Rewa is a
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Fiji
Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...
. With a land area of 272 square kilometers (the smallest of Fiji's provinces), it includes the
capital city of
Suva
Suva (, ) is the Capital city, capital and the most populous city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rew ...
(but not most of Suva's suburbs) and is in two parts — one including part of Suva's hinterland to the west and a noncontiguous area to the east, separated from the rest of Rewa by
Naitasiri Province. The province had a population of 108,016 at the 2017
census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
, making it Fiji's third most populous.
For political and traditional reasons, Rewa is a powerful province. It is the hinterland of the national capital and the heart of the
Burebasaga Confederacy, one of three traditional
chiefly hierarchies. The ''
Roko Tui Dreketi'', or Paramount Chief of Rewa, is the head Burebasaga. The last two holders of the title have been women:
Ro Lady Lala Mara (1931-2004), the wife of Fiji's longtime
prime minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
and
President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, and her sister and successor,
Ro Teimumu Kepa, who was
Minister of Education in the government of
Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Qarase (2001-2006). In 2014, she led the
Social Democratic Liberal Party (SoDelPa) in the
parliamentary election, the first since the
military coup of 2006, and served as
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...
from 2014 to 2018.
Rewa is governed by a
Provincial Council. For a period in the early 2000s, the chairmanship was vacant, and the Council decided not to fill it until the
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed.
When these pri ...
could be changed to allow
parliamentarians to hold national and provincial office simultaneously, thereby allowing their Paramount Chief, Ro Teimumu Kepa, to take the position. In the interim,
Pita Tagicakiverata served as acting chairman.
Administrative Divisions
The province is divided into four Tikinas:
References
{{Authority control
Rewa
Rewa