John Mitchell
23 May, 2021, 9:00 pm
Posing at the monument commemorating
the arrival of the fi rst missionaries at
Nakorovusa. Picture: CAMA BIUDOLE
Historical documents and stories about the origin of Christianity in many parts of Fiji find that their paths converge on the island of Lakeba in Lau.
The first-ever effort to establish the Christian religion in Fiji began in 1825. It is said that a man from Lau named Takai went to Tahiti to persuade the London Missionary Society (LMS) to send a missionary to Fiji.
In 1830, unbeknownst to Takai and his kinsmen, a new religion was in the making, ready to displace paganism and ancestral deities of old forever.