Fiji’s oral traditions are replete with stories about vanished

islands, particularly that named Burotu (cognate with

Pulotu in the islands to the east) to which people on many
of the ninety or so inhabited islands in the group today
trace their ancestry. Belief in Burotu has been very strong
amongst Fijians. For example, Dr. Thomas St. Johnston
reported in 1918 that stories about Burotu (material in
brackets mine)
recently vanished islands in the pacific 163
so inflamed that adventurous spirit Ratu Mara
[half brother of Ratu Seru Cakobau, the powerful
nineteenth-century Fijian chief] that, like a knight-errant of
old, he started forth and swore that he would find Burotu
or perish in the attempt. As a matter of fact he did neither,
but the story . . . shows how earnestly he believed in it.50
Throughout Fiji and western Polynesia, Burotu (or Pulotu)
is alternately believed to be the abode of the gods, of the
spirits of the dead, sometimes the homeland of the
ancestors of modern Fijians, and sometimes (particularly in
Fiji) an earthly paradise. All such reasons have led to its
existence as a real place being doubted. This conclusion
appears valid when the Pulotu myth as a whole is
considered, as explained in chapter 6, yet there are certain
linguistic and geographical pointers to the site of the
original Burotu being near Matuku Island in southern Fiji.
The current geological condition of the Fiji Islands is
generally more benign than those of the island groups to
the west discussed in the preceding sections. A convergent
plate bound- ary (the Hunter Fracture Zone or Kadavu
Trench) runs south of the group but does not currently
appear to be accommodating plate convergence.51 There
is no evidence of recent coseismic subsidence in Fiji, and
this explanation is therefore not favored for the observed
disappearance of islands. But there is no shortage of steep
island flanks in the group, and the gravity failure of these
is a significant potential hazard here.
Linguist Paul Geraghty has compiled much of the evidence
about Burotu and remains the foremost authority on it. As
part of my research projects, current oral traditions about
Burotu were collected from neighboring islands by Elia
Nakoro in 2004–2005.52
It was noted in chapter 6 that, although the homeland for
people of eastern Polynesia represented by Hawaiki might
have been the island Savai‘i in Samoa, there was no agreed
equivalent for the homeland of Pulotu, claimed as a
homeland by the people of western Polynesia, particularly
the chiefs of Tonga and Samoa. Yet almost all the stories
about the location of Pulotu say that it lies west of western
Polynesia, most likely in Fiji. This sugges- tion is supported
by numerous other lines of evidence. For example, the
ruler of Pulotu (Hikule‘o) is often portrayed as half-human,
half-eel, and the foremost pre-Christian deity of much of
Fiji (Degei) is almost everywhere regarded as half-
serpent.53
To many people in western Polynesia, Pulotu was the
abode of the gods, the place where the spirits of the dead
chiefs went, and the homeland in the west from which the
chiefs had come. But in Fiji, Burotu is none of these.
Instead it is paradise, a place where everything is
perfect.54 This misfit has been explained by assuming that
the Burotu as Pulotu traditions are an extension westward
of the western Polynesian traditions of Pulotu. The
tradition of Burotu-as-paradise seems to have been built on
an earlier pan-Pacific myth about a paradi- sical island,
also known as Fanuakula (or Vanuakula) in this region.55
It has been convincingly argued that Burotu was located on
or close to Matuku Island in southeastern Fiji (Figure
9.6a). The evidence comes largely from place-names and
clan
164 Vanished Islands and Hidden Continents of the Pacific

