Store

Fijian Foodways

National

⚠ TWO MAJOR COMMUNITIES AND THE HISTORY IS INDENTURE. iTAUKEI — indigenous Fijians — hold a food system that is Melanesian in geography and substantially Polynesian in character: the LOVO earth oven; DALO (taro) and cassava; KOKODA, raw fish in coconut cream and lime; PALUSAMI; rourou, taro leaves in coconut cream; and YAQONA (kava), whose ceremonial presentation — the sevusevu — is the formal act of approaching a village and is genuinely required rather than decorative. ⚠ AND FIJI-INDIANS: between 1879 and 1916 the British brought some 60,000 INDENTURED LABOURERS from India to the sugar plantations, and their descendants are a very large part of the population. They brought a kitchen that has become Fijian in its own right: ROTI and dhal, curries made with local fish and dalo leaves, BARA, chutneys, and a documented local Hindi — FIJI HINDI — that is its own language. ⚠ THE TWO CUISINES ARE DISTINCT, MUTUALLY INFLUENTIAL AND POLITICALLY CHARGED: land tenure and ethnicity have driven four coups, and a foodways system that merged them into "Fijian food" would be erasing the thing Fijians themselves argue about. Also SUGAR, which is why the indenture happened, and a large tourism industry.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • iTaukei community documented
  • Fiji-Indians community documented
  • Rotumans community documented

Languages: Fijian, Fiji Hindi, English, Rotuman

What is recorded

  • Between 1879 and 1916 the British brought approximately 60,000 indentured labourers from India to Fijian sugar plantations, and their descendants form a very large part of the population. Fiji Hindi is recorded as a language in its own right. iTaukei and Fiji-Indian cuisines are recorded as distinct, mutually influential and politically charged, with land tenure and ethnicity documented as drivers of four coups; merging them into a single national cuisine is treated as erasure. The sevusevu presentation of yaqona is documented as a required formal act of approaching a village. documented
  • Indenture: some 60,000 labourers brought from India to the Fijian sugar plantations, producing the Fiji-Indian population and Fiji Hindi. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • part of Melanesian Foodways documented

    ⚠ Melanesian in geography and substantially Polynesian in character, which is one reason the regional classification fits Fiji badly.

  • related to Indian documented

    ⚠ Between 1879 and 1916 the British brought some 60,000 indentured labourers from India to the Fijian sugar plantations. Fiji Hindi is a language of its own and the two cuisines are distinct, mutually influential and politically charged.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.