In a historical move, the FIJI Water Flying Fijians will now from now on, sing the National Anthem in the iTaukei vernacular beginning from their Rugby World Cup warm up matches against France and England and onwards
The Fiji Rugby Union Trustees Board has approved the request from the team to sing the anthem in the iTaukei dialect known to all the players.
The announcement was made by interim Administrator Simione Valenitabua today.
The request was also met with the the blessings of the Prime Minister of Fiji Sitiveni Rabuka.
“The team as a whole came up with the idea of singing the national anthem in i-taukei version which also reflects back to our goal of reconnecting to who we are and where we have come from,” said squad captain Waisea Naycalevu.
“My respect to all the ethnic and to the multicultural country we are, the initial objective of the group is to reconnect back to our roots and our identity and singing the anthem in iTaukei is part of that reconnection.
Since arriving at their base camp in Pornic the team has been practicing the anthem.
Head Coach Simon Raiwalui said it was something the players wanted.
“It’s a player-driven idea and is something that takes the players back to their roots of who they are and where they came from,”
The iTaukei version will be sung for the first time at a rugby match followed by the English version.
