A product of the Dravuni – Sivia yani na Vunilagi – Beyond the Horizon (2016) exhibition project was the publication of ‘The Legend of Tanovo and Tautaumolau’ (English) and ‘Ko Tanovo kei Tautaumolau – iTukuni’ (Dravuni dialect) co-authored by father and daughter duo, Kaliopate and Vasemaca (FKA Ema) Tavola, and published by the Institute of Education, University of the South Pacific (USP), Suva, Fiji.

Despite co-authorship, I knew from the start that I was going to be the principal author given my firm grasp of the Dravuni dialect vis-à-vis that of Vasemaca’s. As such, I was somewhat reluctant to even proceed with the project. But despite all my arguments against the project, familial support for it and diplomatic and not-so-diplomatic coaxing won the day. And so, about 2 years later – 3 September 2018, we celebrated the books hot off the press.

Sales of the publication have been underway since 2018 in Suva and Auckland and in 2024, we printed our second edition. Whilst stocks at Vunilagi Vou in Auckland are currently low, Baka Books in Suva has recently been re-stocked. Vasemaca’s business, Vunilagi Vou is currently only selling within New Zealand but when the books are re-stocked later on this year, she will be expanding sales worldwide.

The publishing seed was sown for this project when my wife Helen was preparing for a field trip to Dravuni in 2016. She was then attached to USP’s Institute of Education (IOE) for a regional teaching contract and suggested the idea to present to the Dravuni Primary School a set of IOE publications that were available at the time. This was duly done and the presentation took place.

In the discussions leading up to the presentation, the idea of a book on the project itself was conceived. Prescriptions for the publication soon emerged. For every prescriptive requirement, I had a counter argument.

Against the prescribed short length of the book, and my stated inability to even imagine one that I could write, I was told that I had essentially written all that was needed in the various write-ups for the exhibition and all I needed to do was just to revise, recast and enliven it from a story-telling perspective.

As against writing the story in Fijian due to my linguistic difficulties to properly speak the Bauan dialect, taken as the Fijian language, I was encouraged to write in my own Dravuni dialect and to seek assistance and direction from linguist Dr Paul Geraghty.

Dr Geraghty indeed encouraged me to write in my own Dravuni dialect. He reassured me that the Dravuni dialect is essentially part-Bauan and part-Rewan, belonging to a group of dialects from within the southern coast of Viti Levu facing Beqa, Beqa Island itself and islands north of adjacent Ono Island.

I was encouraged by this, notwithstanding other views within the extended family that formal vernacular writing today should only use the formal Fijian language for the preservation of the national language.

Vasemaca was in Suva post-publication of the books and was able to manage the publicity etc. She was able to secure an opportunity to re-stage the original exhibition project that launched the publications at Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture & Pacific Studies at the University of the South Pacific, and we launch the books at the exhibition’s opening in October 2018.

The seed was sown and to see the collective and collaborative effort to share Dravuni’s origin story is very satisfying. The iTaukei Fijian language version is the first book ever published in Dravuni dialect. Creating tangible archives of our stories is hopefully, the beginning of an ongoing practice.

A new category has been created on Kaidravuni.com entitled Creative Pursuits. Here we will be sharing the records of creative projects and collaborations that have grown from this blog project. More to come!