Houses in Labasa, then and now

These days it is rare to find a real Fijian bure in a town in Fiji such as Labasa. Thirty years ago there were many. We lived beside the sea at Nukutatava with three small bures - this was in the 70s. These days Labasa town has many new cement block houses, many on stilts, perhaps for the breeze, or in case of flooding! The pics are a view of Labasa from Delailabasa hill where the mansions are, a small painting of a typical bure in earlier times, and a pic of our beach place in the 70s.

It is a major project these days to built a traditional style bure because it is difficult to access the materials such as bamboo and reeds because sugar-cane farms have taken over so much of the land.