Fiji History MuseumTravel to the past.

LESSON PLAN · 6 CHAPTERS

Bau & Cakobau

Print this page for the worksheet: the plan prints first, then one sheet per pupil pair.

A forty-minute lesson

5 min — Arrive. Open Old gods and the missionaries on the projector and look around its 360° scene together.

15 min — Work from sources. Give each pair one chapter from the list below. They read its facts, open one source and fill in the worksheet.

10 min — Compare. Pairs with different chapters explain to each other what their chapter says and which source supports it.

10 min — Check. Each pair names one thing their source does not tell them, and who might know it — a family elder, a village, an archive.

Chapters in this era

  1. Old gods and the missionaries · Faith and language · 6 sources
  2. Churches, schools and written Fijian · Faith and language · 4 sources
  3. Bau and Cakobau · Power and resistance · 3 sources
  4. War and warriors · Power and resistance · 6 sources
  5. Hill forts and the highlands · Power and resistance · 2 sources
  6. Ma’afu and the Battle of Kaba · Power and resistance · 3 sources

Worksheet: Old gods and the missionaries

Name(s):

The museum says

  • A bure kalou was a temple house with a very tall, steep roof, where ancestral gods were honoured; priests (bete) spoke for the gods.
  • Wesleyan missionaries William Cross and David Cargill landed at Lakeba in 1835; the mission later worked from Viwa, near Bau.
  • Cakobau of Bau accepted Christianity in 1854, and many chiefs and their people followed.

1. Which source supports one of these sentences? Write its name.

2. Who wrote or made that source, and when? Were they Fijian, or a visitor?

3. What does the source not tell us? Who could we ask?

Sources for this chapter: Wikipedia: Fijian mythology · Wikipedia: Christianity in Fiji · Wikipedia: Thomas Baker · Cambridge MAA · Priests · Cambridge MAA · Missionaries · Cambridge MAA · Chiefdoms

Worksheet: Churches, schools and written Fijian

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Missionaries created a Fijian alphabet in which one letter stands for one sound: c is said “th”, b is “mb”, d is “nd”, g is “ng” and q is “ngg”.
  • The Bauan dialect became the standard for written Fijian, and mission presses printed the first books, hymns and Bible translations.
  • Most iTaukei Fijians today are Christian, and the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma is the largest church; Catholic missionaries arrived in 1844.

1. Which source supports one of these sentences? Write its name.

2. Who wrote or made that source, and when? Were they Fijian, or a visitor?

3. What does the source not tell us? Who could we ask?

Sources for this chapter: Wikipedia: Fijian language · Wikipedia: Christianity in Fiji · Wikipedia: Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma · Cambridge MAA · Missionaries

Worksheet: Bau and Cakobau

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Bau, a small island off the east coast of Viti Levu, became one of the most powerful states in Fiji.
  • Seru Epenisa Cakobau, Vunivalu of Bau, claimed the title Tui Viti (King of Fiji).
  • In 1874 Cakobau and other chiefs ceded Fiji to Britain.

1. Which source supports one of these sentences? Write its name.

2. Who wrote or made that source, and when? Were they Fijian, or a visitor?

3. What does the source not tell us? Who could we ask?

Sources for this chapter: Wikipedia: Seru Epenisa Cakobau · Wikipedia: Bau Island · Cambridge MAA · Chiefdoms

Worksheet: War and warriors

Name(s):

The museum says

  • In the 1800s the great confederacies — among them Bau, Rewa and Cakaudrove — competed for power.
  • Warriors fought with clubs, spears and bows; muskets arriving with traders changed how wars were fought.

1. Which source supports one of these sentences? Write its name.

2. Who wrote or made that source, and when? Were they Fijian, or a visitor?

3. What does the source not tell us? Who could we ask?

Sources for this chapter: Wikipedia: History of Fiji · Wikipedia: Confederacies of Fiji · Cambridge MAA · Viti · Cambridge MAA · Chiefdoms · Cambridge MAA · Priests · Cambridge MAA · Traders

Worksheet: Hill forts and the highlands

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Communities built forts on ridges and hilltops, with ditches, banks and fences.
  • Tavuni Hill Fort, above the Sigatoka valley, was built in the 1700s by the Tongan chief Maile Latumai.
  • Highland peoples of inland Viti Levu, such as those of Namosi and the Kai Colo, held out against coastal powers and, in 1876, against the new colonial government.

1. Which source supports one of these sentences? Write its name.

2. Who wrote or made that source, and when? Were they Fijian, or a visitor?

3. What does the source not tell us? Who could we ask?

Sources for this chapter: Wikipedia: Tavuni Hill Fort · Wikipedia: Kai Colo

Worksheet: Ma’afu and the Battle of Kaba

Name(s):

The museum says

  • In 1855, at the Battle of Kaba, Cakobau defeated his rivals with help from King George Tupou I of Tonga.
  • The Tongan chief Enele Ma’afu became the dominant power in Lau and took the title Tui Lau.

1. Which source supports one of these sentences? Write its name.

2. Who wrote or made that source, and when? Were they Fijian, or a visitor?

3. What does the source not tell us? Who could we ask?

Sources for this chapter: Wikipedia: Enele Ma’afu · Wikipedia: Seru Epenisa Cakobau · Cambridge MAA · Chiefdoms