I took a moment, at the Fiji Museum in Suva, on March 16, 2025, to nibble on a familiar-looking cookie. Fiji was ruled by the British for many years, and so our refreshments included little sandwiches, cookies, and fruit, like an English tea.
It was comforting to experience something familiar, when so much of Fiji is strange and exotic.
When David and I visited the main Fiji museum many years ago, it still displayed the spoons that Fijian cannibals used to scoop out human brains and blood. A Fijian PR person must have inspected the museum and decided that would not further the reputation of the country. The museum still showed such oddities as ceremonial hats made of prickly shells and necklaces made from the quills of animals.
As with other islands in the South Seas, there were many real and model boats, showing the way the original settlers of Fiji traveled so far by sea.
Tahiti and Samoa are Polynesia, but Fiji is Melanesia, as are the next islands we visited, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Melanesians are darker than Polynesians, with kinky hair and the look of Africans. Many anthropologists believe that both Melanesians and Polynesians originated in Taiwan, and that Melanesia was settled many thousands of years earlier than Polynesia. Melanesia is closer to the Asian continent than Polynesia
Fiji is a multicultural nation, with prominent businessmen from India, and citizens from other Asian countries, as well. Charles Yee, a friend from our ward in Salt Lake City, grew up in Fiji after his grandfather's attempt to immigrate from China to America fell short. The Fiji Museum included displays on the various ethnic groups making up Fiji, including a collection of the saris and gold jewelry that Indians love.
This soldier, guarding the presidential palace, has his job on the line. Our guide told us that the guards have to stand motionless for hours, and if they faint, they are expelled from the elite police corp guarding the palace.
We peeked through the fence and the trees at the elegant presidential palace on the hill. We also heard how, during one of Fiji's coups, the whole parliament was imprisoned in its building for a month or more, before the government finally subdued the rebels.
Downtown, a Fijian warrior with a club guarded the entrance to the mall. Why do I think that was staged for tourists like me?
As we drove around and about the city, we spied our ship in the harbor.
We also spied the Suva LDS temple. Dave insisted we were close enough, in the bus, to count the temple as one of the ten new LDS temples I try to visit each year.
We also attended the very best song and dance show of any we attended on our cruise. Following the traditional kava ceremony, groups of men and women danced to the beat of drums and their own rich singing..
I bought a couple of necklaces from the shops of the dancers, after the show.
This town was a "show" village, which foreign dignitaries such as Obama have visited. Its singers and dancers seem almost professional. The town may not have been typical, but it was impressive--clean, well-maintained, with talented residents.
Dave was the custodian of my necklaces, and of the coconut candies we bought.
Throughout the South Seas, the men wore the "skirts" that the Tahitians called pareos and other countries called fale.
One last Fijian oddity--rows of above-ground tombs near the housing area. You really could "bury Grandma in the backyard."
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