in need of reprovisioning, in the mid-nineteenth century Rotuma also became a haven for runaway sailors, some of whom were escaped convicts. Some of these deserters married local women and contributed their genes to an already heterogeneous pool; others met violent ends, reportedly at one another's hands. The first recorded whaleship to visit was the Loper in 1825, and the last known visit was by the Charles W. Morgan in 1894. Rotuma was visited as part of the United States Exploring Expedition in 1840.

Tongan invasion and the Wesleyan agenda

In the 1850s and 1860s, the Tongan prince Ma'afu claimed possession of Rotuma and sent his subordinates to administer the main island and its neighboring islets. Ma'afu had earlier made a serious effort to spread his Wesleyan beliefs to eastern Fiji and the Tongan invasion of Rotuma allowed him to consolidate its hold over a new group, the Rotumans in the north of the island.

Cession to Britain

missionaries from Tonga arrived on Rotuma in June 1841, followed by Catholic Marists in 1847. The Roman Catholic missionaries withdrew in 1853 but returned in 1868. Conflicts between the two groups, fuelled by previous political rivalries among the chiefs of Rotuma's seven districts, resulted in hostilities that led the local chiefs in 1879 to ask Britain to annex the island group. On 13 May 1881, Rotuma was officially ceded to the United Kingdom, when the British flag was hoisted by Hugh Romilly. The event is annually celebrated as Rotuma Day.
In 1881, a group of Rotuman chiefs travelled to Levuka, Ovalau, Fiji, to meet Queen Victoria's official representative to complete the process of cession. A memorial to the seven chiefs and their mission is located in the District of Itutiu. In response to the cession, Queen Victoria bestowed the name of Albert on the paramount chief at the time - Gagaj Vaniak - in honour of her beloved husband, Prince Albert, who had died twenty years before. In June 2017, Pene Saggers met with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and together they spoke about the links between their ancestral lines and the cession of Rotuma.
After Rotuma was ceded to the United Kingdom, it was governed as part of the Colony of Fiji. Rotuma remained with Fiji after Fiji's independence in 1970 and the military coups of 1987.

Geography and geology

The Rotuma group of volcanic islands are located north of Fiji. Rotuma Island itself is long and wide, with a land area of approximately, making it the 12th-largest of the Fiji islands.
The island is bisected by an isthmus into a larger eastern part and a western peninsula. The isthmus is low and narrow, only wide, and is the site of Motusa village. North of the isthmus is Maka Bay, and in the south is Hapmafau Bay. There is a large population of coral reefs in these bays, and there are boat passages through them.
Rotuma is a shield volcano made of alkali-olivine basalt and hawaiite, with many small cones. It reaches above sea level at Mount Suelhof, near the center of the island. Satarua Peak, high, lies near the eastern end of the island. While they are very secluded from much of Fiji proper, the large reef and untouched beaches are renowned as some of the most beautiful in the Republic of Fiji.
There are several islands that lie between and distant from the main island, but are still within the fringing reef. They are:
  • Solnohu
  • Solkope and Sarii
  • Afgaha and Husia Rua
  • Husia and Husiameamea
  • Hạuameamea and Hạua .
There is also a separate chain of islands that lie between and to the northwest and west of Rotuma Island. In order, from northeast to southwest, these are:
  • Uea
  • Hạfhai
  • Hạfhahoi
  • Hạfhaveiaglolo
  • Hatana
  • Hạfliua.
The geological features of this island contribute to its national significance, as outlined in Fiji's Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
Pigs are so widespread in Rotuma their stone enclosures are a prominent feature of the island. Scientists conducting a botanical survey of the island in 2000 even remarked on this:
"Pig rearing, often within elaborate stonewalled pens, is also an integral component of the agricultural system and has been recognized by Rotumans as having a considerable impact."

The Acting-Resident Commissioner of Rotuma, W.E. Russell, dubbed this network of stone pig sty fences the "Great Wall of Rotuma".