07/10/2026
Jone Vuki and his crew are quick to pack up Addi Road after another Wednesday Night Lights begins to wind down.
We’ve spent the evening as usual: offering free, nutritious, chef-prepared fresh hot meals to about a hundred people - along with a host of free wraparound services beside the dining tables where the likes of Street Side Medics, Marrickville Legal Centre and Orange Sky Australia are set up every week.
Jone and his mates are big guys - so you feel the energy when they move into action. They will get the tables folded and chairs stacked in no time.
They’re also light on their feet, clapping and laughing their heads off as they suddenly break into a hip-swivelling dance to a reggae tune being DJd tonight by their friend Keresi Balewai Rabuatoka - better known to us as our good friend Grace and to many Sydneysiders through her program ‘Fiji Australia Voice of the Community’ broadcasting regularly on Koori Radio 93.7FM.
Thanks to Grace, the relations between Addi Road and the Fiji community run pretty tight.
This weekend it will be marked by a three-day event starting on Friday night and running through Saturday and Sunday. By the way Grace and Jone both talk about it, you get the impression every Fijian in Sydney will be rocking along.
“Do you like seafood?” Grace asks me. She kisses her own fingertips. “Oh come along on the Saturday. We have seafood!”
Saturday is a very big day as it’s the hub of the whole event, marking Fiji’s 56th Independence Day Celebration. There will be music, singing, dancing and plenty of food stalls this October 10. “ALL WELCOME” Grace writes in caps as she lists the details.
Jone Vuki is actually Grace’s Sports News reporter for her Koori Radio show. They met on his home island of Taveuni back in 2004 and have stayed friends ever since. He’s been living in Sydney since 2020 for a whole bunch of reasons, but he maintains strong connections to Fiji and cultivates good relations with Australia through his love of rugby.
The weekend Independence day celebrations at Addi Road are actually being run by the Fiji Rugby League Association. The association name is a bit confusing but Jone says his main game is rugby union. Even so we digress into a very enthusiastic reflection on the Newcastle Knights performance in the recent NRL Grand Final. Jone has a soft spot for Newcastle, he says, a town he loves because it gave him a brief warm home when he first came to Australia.
His history is deceptively prestigious despite the affable modesty he exudes. Jone Vuki has been a major figure in Fiji at the grassroots level of rugby union, acting as a coach and then a major tournament organiser for 12 years.
He admits Fiji has had its problems with youth in the last decade. Things like sport, particularly the much loved game of rugby union, keep young men out of trouble and on track to better things by cultivating self-respect, good health and teamwork.
Jone claps his hands together and laughs. “You get them into train. You wear the energy out. And you let them get to sleep early.”
He smiles and laughs again. “The police like it when the tournaments are on. All the games start happening,” he says, lifting one hand high, “the crime rate goes down.” He sails his other hand over the table like a low flying plane. Amused and happy for all kinds of reasons.
“Our national team needs this culture. It is the grassroots feeding the bigger team. Many of the boys can dream of becoming part of this. They play their hearts out.”
Jone Vuki wants to show me a flower. “It only grows on my island of Taveuni. Nowhere else in the world.”
He finds a picture on his phone, points out its qualities… “Red on the outside, white on the inside, and when the white opens up it has a purple crown.”
This is the tagimoucia flower, only found on the hillsides of the island at 4200 feet.
“We have a story about the flower,” Jone tells me. “How a prince from another island fell in love with a lady on our island. They began mating. Somehow her brothers found out and they did not like it.
“The prince and the girl worked out a meeting place by a lake on top of the island. But the prince did not know the brothers knew a short-cut to the lake. They popped up when the prince and girl were together and killed him.”
“They say the girl in love was crying over the dead prince. And that her tears fell on the ground and mixed with his blood there on the soil. And this is how the flower came to be.”
Jone Vuki likes this story very much. He loves his flower, his island where this rarest of things grows. He loves his game of union and the good things that it does for all the young men he has helped and known.
He puts his phone away with its many photos of the tagimoucia flower, red and white with its hidden purple crown inside. Jone claps his hands one last time and laughs yet again. “We keep them out of mischief.”
- story MM
