Perhaps this modest dictionary will help with a little understanding of the language and some of its cultural context. It is not easy to understand Fijians and the common fallacy of foreigners is to think they do. They have had so little personal privacy. It is understandable that Fijians might become secretive about their own feelings and thoughts. From early childhood all Fijians are taught severely not to ask questions and not to speak their minds. Many men, especially, have been very considerably repressed. Still now, Fijians hardly dare “talk up” directly. Young people are discouraged from expressing opinions or openly asserting themselves as individuals. Commoners have been restrained by their elders and by their chiefs who with very few exceptions, have little education, and all too often, are marked by self-interest. Social demands can exact enormous amounts of time, effort, energy, even money, food and other consumables. But these social involvements and committments can be preoccupations that limit an individual’s development as an individual and dissipate the personal resources.
Emphasis is on human relationships, extended family, and clan, and to a lesser extent, the tribe and territory, and quite importantly, their church with their own Fijian versions of Christianity. At the same time, for the individual, that system can be helpful and supportive emotionally. Within Fiji, the system leaves little room for an individual to act independently of the group. A Fijian individual living in a traditional Fijian context exists within a social system that is much more structured than a European usually experiences.
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