figure 9.6. The island of Matuku, southeastern

Fiji, and a possible location for the “vanished island” Bu-
rotu. a. The island of Matuku showing places mentioned in
the text. Most traditions of Burotu (including its periodic
resurfacings) are associated with the people of
Levukaidaku and Makadru villages in south- western
Matuku. b. The bathymetry of the Matuku area showing
the submarine platform that may be part of the main island
that slid down its flanks. (Adapted and redrawn from Nunn
et al. [2005].)
names, especially the names of the two halves of ancient
Matuku—Burotu and Babajea (now Babasea)—and the
name of the hill fort Togaviti, from which the Tongafiti
invaders of Polynesian island groups elsewhere took their
name.56
The island of Matuku is the surface expression of an
isolated long-extinct volcanic edi- fice, steep-sided and with
a history of Quaternary uplift, that shares the same origin
as three other island-reefs in the area, Moala (or Muala),
Navatu, and Totoya. Together with Matuku, these make up
the group of islands known as the Yasayasa Moala.57
There is a definite possibility that Burotu exists still, as
part of the island Matuku, its pre- cise location and
boundaries long since forgotten. But this explanation
seemingly conflicts with the abundant stories recounting
details of its disappearance, and its periodic reap-
pearances (see later in this section), although it has been
suggested that such details could be embellishments, “part
of the inherited tradition of an island paradise.”58
Although not discounting this possibility, it seems clear
that the representation of Burotu as a sunken land
preceded the earliest time at which Europeans could have
influenced indigenous stories59 and that it is therefore an
authentic detail.
It seems plausible to suppose that Burotu actually did sink,
perhaps catastrophically and therefore more memorably,
or that, as with Atlantis, the stories about Burotu
incorporate details of another island that sank. No other
candidate appears obvious, given our current
recently vanished islands in the pacific 165

state of knowledge, so it is assumed here that

Burotu once existed as part of Matuku or nearby and
subsequently sank.
By analogy with similar islands elsewhere, a coastal
settlement on an exposed coast any- where on Matuku
Island could have been wiped out as a result of large-wave
impact, either during a tropical cyclone (hurricane) or as a
tsunami. The possibility that Lomaji Bay on Matuku (see
Figure 9.6a) was the site of Burotu, suggested by Paul
Geraghty,60 is viable when the similarity with enclosed
bays like Lituya Bay (see Figure 8.3) is considered. A large
rockfall at the head of Lomaji Bay would be likely to
displace a large amount of water that could wash over
lowland bayside settlements with catastrophic effect.
Another possibility, illustrated in Figure 9.6b, was
suggested recently.61 Some 15 kilome- ters southwest of
Matuku, on the underwater flanks of the island, is a 17-
square-kilometer platform at a depth of 1,800–1,900
meters. By analogy with some of the large island-flank
failures known (from Hawai‘i and Johnston Atoll, for
example, which involved as much as 1,650 meters and 700
meters of vertical movement, respectively),62 it is possible
that this platform was once emergent and slid down the
sides of the parent volcano. This suggestion is a very long
way from being proved, with no targeted survey of this
platform ever having been carried out. Yet its location does
concur with the observation that the Burotu associa- tions
of the people of Levukaidaku and Makadru villages in
southwestern Matuku, the part closest to the submerged
platform, are stronger than elsewhere on the island.
For example, it is the people of Levukaidaku who claim to
be able to smell the scent of the flowers from Burotu when
the wind blows from a certain direction. A stone causeway
near this village at a place called Vatuvoleka is claimed to
connect to Burotu. The women of the Burotu clan in
Makadru Village claim to be the only ones who know the
dances (meke) from Burotu. Finally, most of the sightings
of reemergent Burotu are off this area of Matuku.63
In Fiji, Burotu goes by many names. There are adornments
of the basic name, the most common being Burotukula,
which means “red Burotu” in Fijian: red has all the
connota- tions of golden in English as an indication of
wealth and power. Some accounts of Burotu claim that
everything on the island is red. A 1929 account stated that
“if the women of Matuku go out at low tide, at dawn they
find red reeds that come from Mburotu [Burotu].”64
Informants during the 2003–2004 survey also emphasized
the redness of everything that came from Burotu,65 red of
course being the color of the parrot feathers (kula) for the
supply of which, it is inferred, the island of Pulotu became
famed across the Pacific. In 1907, the missionary Lorimer
Fison reported that the people of Matuku Island “say that
sometimes burnt-out fishing torches of a strange make,
with handles of shell, drift ashore on their land, and when
they pick them up they say ‘see the torches from Burotu!.’
”66
As with many oral traditions about vanished islands in the
Pacific (and elsewhere), con- temporary and recent
traditions about Burotu are loud on the moral issues
behind the sink- ing but almost silent on how it actually
happened. The most common explanations of why
166 Vanished Islands and Hidden Continents of the Pacific

