A decades-long silence on Bau Island was broken yesterday when the Tunitoga clan formally welcomed Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba in a series of traditional rites marking his first official arrival as the Tui Nayau. The Vuvale o Vunivau of the Tunitoga clan performed an ivakamamaca — ancestral protocols used to recognise and settle visiting chiefs — in a ceremony described by elders as historically significant for ties between Lau and the chiefly foundations of Bau.
Ratu Tevita, who holds the titles Turaga na Tui Nayau, Na Sau ni Vanua o Lau and Na Tui Lau, was presented with the vakamamaca by members of the Tunitoga household. “The vakamamaca that was presented today serves Ratu Tevita, as his first visit as the Tui Nayau,” Ratu Peni Kelly Komaitai of the Tunitoga clan said, stressing that the ancient rites were essential to formalise the visit and affirm customary relationships between the two centres of chiefly authority.
Jackson Cakacaka, also of the Tunitoga clan, said the moment had been long anticipated. “It has been a long time since we’ve been blessed with your presences,” he told the visiting delegation, noting that the household had waited many years for this reunion. The last Tui Nayau to make an official visit to Bau was the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, underscoring the rarity and weight of yesterday’s observance.
Following the ivakamamaca, the visiting delegation was honoured with a qaloqalovi at the Naulunivuaka, a ceremonial reception that traditionally follows formal welcomes on the island. Sources said the sequence of events was designed to ensure the Tui Nayau was traditionally welcomed and settled on Bau before he took part in funeral observances for the late Na Turaga Na Taukei Naisogolaca.
The burial at the sautabu, which the delegation was due to attend, forms the next step in the customary obligations that brought Ratu Tevita to Bau. Elders and chiefs from the Tunitoga clan framed the visit as reinforcing a long-standing cultural bond between the Lau islands and Bau’s chiefly institutions, ties that carry social and ceremonial importance across Fiji’s traditional leadership structures.
Local observers described the ceremonies as more than ritual pageantry: they reaffirmed lineage ties, mutual obligations and the continuing relevance of customary protocol in contemporary chiefly interactions. For the Tunitoga clan and their guests from Lau, yesterday’s ivakamamaca ended a period of absence from Bau’s public ceremonial life and set the tone for the Tui Nayau’s role in upcoming rites and responsibilities.
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