Mothers Day in Melbourne

from w
The ladies from Chadstone Uniting Church - Fijian congregation - look lovely in their pink and white - far nicer than just plain ordinary white. This photo was taken at Mothers Day, one of the Fijian congregations in Melbourne. Thank you Va and Bulou for the photo.

Fijians in Melbourne

from w
This afternoon we took two cars from Geelong up to Melbourne to St Marks Uniting Church for a combined service with four or more Fijian congregations from different parts of Melbourne. We meet every three months in this way for fellowship, worship, lovely lovo food and of course singing. The church was packed and children were out in the Sunday School for part of the time. Choirs were informal but based on vanua groupings and it is always enjoyable to do this. Tovata were in fine form singing polotu accompanied by a triangle. Here are some photos from today. (In Australia the Methodists joined with the Presbyterians and Congregational churches to for the Uniting Church many years ago but of course there are Fijian families in Melbourne who also belong to penticostal and other denominations.) It was a lovely afternoon of catching up with friends who we have known a long time, and for our eldest son and his family to meet up with those that he knew a few years back before he went overseas to Fiji to work. I took photos of the children (left the church before the sermon, ha ha) who were practicing for their Palm Sunday program.

Farewell Jieke Meli

A highly esteemed member of the Melbourne Fijian community, Jieke Meli, passed away last week and his funeral was held today at the Melbourne Fijian Uniting Church, Chadstone, and the burial was at the town of Wallan. Our condolences go to Lydia and family and the relatives back in Qamea. Rest in peace, Jieke, a highly valued friend.

Somewhere over the rainbow

from w
Yesterday we saw a wonderful rainbow after visiting a Lauan/Gau family in Wyndam Vale out of Melbourne and I connected this with something I read in Fiji Village about Fiji migration to New Zealand and Australia. Why? Some people ask us that question - why leave a paradise for our hectic Australian city life? There are numerous possible answers of course and the reasons for out-migration are many and varied.
17,323 Fijians migrated from Fiji
Publish date/time: 15/10/2010 [07:36]

A total of 17,323 Fijians have migrated from Fiji from the year 2007 to May this year. According to the latest statistics released by the Bureau of Statistics, 4949 people left our shores to settle in another country in 2007. In the year 2008, 5391 Fijians migrated while in 2009, 5022 people migrated. For 2010, upto May one thousand 961 people have left Fiji to settle in another country.

The largest number of people who are migrating are professional workers followed by people in other occupation.

Meanwhile the Bureau of Statistics has also revealed increasing number of Fijians going for holidays and visiting friends and relatives overseas.

The number of people visiting friends and relatives increased by almost 3000 in 2009 bringing the total number of people to 37,211.

More than seven thousand people each year also go for education and training overseas.
Story by: Vijay Narayan

Church birthday and soli in Melbourne

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Thank you to Bulou for her photos (on her Facebook page) of the Fijian congregation's church birthday and soli at Chadstone Uniting Church recently. Special guests were Dr Meo and Lisa from Sydney, Ms Dobson the Moderator of Vic/Tas Synod, and others. Dr Meo had a productive ministry there with the establishment of this congregation, prior to his retirement in Sydney. Unfortunately we couldn't be at the birthday function with our many friends because of our need to be grounded in the reality of health concerns.

Fijians in Melbourne

from w
Yesterday afteroon four different Fijian church communities joined together at the Coburg Uniting Church for worship, kava, and a delicious meal. There must have been nearly three hundred people there from babies to elderlies, lots of youth, and it was a good time of great singing, including po-lotu with the triangle, articulate passionate preaching, and singing in vanua groups such as Tovata, Burebasaga and Kubuna. Then we had fellowship, crowded, in the adjoining hall and room. The hosts were the Fijian Methodist Church and the rest of us from Dandenong, Chadstone and Altona Meadows/Laverton. The men drank kava in one room and the rest of us in the hall. We had a delicious lovo meal. Here are a few photos.

Fijians at Pako Festa

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Today was the Pako Festa in Geelong West with hundreds of cultural groups performing dance, song, selling delicacies an marching in a parade. A contingent of Fijians from Melbourne came down to perform - mainly families who migrated to Melbourne but came originally from Lomaiviti such as the islands of Gau, Nairai, Koro and a group of children and young people from a Fiji outreach congregation in Broadmeadows. Vinaka Bui and Rai even though you both were away at a camp. We had a lovely afternoon watching Dutch clog, Hungarian gypsy, Spanish dancing, etc. while waiting to take our turn. The Fijian item went very well with songs of the Lomaiviti islands such as 'E dua na siga' and three dances. It was good to see the children participating. Here are a few photos from todays' events. Afterwards two car loads of Fiji famlies came home to drink kava, eat fish and chips, rest a bit and the children played outside. I also watched a presentation dance workshop by a group of Cook Islanders and I'll post that on the Geelong Visual Diary blog.

Sweet harmony at a Melbourne church

from w
Yesterday we had the pleasure of joining with four or five church groups at Chadstone, Melbourne, as guests of the Melbourne Fijian Uniting Church there. After the one hour freeway drive from Geelong we arrived just as the church worship was starting. Yesterday was rainy and extremely cold. The church was crowded with many people we know and a few new ones. Sermons and prayers were interspersed with fine choir singing, including that joyful Jericho song that Peceli first heard from the Vesi church in Mali. Speakers told of their visit to the Fiji conference that was not a conference - upbeat stories as well as sad tales. Afterwards we had a delicious lovo feast and then the men mixed yaqona. After we'd been in Chadstone for five hours I gave the 'five minutes' signal to Peceli and some time later we left.

It had been a lovely time of sharing and catching up with people we've known a long time and meeting new people such as students from Fiji and new migrant families. I had a new camera to try out but haven't got the gist of it yet so gave it to a friend and she switched it on to 'video' which didn't work! I only have one photo - of some of the leaders, not the informal shots of little groups of people telling stories that I usually take. Maybe by Fiji Day I'll have some decent photos. The weekend of 9,10,11 October offers many choices for Fiji people - a rugby day, an Island night, a 60th birthday party for Sese, and a two and a half day conference for Fiji Indians. (See Trinity Uniting Church website.) Peceli and I have booked in for the last one so we'll have to brush up on singing bhajans.

Some light reading for a change

from w.
This afternoon we were in Altona Meadows/Laverton Uniting Church for the Fijian service then picked up a snack at Macdonalds, then went to Wyndam Vale to have kava and dinner with Sailosi Koto's family. They had a little white rabbit - being fed with grated carrot and lettuce leaves. I said give 'Ben' (a girl or a boy no-one knows) grass from outside. Oh no, says the young owner, Ben wants carrot and lettuce. When I said we can cook the rabbit for dinner she was shocked! I told her we used to eat rabbit for dinner and her eyes widened. Then she showed me her music book and a song she learnt.

Melbourne Fijians at worship

from p and w
What an excellent occasion it was yesterday as many Fijians from four churches in Melbourne joined together at the Coburg Uniting Church as guests of the (continuing) Methodist Church there where Teopla Raicebe is the talatala. We came from Dandenong, Altona Meadows/Laverton, and Chadstone church communities. About three hundred people where there singing hymns, praying for Fiji, and later we had a splendid luncheon and a soli for the Fiji Methodist Church Conference (whether on or off!) Some photos here are of choirs, Sunday School children and in the adjoining hall afterwards. (More photos on Geelong Visual Diary.)