Over the course of the last century and a half, the structural and political underpinnings of Fijian chieftaincy have changed in significant ways and is no longer best represented by the union of the stranger-chief and local lineage. According to what must be the most widely-accepted origin mythology in present-day Fiji, the first Fijians arrived from Tanganyika, Africa. Emphasising the shared origins of all indigenous Fijians, this mythology denies the internal differentiation between autochthones and strangers that is often highlighted as a key constituent in Fijian political organization. In this ethnographic tradition, it is the “synthetic” combination of foreign charisma and autochthonous legitimation that holds up chieftaincy. Colonial-era Native Legislation reveals us a similar denial of the dichotomy in material and linguistic terms, overriding the distinction between the land-owning autochthones and the landless strangers, respectively designated as the “owners” or “hosts” (taukei) and “strangers” or “guests” (vulagi). This article considers the 2010 governmental decision to replace the words “Fijian” or “native Fijian” with the word iTaukei in official English-language use – this being the most recent example of a development that has been in the making for a considerable while.
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