Fiji History MuseumTravel to the past.

LESSON PLAN · 7 CHAPTERS

Early Contact

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

A forty-minute lesson

5 min — Arrive. Open Abel Tasman sights Fiji, 1643 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. Abel Tasman sights Fiji, 1643 · Explorers · 1 sources
  2. James Cook at Vatoa, 1774 · Explorers · 1 sources
  3. William Bligh’s voyages, 1789 and 1792 · Explorers · 2 sources
  4. The Wilkes Expedition, 1840 · Explorers · 1 sources
  5. The sandalwood rush · Traders and Levuka · 4 sources
  6. Bêche-de-mer, whalers and beachcombers · Traders and Levuka · 5 sources
  7. Levuka, the first capital · Traders and Levuka · 3 sources

Worksheet: Abel Tasman sights Fiji, 1643

Name(s):

The museum says

  • The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, with the ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen, sighted islands in north-east Fiji in 1643.
  • He passed through dangerous reefs and did not land.

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: Abel Tasman

Worksheet: James Cook at Vatoa, 1774

Name(s):

The museum says

  • On his second voyage, in HMS Resolution, James Cook visited Vatoa in southern Lau in 1774.
  • It was a brief visit; Cook did not reach the main islands of Fiji.

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: Second voyage of James Cook

Worksheet: William Bligh’s voyages, 1789 and 1792

Name(s):

The museum says

  • After the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, William Bligh and loyal crew sailed an open boat through Fiji and were chased by canoes.
  • The stretch of sea they crossed is still called Bligh Water.
  • Bligh returned in 1792 in HMS Providence and charted more of the islands.

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: William Bligh · Wikipedia: Mutiny on the Bounty

Worksheet: The Wilkes Expedition, 1840

Name(s):

The museum says

  • The United States Exploring Expedition under Charles Wilkes surveyed Fiji in 1840 and made detailed charts.
  • At Malolo two American officers were killed, and in reprisal the expedition destroyed villages and killed many islanders.

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: United States Exploring Expedition

Worksheet: The sandalwood rush

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Fragrant sandalwood from the Bua coast of Vanua Levu was cut and shipped to China in the early 1800s.
  • The wood was sold at Canton (Guangzhou), where foreign merchants traded from the waterfront “factories”.
  • The early trading boom rapidly depleted accessible sandalwood supplies.

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: Santalum yasi · Wikipedia: Charles Savage · Cambridge MAA · Traders · Cambridge MAA · Chiefdoms

Worksheet: Bêche-de-mer, whalers and beachcombers

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Bêche-de-mer (sea cucumber) was collected on Fiji’s reefs, then boiled, dried and smoked for sale in China.
  • Processing needed large drying sheds, huge amounts of firewood and many workers, supplied through chiefs.
  • Whaling ships called for water and supplies, and brought whale teeth into trade.

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: Sea cucumber as food · Wikipedia: Beachcomber · Wikipedia: History of Fiji · Cambridge MAA · Traders · UNESCO · Levuka Historical Port Town

Worksheet: Levuka, the first capital

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Levuka, on the island of Ovalau, grew from the 1820s into Fiji’s main European trading settlement.
  • It was the capital of Cakobau’s Kingdom of Fiji from 1871 and of the British colony until Suva replaced it in 1882.
  • Levuka Historical Port Town was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013.

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: Levuka · Wikipedia: Levuka Historical Port Town · UNESCO · Levuka Historical Port Town