Fiji History MuseumTravel to the past.

LESSON PLAN · 5 CHAPTERS

Cession & Colonial

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

A forty-minute lesson

5 min — Arrive. Open The Kingdom of Fiji 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. The Kingdom of Fiji · Colonial Roots · 3 sources
  2. The Deed of Cession · Colonial Roots · 4 sources
  3. Governor Gordon and the new order · Colonial Roots · 4 sources
  4. Plantations and the labour trade · Colonial Roots · 4 sources
  5. Suva becomes the capital · Colonial Roots · 4 sources

Worksheet: The Kingdom of Fiji

Name(s):

The museum says

  • In 1871 Cakobau became king of a new Kingdom of Fiji, with its government at Levuka.
  • The kingdom struggled with debt and with conflict between settlers and Fijians.

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: Kingdom of Fiji · Cambridge MAA · Chiefdoms · Cambridge MAA · Chiefs and Governors

Worksheet: The Deed of Cession

Name(s):

The museum says

  • On 10 October 1874, at Levuka, Cakobau and other high chiefs signed the Deed of Cession, making Fiji a British colony.
  • Sir Hercules Robinson signed for Britain.
  • Cakobau sent his war club to Queen Victoria; it was later returned to Fiji and used as the mace of the legislature.

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: Deed of Cession · Wikipedia: Colony of Fiji · Cambridge MAA · Chiefs and Governors · Cambridge MAA · Chiefdoms

Worksheet: Governor Gordon and the new order

Name(s):

The museum says

  • The measles epidemic of 1875 caused catastrophic loss of life; historical estimates of the toll vary.
  • Governor Arthur Gordon pursued protection of Indigenous land and indirect administration through chiefs.
  • Colonial forces fought resistance in the interior in 1876.

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: Arthur Gordon · Wikipedia: Colony of Fiji · University of the South Pacific · Epidemics in Fiji’s history · Cambridge MAA · Chiefs and Governors

Worksheet: Plantations and the labour trade

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Cotton planting boomed in the 1860s, when the American Civil War cut supplies.
  • Workers were recruited from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, often by deception or force — the trade known as blackbirding.
  • Copra (dried coconut) also became a major plantation crop.

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: Blackbirding · Wikipedia: History of Fiji · Fiji Government · 146th Girmit commemoration · Cambridge MAA · Chiefs and Governors

Worksheet: Suva becomes the capital

Name(s):

The museum says

  • In 1882 the capital moved from Levuka to Suva, which had more room to grow and a deep harbour.
  • Suva is still the capital and Fiji’s largest city.

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: Suva · Wikipedia: Levuka · UNESCO · Levuka Historical Port Town · Girmit.org · History