Ratu Napolioni Naulia Dawai (died 17 November 1986) was a

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

an chief and politician. He served as a member of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and House of Representatives from 1970 to 1986.

Biography

Dawai was educated at the Queen Victoria School.Daryl Tarte (2014
''Fiji: A Place Called Home''
ANU Press, p97 He joined the civil service in the Fijian Affairs Department, but was unable to fit in and subsequently transferred several times before joining the Fijian Military Forces and serving in

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

. After being overlooked for an officer's course, he left the army and was appointed as a magistrate. He became the holder of the chiefly title

Tui Nadi Tui Nadi (or I Nakuruvarua, Navatulevu, na Momo na Tui Nadi in full) is the title of the Paramount Chief A government statement mentioning the definition. of Nadi, in Fiji. The Tui Nadi hails from the village of Narewa, and exercises chiefly aut ...

and served as Roko Tui of Ba Province and later chairman of Ba Provincial Council.Ratu Napolioni Dawai
''Pacific Islands Monthly'', January 1987, p48 In 1970 he was appointed to the new Senate as a nominee of the Great Council of Chiefs for a six-year term. He successfully contested the March 1977 elections to the House of Representatives as an Alliance Party candidate in the Ba–Nadi Fijian communal constituency, and was appointed Assistant Minister responsible for Forests. He was re-elected in the September 1977 elections. However, in 1981 he resigned from the Alliance Party in protest at a lack of funds for western Fiji, and joined the

Western United Front Western United Front (WUF) was an ethnically Fijian political party formed prior to the 1982 elections and contested the election in coalition with the National Federation Party (NFP-WUF Coalition). The party was in response to the disenfranchise ...

. After losing his seat in the 1982 elections, he was appointed to the Senate as one of the nominees of the Leader of the Opposition. In 1984 he was appointed to the shadow cabinet. He also served as vice chairman of the Sugar Cane Growers Council, and was awarded a CBE in the

1986 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in supple ...

.Fifth Supplement
''The London Gazette'', 14 June 1986 Dawai died in November 1986 in a road accident when his car hit an electrical pole. He was survived by his wife and seven children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawai, Napolioni People educated at Queen Victoria School (Fiji) Fijian civil servants Fijian soldiers 20th-century Fijian judges Fijian chiefs Members of the Senate (Fiji) Members of the House of Representatives (Fiji) Alliance Party (Fiji) politicians Western United Front politicians Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 1986 deaths