A Mountain Of Food
p. 31 · Read in the full issue
With food the keystone of all Islands festivities, the caterers for Fiji’s independence celebrations were thinking big.
Prince Charles alone was to re ceive a veritable mountain of offer ings during the Fijian ceremonies of welcome at Albert Park on October 9.
It had been arranged that each of Fiji’s 14 provinces would present the royal visitor with 10 pigs and 1,000 stalks of dalo or yams—making an impressive total of 140 pigs and 14,000 root vegetables.
The ceremonies of welcome were to consist of the traditional cavuikele kele, or “hoisting of the anchor”, performed for paramount chiefs; qaloqalovi; Luva ni Tawake; Sevu sevu; Yaqona Vakaturaga; Wase ni Yaqona; Vakamamaca and Magiti.
The food was to be supplemented by hundreds of mats and many yards of masi.