The Lasakau Sea Warriors were a 19th-century warrior sub-culture in the pre-colonial state of Bau, in Fiji. The sea warriors were instrumental in spreading Bau's political power throughout the South Pacific archipelagic islands. The rise of the eminent islet of Bau amongst other embryonic states was due mainly to the projection of sea power through its naval forces. Bauan chief Ratu Loaloadravu Tubuanakoro was praised by French Captain Dumont D'Urville in May 1827 for his geographic knowledge of the Fijian archipelago signifying Bau's naval influence.Sahlins, Marshall David. Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture. University of Chicago Press, 2004, p. 53.Shino Konishi et al, "Indigenous Intermediaries: New perspectives on exploration archives" ANU Press, 2015, p.115. More far-ranging than Bau's land warriors led by the Vusaradave clan, the Lasakau clan became the leading proponents of war and tribute for the emerging island kingdom.Sahlins, 2004, p. 64. They became known as the Bai kei Bau or 'War fence of Bau'.Fiji historian Deryck Scarr concurred, stating, “Bau relied on levying… and power projected at sea by the Lasakau and Soso sailors” Sahlins made the crucial observation that," The kings of Bau based their rule not on native cultivators but on native sailors and fishers-which is to say in Fijian categories, as in political strategies, not on the land but on the sea".Sahlins: 2004:65 This was the great political transformation that catapulted Bau to power over other pre-colonial kingdoms.
The fleet of Thakombau sailed out this morning with not less than 200 warriors on board each canoe.Quote from The Friendly and Feejee Islands – A Missionary Visit to Various Stations in the South Seas, in the year 1847 by Rev. Walter Lawry, published by Charles Gilpin, 1850. -Rev. Walter Lawry, a missionary, 1847. The Lasakau clan was traditionally the fishermen of Bau. They were also renowned as seafarers. The name , "Lase-kau", intepreted as reef-wood, for during sea battles, the clan often tied their canoes together, to form an artificial reef, or floating island. The leading families of Lasakau as purveyors of sea bounty and wealth married into Bauan royalty. They became key allies in the competing chiefly intrigues that shaped Fiji's pre-colonial political landscape.Bauan maritime supremacy rose over other nascent tribal kingdoms by the use of the Lasakau people with their skills. Christian missionaries and British colonisers later consolidated Bauan political influence as the conduit of Western civilization in the Fiji Islands.
Bau history and ethnology The importance of Bauan history to pre-colonial Fiji has often been emphasised by scholars. In tracing its ascendency, Scarr succinctly posits, "The rise of Bau was rapid, and was due partly to the natural ability of her chiefs, and partly to the advantages gained from the first use of firearms. The Bau chiefs claimed descent from certain elements of the Fijian mythtiical Nakauvadra mountain range migration. Whom, having come to Verata, divided and wandered widely; in the final stage of their wanderings they settled, in comparatively recent times, on the coast near their present island, then named Ulu-ni-vuaka (The Pig's Head)."The Kubuna people on Bau (Ulu-ni-vuaka) island became embroiled in a struggle for power involving their chiefs that subsequently involved other tribal kingdoms of Fiji. The relationship between the Roko Tui Bau as sacred King and the Vunivalu of Bau as his warlord hence underwent a role inversion in the early nineteenth century.
Originally Bau island was occupied by the Butoni people, then not formally referred to as Bau, a predatory tribe of sailors and traders. In around 1760, a wondering warlord Nailatikau seized what was known to some as Ulu-ni-vuaka, expelled the Butoni and the Lovoni people, after failing to gain favour from the Ratu in Verata as his supposed successor. The expelled group moved east occupying neighboring islands, some further east establishing settlements in parts of Lau and Cakaudrove.Sahlins, et al, Marshall David. Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture. University of Chicago Press, 2004. p. 64. The Butoni however, neither admit defeat remained solitary and independent although some offer their services to Seru in his plight lending a canoe or two. On the other hand the actions on Nailatikau and a few of his liniage gabe rise to the name Cakobau, and the new name for the island "Bau", which in its original dialect means "go" or "gone".
The Vunivalu of Bau, Nailatikau was succeeded by Banuve, who, during a period of nearly thirty years, consolidated the young state's position and carried out an ambitious scheme of improvements to the island. He reclaimed wide areas of the adjacent reef flats, and built stone canoe-docks and sea-walls as a protection against erosion. To provide manual labour, he requested Lasakau people of the Yavusa Nabou who supposedly trace their roots to Delailasakau Naitasiri
Ratu Pope Seniloli the Vunivalu of Bau (1883–1936), in his sworn statement at the Native Lands Commission in 1933 for the Village of Lasakau asserted, Ai tokatoka ka liu ko Nacokula. Sa bula eso na kena kawa. (The leading family is of the household Nacokula. The descendants are alive).Oi rau vata ko Nacokula kei Nadrukuta (Nacokula and Nadrukuta are of the same household). A vale ruarua koya e rau i liuliu ni kai Lasakau kece edaidai. (These two households are the present leaders of all the Lasakau people)NLC Tukutuku Raraba Yavusa Nabou, Lasakau, Bau, 1933, p. 51. There is strong genealogical and traditional evidence that suggests that the ancestors of these two households originated from within the Tui Kaba Vunivalu clan and not the Nabou Tunidau ni Bau clan as made out. In all likelihood the 'Mataqalikira' were half brothers and first cousins of Ratu Seru Cakobau given the contention for power that was rife within the Vunivalu clan at the zenith of Bauan political struggles from 1800 to the Battle of Kaba in 1855.
