Savusavu Bay, FIJI — In 2014, the remains of six Solomon Island laborers buried more than a century ago on Nawi Island in Savusavu Bay, Fiji were exhumed.

It was a solemn occasion. With police presence, the graves were dug out by members of the Miller family of Nukunuve.

It was rumored that a bottle of liquor, a mouth organ, coffin nails and coffin pieces belonging to the Melanesians, who came to Fiji during the blackbirding era which started in the 1860s, were retrieved.

According to The Fiji Times (Friday, June 27, 2014) the exhumation was done to “allow for hotel development” that was to later take place on Nawi.

Body remains, which had been on the island for the past 180 years, were taken to Nukunuve and buried there.

But on one of Nawi’s highest hilltops, the body of a woman remains – untouched and virtually unknown to the Fiji public.

She was believed to be of Samoan royalty, and fondly called Mouga.

Old stories contend that she eloped to Fiji with a Mr Miller, the forefather of the current generations of Millers in Fiji. Some literature says the man was “William Miller” and some say he was “D.B. Miller”. Others say the two were brothers.

Nawi itself is nestled safely in a picturesque harbor, adjacent to the seaside town of Savusavu and backdropped by different shades of nature at every turn of the eye.

The story of how Mouga came to occupy an elevated spot on one of the highest hills to the west of Nawi Island Marina is nothing short of an adventure love story.

The Sunday Times scaled the hills of Nawi recently with the hope of retelling the bits and pieces of her life’s story.

According to a genealogy record on the Miller family, available on www.geni.com, the Samoan was of chiefly status and called Aheamauga Lalomauga Mona Miller (nee Maloka), the wife of Daniel Bathe Miller, a sailor/ shipwright who swept her off her feet before whisking her away from her village in Samoa to the South Seas.

The website adds that Daniel was born in Ovalau, Levuka in 1816.

A story in The Fiji Times of December 16, 2019, notes that Daniel was born to one of the two brothers who travelled from Bathe in England. The siblings were the original Millers in Fiji. It is possible the brothers may have split up at Levuka and went to settle in different parts of the colony.

One of the two Miller brothers travelled to a village in Upolu, Samoa, and fell in love with a girl of royal bloodline.

“Knowing the strict cultures of her people and the fact that they would not accept an interracial marriage, the lady decided to leave her home and family, and travel to Fiji to be with her beloved,” The Fiji Times notes.

The website, www.geni.com further adds that Mouga was born around the 1820s at Fasito’otai, Upolu, Samoa. Which means that she would have been 224 years old if she were still alive today.

Mouga bore two boys, Jim and William Henry Miller II, and a girl named Maunga (Mauna) Miller.

The website www.geni.com adds that Mouga later died in “Vanua Levu” and was buried in “Savusavu”, specifically Nawi Island, where she remains to this day.

The Fiji Times of 2019 further adds that her eldest son married Adi Filomena Ravuiwai, the daughter of Ratu Koliloa Ravuiwai, the son of the sixth Tui Cakau, Ratu Tuikilakila Lalabalavu (Baleinamatau).

Adi Filomena bore many children. One of them was daughter, Adi Alisi Miller, who later married Ratu George Brown Toganivalu of Bau, with whom she had five children.

According to another draft family tree cited by The Sunday Times, William Miller married Mouga who belonged to the chiefly Toleafoa family and bore two other daughters, Serah and Alice, apart from the three children named in www.geni.com

In the 2014 article carried by The Fiji Times, the Miller family of Savusavu were approached by the developers of Nawi Island, seeking permission from them for the “removal of six graves belonging to labourers who were buried on the island”.

However, after discussions with the Miller family it was decided the grave of Mouga would remain on the island as a major tourist attraction.

With the permission of Nawi Island Marina, The Sunday Times team visited Nawi Island on Monday, August 19, to take photos of Mouga’s grave, located on the western side of Nawi Island Marina. One family member said the grave site was classified as a reserve and would be protected by Nawi Island.

To get to Mouga’s grave, the team had to take a $5 boat ride from Waitui Marina to the island before hiking across a few undulating hills that tower majestically over the island’s palm-fringed coastline.

The trip from the start of the to the grave , takes about 30 minutes. The grave is a crude mound that enjoys a bird’s eye view of the town and unadulterated air that blows up from the ocean below.

The tour guide who took the ST team for a scenic tour of the hills and grave site said Mouga was “buried at the top of the mountain with her husband” and a daughter, believed to have died at a young age.

“Visiting the site was exhausting considering that we had to climb non-stop for 30 minutes. However, reaching the top and seeing the graves and the beauty that surround them was such an amazing experience,” Sophie Ralulu, the team’s photographer said.

“The view from the top is worth millions and the fact that the Samoan princess got to sleep for eternity at one of the most beautiful spots in Savusavu is almost a fairytale story.”

The story of Mounga and her resting place at a spot far away from her own people and family, is testimony to the conquering power of love and the legacy of women in spreading the bloodline and connecting family to people, places and new shorelines.

Most families have a dominant character, often identified as a matriarchal or patriarchal figure who keeps the family together, focused and consolidated over time.

That person is Mounga, a free spirit who dared to break away from the boundaries of societal norms and expectations and in the end, brought together a united family, like a piece of fabric woven together with strands from different parts of the world.

(Originally published in Fiji Times)