Navala
A village in the Ba Highlands of Viti Levu, Fiji, known for keeping its houses in the traditional form: rows of thatched bure with woven walls, laid out around a central avenue. Accounts of its founding differ, from a 19th-century school settlement to a 1951 move of several highland communities onto the site. Villagers maintain the bure through communal work, and more than half of them withstood Cyclone Winston in 2016.
Dated events and their evidence
- 1875 CE disputed
Settlement said to be founded when highland villages such as Cuvu and Batimoli built a shared school (19th c.; the Fiji Times oral account gives 1951) source - 1951 CE disputed
Villagers from Batimoli and Cuvu join the people already on the site to form the present village, according to clan storyteller Suliano Saunivalu source - 2016 CE mainstream
Cyclone Winston strikes Ba Province; more than half of Navala's bure withstand it and the community repairs the rest source
Where
17.6594° S, 177.8128° E
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navala
- https://www.fijitimes.com.fj/discovering-fiji-unique-navala-village/
- https://www.witpress.com/elibrary/wit-transactions-on-the-built-environment/173/36150
Each event carries Aion's own evidence grade (mainstream, disputed or speculative). This page repeats what the globe shows for this place.