FAITH · TEACHING · REMEMBRANCE
Faith &
mission history.
Pacific teachers, John and Hannah Hunt, Thomas Baker and the Fijian Christians who travelled with him.
Methodist beginnings within Fiji’s wider religious history.
1830
Tahitian teachers
Three Tahitian teachers from the London Missionary Society arrived in 1830. Pacific Island Christians were part of the mission story before the British Wesleyan mission at Lakeba.
12 October 1835
The Wesleyan mission at Lakeba
David Cargill and William Cross began the Lakeba mission with their families. Their work was supported by Tongan Christians already connected with eastern Fiji. Teaching, translation and printing became important parts of the mission.
22 December 1838
John and Hannah Hunt arrive
John and Hannah Hunt reached Fiji in December 1838 and were posted to Rewa. Their missionary lives connected Rewa, Somosomo and Viwa through teaching, language and religious work.
1847
A Fijian New Testament
Hunt’s Fijian New Testament was printed at Viwa in 1847. Indigenous scholars helped with the translation. Language work and printing became lasting parts of the mission’s influence.
4 October 1848
Hunt’s death at Viwa
Hunt died aged 36 and was buried at Viwa. His ministry and translation work remained important in Methodist remembrance; Viwa hosted a bicentenary commemoration of his birth in 2012.
21 July 1867
Thomas Baker and seven Fijian Christians
Baker, Fijian minister Setareki Seileka and six Fijian students were killed in the interior of Viti Levu. Cannibalism was reported after their deaths. The familiar explanation involving a comb and touching a chief’s head remains disputed. Resistance to Christianity and Bau’s political influence also formed part of the tensions of this period.
November 2003
Reconciliation at Nabutautau
Baker’s descendants and the descendants of those involved in the killing met at Nabutautau for a reconciliation ceremony. This later encounter is part of the history of remembrance surrounding Baker and his companions.