The sevusevu

A tanoa of the 1800s

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa holds a Fijian tanoa, a wooden kava bowl, made in the 1800s; it is part of the Oldman Collection, a gift of the New Zealand Government in 1992. Te Papa’s notes on another Fijian tanoa, made in 1979, add that kava, called yaqona in Fiji, can be served informally, but that its most important use is in chiefly meetings and ceremonies, and call the tanoa one of the most enduring icons of Fijian hospitality and culture.

To verify: An early written account of a sevusevu itself, rather than of the bowl

A gift to the chief

In Fiji the sevusevu is a ceremony in which a visiting guest presents kava to the chief of the host village, as a gesture of goodwill and of thanks for the hospitality. A formal yaqona ceremony often goes with important social, political or religious occasions, usually with a ritual presentation of the bundled roots as a sevusevu and the drinking of the yaqona itself. The Royal Collection’s notes on a Fijian bowl say that the deepest bowls are used to serve the drink in traditional welcome ceremonies, in which the honoured guest receives a cup of yaqona.

To verify: The steps of a sevusevu, who receives the bundle and what follows once it is accepted, from a Fijian source such as Asesela Ravuvu, Vaka i Taukei (1983); Tourism Fiji’s advice to visitors on offering a sevusevu, read in full

A bowl as a gift

On 14 November 1973 the Government and People of Fiji presented a tanoa to Queen Elizabeth II: a wooden bowl on six legs, with a rope and shells threaded at the front and a brass presentation plaque inside. It is in the Royal Collection. Kava is a drink and a living custom, and the tanoa belongs to Fijian makers: we tell the story, and sell neither kava nor a copy of the bowl.