Kaunitoni, according to Fijian ancestral story, was a

canoe A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the term ...

which sailed from an ancient homeland in the West, carrying the ancestor gods Lutunasobasoba and

Degei In Fijian mythology, Degei (pronounced ''Ndengei''), enshrined as a serpent, is the supreme god of Fiji. He is the creator of the (Fijian) world, fruits, and of men and is specially connected to Rakiraki District, Fiji. He judges newly dead souls ...

, who are variously considered the ancestors of the

Fijian people Fijians ( fj, iTaukei, lit=Owners (of the land)) are a nation and ethnic group native to Fiji, who speak Fijian and share a common history and culture. Fijians, or ''iTaukei'', are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in ...

.{{Cite book, title=Degei's Descendants: Spirits, Place and People in Pre-Cession Fiji, author1=Aubrey Parke, year=2014, volume=41, editor1=Matthew Spriggs, editor2= Deryck Scarr, page= 132, publisher=ANU Press, jstor=j.ctt13www1w, isbn=9781925021813 They travelled in the Kaukifera or Kaunitoni, and the canoe landed in the western reef of

Viti Levu Viti Levu (pronounced ) is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji. It is the site of the nation's capital, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population. Geology Fiji lies in a tectonically complex area between the Australian P ...

, just north of the village of

Viseisei Viseisei () is a village at Vuda Point on the west coast of Viti Levu island, in Ba Province of Fiji. History According to tradition, it is the oldest settlement in Fiji, established by Lutunasobasoba when the first Melanesian canoes beached at V ...

, between

Nadi Nadi (pronounced ) is the third-largest conurbation in Fiji. It is located on the western side of the main island of Viti Levu, and had a population of 42,284 at the most recent census, in 2007. A 2012 estimate showed that the population had ...

and

Lautoka Lautoka () is the second largest Local government in Fiji, city in Fiji. It is on the west coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Ba Province of the Western Division, Fiji, Western Division. Lying in the heart of Fiji's sugar cane-growing r ...

. Here the crew split, with one faction making a home on the island with Lutunasobasoba as a chief. The Kaunitoni then sailed eastwards along the coast of Viti Levu under the leadership of Degei, landing at

Rakiraki Rakiraki () is a district in Fiji's Ra Province. It is located between Tavua and Korovou when travelling along the Kings Road, on the northern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. At the 1996 census, the Rakiraki district had a populati ...

and going up to the Nakauvandra Mountains. This particular story has come under much criticism and scrutiny from some anthropologists and linguists who suggest that the story is in fact of “missionary parentage” owing to a competition held in the late 1870s but the district office at the time who was looking to develop a more fanciful story than that which existed in Fijian circles at the time. The winning story tells that the gods, Degei and Lutunasobasoba, were from

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. ...

. A widely accepted theory is that Fiji's first inhabitants were Proto-Polynesians of the

Lapita The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. They are believed to have originated from the northern Philipp ...

culture, whose ancestors were from South East

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

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Fijian mythology Mythological ships

See also

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