Village chiefs in the vanua of Qoibau, on Fiji’s northern island near Labasa, have adopted a traditional ban on women drinking kava as part of a wider code aimed at restoring family discipline and community order. The new customary laws, titled lawa ni Qoibau, were agreed at a meeting in Nakorowiri Village last month and were endorsed by leaders from all four tribes representing the vanua’s eight villages.
The lawa ni Qoibau do more than restrict kava consumption by women. Chiefs say the package of rules is designed to regulate behaviour across the vanua, with measures covering alcohol use, noise levels, dress standards and other community conduct. Clan head Veresa Saudrugu of Vunimoli told the meeting and later media the measures were necessary to address growing social problems that he linked directly to changing drinking patterns.
“There was a reason why women were banned from drinking grog,” Saudrugu said, describing a perceived breakdown in household discipline and care. He alleged that in many homes both parents now attend kava sessions, leaving children unsupervised. “When there is a grog session, children are left at home and no one is keeping an eye on them. The father and mother are both out drinking grog,” he said.
Saudrugu also warned that the practice of women drinking kava had spread among those who had recently married into Vunimoli, contrasting it with what he described as an earlier norm in which village women did not consume grog. “We had raised in a village meeting that no women of Vunimoli used to drink grog. Women who have recently married into the village are the ones drinking. Children have lost their manners as well,” he said, while also acknowledging that responsibility for child-rearing and discipline rests with both parents.
The move reflects local leaders’ efforts to reinforce traditional authority and social expectations amid concerns about youth behaviour and community standards. The lawa ni Qoibau were presented as a collective decision reached by clan heads and representatives from across the vanua; Saudrugu said the ban was not taken lightly and secured unanimous tribal endorsement. The meeting’s minutes did not immediately detail enforcement mechanisms or penalties for breaches of the new rules.
The decision in Qoibau comes against the backdrop of a broader national conversation about child discipline and social change. In 2025, church and community leaders publicly debated how families and institutions should respond to shifting norms around parenting and discipline, arguing for renewed emphasis on maintaining order in homes and schools. Local moves to reassert customary practices underline a tension between evolving social behaviours and village-level efforts to preserve traditional norms.
The ban is likely to draw attention and debate beyond Qoibau, where questions about gender roles, customary law and the rights of individuals intersect. For now, chiefs in Nakorowiri say they expect the lawa ni Qoibau to guide behaviour across the eight villages of the vanua as leaders seek to tackle what they describe as a rise in social ills linked to substance use and unsupervised children.
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