Ok so this bit of information has been sitting rather uncomfortably for me as an iTaukei because of the potential inaccuracy in it. Im not saying that there wasn’t a letter but questions arose whether it was written by Ratu Seru Cakobau himself & here’s a thread(ish) of why 1/ https://twitter.com/adamkeawe/status/1276366402950057984

When the Deed of Cession was signed, only 1 out of the 12 chiefs present, was able to read & write out his name. This was the then Tui Bua, Ratu Vakawaletabua. He was able to do so bc his Tongan mother taught him how to, she had been taught by missionaries as a young child 2/

Dou vosoti au na wekaqu ke mani cala na ka au vola e baleta na Turaga na Tui Bua kei na Marama tinadra. Reason I give this context is bc it’s so important to question who the letter was actually from? Also taking into account that Fiji as a whole had not agreed to being ceded 3/

Remember, if Fiji was not united, then what was the basis of claiming that we had a constitution in place? Who had written the constitution? What was it based on? Where is this constitution? Has it influenced any of our constitutions going forward? Because we have had many 4/

So... Ratu Seru Cakobau couldn’t have written that letter himself & if there is a letter from him then it most probably was written on his behalf, by a British colonialist. Which then muddies the water a little... I stand corrected if there is proof that he wrote this letter 5/

Whilst I appreciate that our Polynesian scholars are creating space for us as Melanesians, space so we can speak about how we were colonised & the effects it’s had on us - which spans generations. I think there also has to be recognition that we can take it from here 6/

Bc the danger here is that, the space being created is being made exclusive to only one side of history that is not from us. And so if the space is one where we are not able to have our own identity conversations by us & for us then it is still a coloniser-style exclusive club 7/

Pasifika scholarship is very Polynesian-heavy & often we get our histories written from that perspective. I hope that our Melanesian siblings in academia will continue to write our narratives so that our children can continue to learn & thrive in our knowledge from us. END.