Itaukei

The iTaukei, or indigenous Fijians, are Austronesian people of the Fiji archipelago in Melanesia, speaking Fijian, a Central Pacific language. Their Lapita ancestors reached the islands around 1100 to 1000 BC; a later Melanesian influx around the start of the Common Era and contact with the Tu'i Tonga Empire shaped their society.

They lived in rival chiefdoms on Viti Levu, Vanua Levu and smaller islands under chiefs and priests, with fortified villages, irrigated fields, double-hulled drua canoes, kava rites and whale's-tooth tabua.

Abel Tasman sighted the islands in 1643 and James Cook visited a Lau island in 1774. The sandalwood rush of 1804–1814 drew traders to Vanua Levu, and beachcomber Charlie Savage gave Bau firearms before his death in 1813. The sea cucumber trade of the 1820s spread muskets among chiefs; the first missionaries arrived in the 1830s as Bau and Rewa fought for dominance.