Burotu sank involve the people of Matuku giving

unwitting offense to those of Burotu who responded by
causing their own island to sink. One version of the story
states that the chief of Makadru Village on Matuku, having
been sent a white pig from Burotu, killed it rather than
keeping it as was intended.67 In a similar vein, a more
recent story tells that one day the chief of Burotu (Tui
Burotu) sent a special bird as a gift to Matuku, but the
people killed it, thinking it might be a devil. And the next
day, where Burotu had been, there was nothing but
ocean.68
The circumstances of the submergence of Burotu are
unnecessary to recall if you believe that it occurred
magically, which may be why there are so few such details
in the oral tradi- tions. One tradition that mentions
submergence following an earthquake may be European
influenced.69 Another tradition states that the island sank
after it was trodden on by the ancestor hero
Kubunavanua.70
The vagueness of details about the nature and the timing
of the sinking of Burotu in ac- counts obtained around the
time of European contact suggests that, unlike the
disappear- ance of Vanua Mamata in Vanuatu, the memory
of the disappearance of Burotu was far from fresh in the
minds of informed Fijians in the mid-nineteenth century.
This makes the suggestion that it disappeared gradually,
starting in 1760,71 improbable. A date considerably
earlier, around AD 1000, close to the limit of oral-tradition
survival, is more plausible.72
One distinctive aspect of the Burotu myths in Fiji generally,
but most frequently on Matuku, is the alleged periodic
reappearance of Burotu. Perhaps most commonly
explained as a good-luck omen or, conversely, a portent of
disaster, the reappearances of Burotu play an important
role in keeping this particular tradition alive in the minds
of many Fiji people.
The island of Burotu is said to have reappeared off Matuku
at least seven times since about 1933, sometimes enduring
only a few minutes, sometimes several hours, but always
vanishing again. Sightings of Burotu on Matuku may not be
routine, but neither are they considered universally
newsworthy in the minds of the observers. Although it is
impos- sible for a high island to appear one moment and
disappear the next without considerable disturbance, some
accounts of the periodic reappearances of Burotu are
difficult to read- ily discredit. Consider this one by Emitai
Vakacegu, the head teacher of Babasea Primary School in
Levukaidaku Village, who, early on the morning of
September 4, 2003, was exer- cising with his students, the
other teachers, and some villagers in front of the village
when the mystical island of Burotu — high, mountainous,
well vegetated, with clouds around its summit — appeared.
This is what Vakacegu wrote in his log book:
at about 6 o’clock in the morning, the teachers, students
and villagers witnessed a his- torical scene, the famous and
mysterious island of Burotukula [Red Burotu] surfaced
again after 10 years. The first reddish orange light of the
rising sun on the horizon formed a beautiful background to
the island, which floated alone on the calm sea. The
strange island was slowly sinking as the sun rose over the
horizon.
recently vanished islands in the pacific 167

It is simply not possible for such an island to

appear and disappear so fast, at least not without the
accompaniment of some unmissable seismic or volcanic
outburst, and yet such observations should not be
dismissed simply as fantasy, particularly because they tend
to be made by people not generally given to flights of
fancy. It seems likeliest that such sightings represent the
glimpse of some uncommon sight, such as distant dark
clouds obscured by the glare of the rising sun, to which the
observers transfer their deeply held beliefs about the
periodic reappearances of Burotu. Alternatively, these
alleged sightings could occur when a tsunami hit the coral
reef encircling Matuku. When funneled into reef passages,
locally generated tsunamis in Fiji have been observed to
form “large brown bubbles” that could, depending on the
observer, be seen as Burotu reappearing.73
It is worth noting that regular sightings of illusory islands
in modern times are not con- fined to Burotu. Off the
eastern seaboard of North America, an island covered in
greenery is said to have periodically emerged near Boston,
and there are apparently many instances of people trying
to reach it by boat, but never succeeding.74