Great Council of Chiefs and Fiji National University empower future iTaukei leaders

Nacanieli Koro believes that the silence among chiefs has contributed to the erosion of vanua, identity, traditional relationships, and moral values among many iTaukei.
Mr Koro is one of 28 young chiefs selected to undertake the Vanua Leadership Diploma Course at the Fiji National University (FNU). This course, a first of its kind, is being implemented for chiefs through an initiative and partnership between the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC) and FNU.
Mr Koro hails from Naocoibau Village in the Burewai district of Nakorotubu, Ra Province, and also has maternal links to Vanuaso, Gau in Lomaiviti Province. As a chief in the vanua, his role is to serve.
"We understand that leadership runs in our blood, but this partnership with GCC and FNU enables us to understand and know more about the importance of our roles,” he said.

During the Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge Conference at FNU Namaka Campus in Nadi on Monday evening, GCC chairperson Ratu Viliame Seruvakula said the initiative was designed to better prepare Fiji’s chiefs to lead their people in their respective vanua in the years to come.
The theme of the conference this week is "Na Vuku Ni Vanua" – Charting Our Cultural Destiny. He invited the audience to imagine a future where iTaukei, not others, chart their own cultural destiny.
"A future where our stories, our languages, our lands, and our relationships are not just remembered but revered, protected, and empowered," Mr Seruvakula said.
"A special mention this evening for the 28 participants of the course who are here with. They are future traditional leaders of this land participating in a joint GCC/FNU initiative designed to better prepare chiefs of Fiji to lead our people in their respective vanua in years to come.”
Mr Seruvakula said the GCC had taken the lead through the 2025 Statement of Strategic Intent to lay out plans for the way forward.
"It is designed to ensure that while other minority groups are encouraged to continue to flourish, we as custodians of majority of the land shall rise above subsistence economics to new levels of economic prosperity through the utilisation of our resources on much more reasonable terms.”