In fact in his detailed drawing of the Islet of Bau in 1856 Joseph Waterhouse (minister) singles out Cakobau and Lasakau chief Kolivisawaqa II, also known as Kamikamica, and son of Ratu Loaloadravu Tubuanakoro who was also known as Kolivisawaqa, the elder half brother of Cakobau, residential sites or yavus from all others, signifying their high status in Bauan society.Marshall David Sahlins, ‘Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture’, University of Chicago Press, 2004, See p, 32 for Bau Islet plan- 1856 McGillivray described Kolivisawaqa's house Nacokula as " the neatest he has seen in Fiji, with a number of chests of drawers, some trunks and other European goods in it."David:1995:111
French Captain Dumont D'Urville in his 1827 expedition of the Fiji archipelago, was amazed at Tubuanakoro's seafaring skills and knowledge of the group of islands when Cakobau's elder half brother acted as pilot on board his ship the Astrolabe. Captain D'Urville was particularly taken by Tubuanakoro's "dignity and intelligence, gentle manners, agreeable appearance and accommodating character".Marshall David Sahlins, ‘Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture’, University of Chicago Press, 2004, See pp. 52-53
The surname 'Kamikamica' or 'sweet' that survives in the Nacokula household today is an allusion to the personable, genial and gracious character of Ratu Loaloadravu Tubuanakoro alias Kolivisawaqa I. He was slain by Bauan rebels in antipathy to his father Ratu Tanoa Visawaqa's rule as Vunivalu. Tubuanakoro's son was also named ' Kolivisawaqa II to immortalize the fallen chief. According to another source Kolivisawaqa as chief of Lasakau was killed by his brother Tutekovuya because of Koli's loyalty to the deposed Vunivalu Ratu Tanoa. Osbourne 1966:55 mentions Koli as “Rev Lorimer Fison knew a Lasakauan, whose admiring countrymen, to give him his due, called him, Kolivisawaqa. Warrior and club went on to fame together”.Fison:1871b:31 Another of Ratu Tubuanakoro's son was Ratu Vuniani Vukinamualevu (1819-1888) who was also Roko Tui Ba in the 1880s. Owing to his chiefly lineage and nursing the plotted murder of his father, Ratu Vuki was often at odds with Ratu Cakobau and the colonial administration.Deryck Scarr,"A rokotui for Lomaiviti: The question of legitimacy in the Fijian administration 1874-1900" Journal of Pacific History, Jan 1970,5(1) 3-31.
Warlords Capell in his study of Fijian history stated that, "the history of Fiji is the history of chiefly families".Capell, A, 'Local Divisions and Movements in Fiji', Oceania; 11, (1940/41) p. 313 The phrase in fact emphasized the hierarchical nature of Fijian traditional society where chiefly power was absolute. The relationship between Chiefs and Westerners in especially Missionaries thus became a focal point for gathering insight into Fijian culture and tradition in the nineteenth century. On the rise of the Matanitu of Bau, David Routledge pointed out that the ".. support of the Lasakau was necessary to stability on Bau, even though they were not of the ruling family".David Routledge, 'Matanitu: The Struggle for Power in early Fiji', USP, 1985, p. 77. Adolf Brewster described the Lasakau as ... “the Royal Fishermen, a highly important and powerful clan, who like our Marines were soldiers and sailors too, as they were warriors in addition to their ordinary calling.”Adolf Brewster, The Hill Tribes of Fiji, Seeley Service and Co Press, 1922, p. 165. The feats of the warmongering Lasakau tribe became widespread and abhorred by Missionaries such as Reverend Williams who stated, "The Lasakau people especially, were widely known as dangerous men (tamata rerevaki)".."Very bloodthirsty and cruel". Reverend Jagger said of the Lasakau, " much feared on that account, the circumstance of them having plenty of canoes at their command enables them the more effectively to carry their schemes into practice".Fiji and the Fijians, Rev Williams, 3 Mar 1845
The introduction of firearms in tribal skirmishes by Bau added to their naval superiority. From 1803 to 1829, during Ratu Naulivou's reign as Vunivalu of Bau, the islet kingdom reached the zenith of its power. Naulivou recruited European beachcombers as mercenaries into his Bauan forces and was able to make good use of this advantage to further his political control. Mercenary Charlie Savage fought alongside Bauan forces in many skirmishes and was given the title Koroinavunivalu. He terrorized Bau's enemies with his musketry though this did not spare him from the club. In 1813 he was ambushed along with others in the sandalwood trade skirmishes in Bua, Vanua Levu. At the time of Naulivou's death though, Bau was well on the way to establishing a Fiji-wide political hegemony founded on sea power and western fire arms.
During the reign of Naulivou (1803–1829) probably around 1810, there was an internal power struggle in Lasakau due to the rise of the Tui Kaba Vunivalu as the premiere chief in Bau. This led to the banishment of the sacred king, the Vuaniivi Roko Tui Bau to Vanua Balavu, Lau. See Turaga na Rasau. This inversion of the chiefly role led to drawn out internal strife on the island. In Lasakau, the Tunidaunibau clan succumbed to the Mataqalikira. The Mataqalikira supported the Tui Kaba Vunivalu in the overthrow of the Roko Tui Bau. This struggle continued during the time of Ratu Tanoa Visawaqa and his son Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau. Riven with intra-tribal schisms, a faction of the Tui Kaba had ousted Ratu Tanoa as Vunivalu. In 1837, Ratu Seru re-installed his father Tanoa through a plot with the Lasakau Mataqalikira headed by Tutekovuya.