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Feeling depressed? Behold happiness. Photo by an unnamed Evening Post photographer in New Zealand in 1957. Fijian rugby players overjoyed at having being sent taro from home.
I've been spending a lot of time going through old photos and articles that the various museums and archives have put online. I'll post interesting ones as I find them. Fijian Brenn gunner with the NZ Expeditionary Force in Bougainville, WWII.
Serua Island in 1935, 1948, 2002, and 2017
1875, NZ newspaper: Soso yaqona-ni-valagi. This kaivalagi was shook! that Fijians could get quite freaky. "Grog (alcohol) is handed around until not a sober individual exists. Then, oh night, in pity spread thy darkest mantle o'er the scene. Then immodesty and debauchery ensue"
Fijian soldiers on parade wearing traditional dress and carrying firearms. Photographed by F H Dufty in Nasova, Levuka, Fiji, in the 1870s or 1880s
1939, when Lautoka fit between Naviti Street and Vitogo Parade. Photo by Leo White.
[1/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.
![[1/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU3jihNUMAEtjqW.jpg "[1/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.")
![[1/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU3j0WHU4AAIF3j.png "[1/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.")
![[1/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU3j0XOU0AARX85.png "[1/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.")
![[1/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU3j0YUUEAAnmt6.png "[1/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.")
[2/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.
![[2/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU3j6B4U0AA5sAw.jpg "[2/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.")
![[2/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU3j7wKUUAEYhf_.jpg "[2/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.")
![[2/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU3j7wzUEAEQrfh.png "[2/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.")
![[2/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU3j7yEUwAE10Og.png "[2/2] A walk around Suva on 6th June, 1950.")
Huge bure. 1881: "View of the chief's house, Korovatu, on the lower Wainimala River, Viti Levu, Fiji."
Somosomo, Taveuni. By Arthur Hocart sometime between 1909 and 1914.
Ovalau. Old man in his dalo patch. This is wetland taro planted in constantly flowing water along carefully constructed hill terraces, a method now virtually non-existent in Fiji [Photo by Arthur Hocart sometime between 1909 and 1914]
![Ovalau. Old man in his dalo patch. This is wetland taro planted in constantly flowing water along carefully constructed hill terraces, a method now virtually non-existent in Fiji [Photo by Arthur Hocart sometime between 1909 and 1914]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU4FeK0VAAAlSur.jpg "Ovalau. Old man in his dalo patch. This is wetland taro planted in constantly flowing water along carefully constructed hill terraces, a method now virtually non-existent in Fiji [Photo by Arthur Hocart sometime between 1909 and 1914]")
Off Kia Island [Photo by Arthur Hocart sometime between 1909 and 1914]
![Off Kia Island [Photo by Arthur Hocart sometime between 1909 and 1914]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU5ICWfUYAYQ9fe.jpg "Off Kia Island [Photo by Arthur Hocart sometime between 1909 and 1914]")
I wonder if this is the first instance of the commercialisation of Fijian culture to be recorded on film. In 1935, members of the British Medical Association went on a world tour. They made a short stop in Suva. [No audio]
"Instrument of Cession of the Islands of Fiji by Thakombau, styled Tui Viti and Vuni Valu, and by the other high Chiefs of the said islands to Her Most Gracious Majesty Victoria by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith"
