Fiji is made up of more than 330 islands, though only about a third of them are permanently inhabited, spread across the South Pacific with the two largest, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, accounting for the vast majority of the country’s population and land area. That geographic spread has shaped Fijian identity around the sea itself as much as any single landmass, traditional voyaging canoes, drua, historically connected communities across enormous stretches of open ocean long before modern transport existed.

Fiji’s population reflects a genuinely layered colonial history, roughly equal parts Indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian, descendants of indentured labourers brought by British colonial administrators to work sugar plantations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a demographic legacy that continues to shape the country’s culture, cuisine, and politics today.

A Reef System Rivalling the Great Barrier Reef

Fiji sits within the Coral Triangle, one of the most biodiverse marine regions on Earth, and is home to the Great Astrolabe Reef, one of the largest barrier reefs in the world, drawing divers specifically for soft coral formations considered among the most vivid and varied anywhere on the planet. The country has increasingly positioned itself as a leader in Pacific marine conservation, establishing significant marine protected areas in response to both tourism value and the existential threat rising sea levels pose to low-lying Pacific nations.

Traditional Fijian villages still operate under a chiefly system that predates colonial contact, and visitors to many islands take part in a kava ceremony, a traditional welcome involving a mildly sedative drink made from ground pepper plant root, a custom carrying genuine social and diplomatic weight rather than functioning merely as tourist performance.

Painting Islands Scattered Across Open Water

The scattered green islands and vivid turquoise water of Fiji give a watercolourist an expansive, island-dotted horizon to work with. We’ve captured that scattered beauty in our own Fiji Watercolor Print, painted first by hand and printed to order on archival paper, a small piece of the South Pacific for a wall at home.

Held together by ocean rather than land, Fiji remains a nation whose true geography has always been measured as much in water as in islands.