Kaunitoni, according to Fijian ancestral story, was a

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

which sailed from an ancient homeland in the West, carrying the ancestor gods Lutunasobasoba and Degei, who are variously considered the ancestors of the Fijian people. They travelled in the Kaukifera or Kaunitoni, and the canoe landed in the western reef of

Viti Levu Viti Levu (pronounced ; ) is the largest island in Fiji. It is the site of the country's capital and largest city, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population. Geology Fiji lies in a plate tectonics, tectonically complex area betwe ...

, just north of the village of Viseisei, between

Nadi Nadi (, ) is the second-largest city in Fiji. It is located on the western side of the main island of Viti Levu, and had a population of 59,707 at the most recent census, in 2017. Nadi is multiracial with many of its inhabitants Asians, India ...

and

Lautoka Lautoka (, ) is the second largest List of cities and towns in Fiji#List, metropolitan area in Fiji. It is on the west coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Ba Province of the Western Division, Fiji, Western Division. Lying in the heart of ...

. Here the crew split, with one faction making a home on the island with Lutunasobasoba as a chief. The Kaunitoni then sailed eastwards along the coast of Viti Levu under the leadership of Degei, landing at Rakiraki and going up to the Nakauvandra Mountains. This particular story has come under much criticism and scrutiny from some anthropologists and linguists who suggest that the story is in fact of “missionary parentage” owing to a competition held in the late 1870s by the district office at the time who was looking to develop a more fanciful story than that which existed in Fijian circles at the time. The winning story tells that the gods, Degei and Lutunasobasoba, were from

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

. A widely accepted theory is that Fiji's first inhabitants were Proto-Polynesians of the

Lapita The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their distinct material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. The Lapita people are believed to have originated fro ...

culture, whose ancestors were from South East

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

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{{Oceania-myth-stub Fijian mythology Mythological ships

See also

Resources