According to legends, the great tribal Chief Lutunasobasoba travelled across the seas with his people to the Island of Fiji. It is believed that people came into the Pacific from Southeast Asia via the Malay Peninsula and mixed with Polynesians to create a highly developed society way before the arrival of the Europeans in Fiji.

The first of the European discoveries of Fiji was made by a Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman in the year 1643. English navigators, including Captain James Cook discovered Fiji in 1774 and made further explorations in the 18^th century.

After the mutiny on the Bounty in the year 1789, Captain William Bligh sailed through Fiji and discovered and recorded the islands of this beautiful country. The first Europeans to land and live among the Fijians were shipwrecked sailors and runaway convicts from the Australian penal settlements. Sir Ratu Seru Cakobau accepted Christianity in 1854 and the country gradually followed and tribal wars came to an end.

Fiji was ceded to Great Britain on 10^th October 1874 and the deed of cession was signed at Nasovi Village near Levuka after which Fiji became a Colony and a proper government was established. Laborers from India came to Fiji between 1879 to 1916 under the indentured system to work on the sugarcane plantations and many stayed back as independent farmers and businessmen after the indentured system was abolished.

On 10^th October 1970, exactly 96 years after the deed of cession was signed, Fiji became an independent country after the Instruments of Independence was presented to Fiji’s then Chief Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara by His Royal Highness, Prince Charles on behalf of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. The Dominion of Fiji became an independent member of the British Commonwealth of Nations