Sailing Fiji | Kava and a jam session
Every bay, reef, and beach is owned by a village in Fiji. When entering you are required to find the village and present the chief with kava root. This is a traditional ceremony which then welcomes you into the village. During the ceremony you ask for permission to use there land, whether it’s to snorkel, surf or just go for a hike.
Most of the time you present the kava during the ceremony which is often a quick and relatively informal process. The day we arrived in this village they had just lifted a self-assigned year long fishing ban to help the reefs recover (what the west could learn from this!). Due to this, they were having a day long kava ceremony which we were invited to. We sat with the village elders and over the space of a few hours drank Kava with them. It was amazing to be part of their local traditions.
The next morning we get a knock on the boat from four younger guys from the same village we shared the ceremony with, including the village headman. They gifted us coconuts and we invited them on board for some coffee.
They then asked if we would like to share kava together, so, in the same ceremonial way, we sat aboard the bow of Nanuka having our own kava ceremony. A guitar was bought out, a bucket for a drum, and a maraca from Dominica. One of the guys was a very talented guitarist and singer who treated us to 5 hours of a jam session. It felt quite surreal to be in the middle of nowhere, kava ceremony on the bow, sharing music and stories together. It was also extremely refreshing to see the younger generation of Fijians with values of connection and preservation. A day we won’t forget!