What's in My Backyard series featuring Losana from Fiji.
What natural resources do you love and why?
"For me, it is all about the land, known as Vanua in Fijian".
How does your culture honour the whole resource?
“As indigenous people, land is our identity and we protect it with our hearts. It is sacred to us because it is a resource and asset that is cared for by families for generations (gone and generations to come).
We have learned from the mistakes made by our chiefs and forefathers in the early days who sold and gave away land, sometimes fraudulently for whiskey and guns; things foreign to Fijians in those days.
Later generations have now learned that it is an asset that health and wealth are built upon, and is the foundation for other natural infrastructure.
In Fiji, we say that even if we do not work, if you have land, you will survive because land can feed, be shared, leased, rented, and used for infrastructures and facilities.
What drives this sustainable harvest?
“There’s a Fijian proverb, ‘Dui mate ga ena nona ucu ni vatu’, that translates as “Each person is ready to die defending his home territory”.
It means that there is a close attachment to the land and a Fijian will fight to death for their land.
How does nature nourish you?
Vanua is known as land as well as life source. It is understood in the story of conception. Many people bury the umbilical cord of their babies in the earth; this connects them to their (home) lands.
Since Vanua is connected to life source, a loose translation of mother and, therefore, how the earth feeds people is connected to this term. You may also hear Fijians say “veidokai vakavanua” which means “respect the land/people”. People and land are inextricably tied, they sustain each other".
