The white sands of Namatakula have nurtured generations of world-class rugby talent but rising sea levels threaten to force the abandonment of the palm-fringed village on Fiji's Coral Coast within a few years.
The village is deemed "at risk" by Fiji's government and headman Josevata Nagausaukula contemplates a future in which children now honing their rugby skills have been shifted, with their families, to higher ground inland.
"Before it was pure sand, just sand, no rocks," added Nagausaukula, holding a handful of stones. "It was a playground in here ... just because of climate change and the rising of sea levels it has been washed away." "Almost every year a new player comes up," he said. "We don't know whether it's in the genes, it's in our biological characteristics or it's in the food or it's in the water."
"Rugby has contributed so much, not only relation sports, but for our economic achievement villages had and our social development," Kuridrani adds.Village life is central to the identity of Fijians and the 600 residents of Namatakula are determined not to leave their home, where the daily kava-drinking ritual brings the community together.
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