Aminio Baledrokadroka

Aminio Baledrokadroka was the original leader of Fiji’s Methodist (Wesleyan) missionary band to New Britain Island Papua New Guinea in the latter part of the nineteenth century. He displayed excellent qualities of leadership in adversity and paved the way for later generations of native Fijian missionaries in spreading Christianity to other parts of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The mission to New Britain was launched in 1875 after the first Wesleyan missionaries Cargill and Cross brought Christianity to Fiji in 1835. Reverend George Brown, the organizer,after the tragic epidemic which killed 40,000 in Fiji that year, appealed to the students of Navuloa Methodist Mission School to embark on spreading the Christian gospel to their Melanesian brethrens. Brown emphasized to the zealous native Fijian converts the dangers involved in missionary work and pointed out that they might well be going to their deaths. It is recorded that the eighty three students who attended the misson school were present and heard Brown's appeal. They were also told to consult with their wives and families in deciding to volunteer for the mission. The Fiji Methodist Church which was then governed by the New South Wales Australia Wesleyan synod records that the whole enrolled student body offered to go and spread the faith.

The colonial government of the day created obstacles to the mounting of the mission, before those that were hand picked by Brown left the shores of Fiji, some never to return. By 1876 the new mission field in New Guinea which originally consisted of fourteen teacher's stations had been divided into two areas, one under Aminio and the other under Sailasa Naucukidi.

Thus began Fiji’s Wesleyan Church's Pacific Christian Missionary enterprise. In the year 1878, Sailasa the Fijian minister journeyed inland in New Britain with a small party preaching the Gospel.They were suddenly attacked, killed and their bodies dismembered and cannibalized.

The accounts of Aminio Baledrokadroka's deep faith are legendary in the Methodist Church of Fiji. He and his wife Lavenia Tupou returned to Fiji in 1885. He is buried at his village, in Nasaqalau, Lakeba, Lau.

References

THORNLEY, Andrew, 1982, ‘Custom, Change and Conflict: Fiji Wesleyan missionaries, 1835–1945’, in Melanesia: beyond diversity, vol.1, eds R.J. May and Hank Nelson, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.

TIPPETT, A.R., 1954, The Christian (Fiji 1835–1867), Auckland Institute and Museum, Auckland.

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