Fijian people

The Fijians (iTaukei, owners of the land), Austronesians of Melanesia with Polynesian admixture, hold every Fiji island but Rotuma. Their Lapita ancestors sailed from Taiwan through western Melanesia 3,500 years ago, leaving the dentate pottery found from 800 BCE; from Fiji they pushed on to Tonga and Samoa. Yaqona kava circles, tabua whale teeth, fire-walking, bure bures and the great double canoes, drua, ordered chiefly vanua life. Cakobau's cession to Britain in 1874 brought sugar plantations, Indian labour and coups, and indigenous Fijians, just over half the nation in 2005, guard land ownership by law. Suva markets, Methodist choirs, rugby fields and the Bose Levu Vakaturaga council keep iTaukei custom ruling its own ground. Rotuma alone stands outside iTaukei custom. Dentate pottery still marks the Lapita horizon. Tonga and Samoa voyages still leave from Fiji's shore. Melanesian roots with Polynesian mixture still show in every village. Fiji's diaspora in Australia is the world's largest.