Built on a name,
and an obligation
Cabemaiwai is an Indigenous Fijian group working on Indigenous Fijian land. That is not a marketing position, it is the reason the work is possible at all.
Land held communally is protected by custom long before it is protected by statute. Nothing moves without the consent of the people who hold it, and consent is given to people who are known, not to the highest bidder. Our partnerships are built the way they have always been built here: in the village, through the chief, over years.
What we bring to that relationship is the other half: the surveys, the engineering, the planning consents, the finance, and the crews and plant to build it. The landowning group keeps its equity and its standing. The land goes to work.
How we got here
Dad left Fiji in the seventies to get an education in Australia. He was sent by his grandfather Ratu Ilatu Ro Ratu Ro Carocavasiga Balenivalu leading Chief in Naitasiri, to go out into the world and learn skills so that he could be of service to our people.
My brother and sister followed him and started their schooling in Australia. I was born and like all migrant families we started making a life in a new country, working hard and studying.
Dad spent time in the military in the engineer corps, learnt construction and civil engineering. I studied economics at the University of Sydney, became a Rugby League player, and represented the Fiji Bati in the Rugby League World Cup.
We built careers in Australia. But we never left Naitasiri. We stayed connected to Naluwai, to our mataqali Naqaranikula, to our people, even from across the water.
Back home, our uncle Alivereti Kedraika, Freddy, had spent years trying to secure a quarry licence for the clan. He and Anasa Lenikali could see the potential in the land right in front of them: the river, the gravel, the corridor to Suva. They just needed more. So Freddy called Dad. Dad called me.
We came back. Both of us invested our life savings into this venture, not as a business opportunity, but as an obligation. As Australian citizens who are proud and active members of Mataqali Naqaranikula, we believe the skills, networks, and discipline we built abroad were always meant to come home. Prime Minister Rabuka has called for overseas Fijians to return and contribute. This is our answer to that call.
There is a word for what Australia and Fiji share: vuvale. It means family. It is the name of the formal partnership between our two countries. For us it is not a diplomatic term. It is the reason we came back. The reason we stayed when it was hard. The reason we will keep building.
This project is how we fulfil the mission.
