Fiji History MuseumTravel to the past.

LESSON PLAN · 8 CHAPTERS

Land & Craft

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 village and the bure 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 village and the bure · Land and kinship · 4 sources
  2. Clans and chiefs · Land and kinship · 4 sources
  3. Yaqona and ceremony · Land and kinship · 4 sources
  4. Forests and the land · Land and kinship · 2 sources
  5. Masi — bark cloth · Living craft · 1 sources
  6. The lali drum · Living craft · 1 sources
  7. Tabua — the whale’s tooth · Living craft · 3 sources
  8. Clubs, bowls and headrests · Living craft · 2 sources

Worksheet: The village and the bure

Name(s):

The museum says

  • A bure is a traditional Fijian house built of timber, reeds and thatch.
  • The village (koro) is the centre of community life, with houses set around an open green.
  • Navala, in the highlands of Ba, is known for keeping a whole village of traditional bure.

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: Bure · Wikipedia: Navala · Cambridge MAA · Viti · Cambridge MAA · Solevu

Worksheet: Clans and chiefs

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Yavusa, mataqali and tokatoka describe important kin and community groupings; their organisation has varied across places and time.
  • Chiefly authority ranged from local leadership to extensive networks of alliance and tribute.
  • Colonial administration formalised selected social arrangements and used chiefs in indirect rule.

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: Mataqali · Wikipedia: Great Council of Chiefs · Cambridge MAA · Viti · Cambridge MAA · Chiefs and Governors

Worksheet: Yaqona and ceremony

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Yaqona (kava) is a drink made from the root of the Piper methysticum plant.
  • A visitor presents yaqona to the village as a sevusevu, asking to be welcomed.
  • The drink is mixed in a large wooden bowl called a tanoa and served in a coconut-shell cup (bilo).

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: Kava · Wikipedia: Kava culture · Cambridge MAA · Priests · Cambridge MAA · Solevu

Worksheet: Forests and the land

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Vesi (Intsia bijuga) is a dense hardwood prized for canoes, kava bowls and lali drums.
  • Forests gave food, medicine, building materials and fibre for mats and rope.
  • Colo-i-Suva Forest Park near Suva protects rainforest close to the capital.

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: Intsia bijuga · Wikipedia: Colo-i-Suva

Worksheet: Masi — bark cloth

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Masi is bark cloth made by soaking and beating the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree.
  • It is decorated with stencilled and hand-painted patterns in black and red-brown dyes.
  • Masi is used in important ceremonies such as weddings, births and funerals; Vatulele and Moce are known for it.

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: Tapa cloth

Worksheet: The lali drum

Name(s):

The museum says

  • A lali is a slit drum carved from a single log and beaten with two sticks.
  • Its rhythms call people to church and meetings and announce events; in the past they also signalled war and deaths.

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: Lali

Worksheet: Tabua — the whale’s tooth

Name(s):

The museum says

  • A tabua is a polished sperm-whale tooth, usually hung on a cord of plaited coconut fibre.
  • Tabua are presented at the most important moments: marriages, deaths, apologies and serious requests.
  • European whalers in the 1800s made whale teeth more common, and they became a key trade item.

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: Tabua · Cambridge MAA · Solevu · Cambridge MAA · Traders

Worksheet: Clubs, bowls and headrests

Name(s):

The museum says

  • Fijian carvers made war clubs in many named shapes, each suited to a different use.
  • Kava bowls (tanoa) and headrests were carved from hardwoods such as vesi.
  • Many carved objects taken from Fiji in the 1800s are now in museum collections around the world.

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 art · Wikipedia: Fiji Museum