A three-day bamboo furniture workshop at the Fiji Museum in Suva is the latest sign that Fiji is serious about turning bamboo into a proper industry — and it comes with Indonesia's backing.
Hosted by the Indonesian Embassy in Suva together with the Fiji Museum and the Fiji-Indonesia Friendship Association, the workshop brought participants together to learn both traditional and modern bamboo techniques, with furniture-making at the centre. Indonesian Ambassador Dupito Darma Simamora framed it as a continuation of existing cooperation, pointing to the Namosi Bamboo Project as the foundation for what he hopes will be a long-term partnership.
There's a next step, too: two participants from Namosi will travel to Indonesia for two weeks of training, joining roughly 40 other participants from Fiji and across the Pacific. That kind of hands-on exchange matters more than a one-off workshop — skills in joinery, treatment and design are what turn a fast-growing raw material into sellable products.
Fiji Museum Co-Lead Ratu Jone Balenaivalu said momentum behind Fiji's bamboo sector is building, and stressed the point of the exercise goes beyond craft. In his words, it's about knowledge transfer, technical innovation and community empowerment. Ratu Tui Cavulati, president of the friendship association and a former Fijian ambassador to Indonesia, made the economic case: bamboo is readily available in Fiji, and craft skills give rural communities a realistic path to small, viable businesses.
For travellers, this is a quiet but interesting development. Fijian craft is a big part of why people fall for the country beyond the beaches — the markets, the masi cloth, the woodwork — and a homegrown bamboo furniture and design scene could add a genuinely sustainable souvenir option in the years ahead. The Fiji Museum itself, right in Suva's Thurston Gardens, is worth an hour or two of any visit to the capital, and initiatives like this give you a reason to keep an eye on local craft exhibitions and events when you're in town.
One more practical note from the embassy: an Indonesian Navy hospital ship will be in Suva from October 9 to 13, with an open-ship programme on October 9 and 10 and free health services for around 500 Fijians on October 11 and 12. If you happen to be in the capital that week, the open-ship days are an unusual bit of port-side spectacle.
The bigger picture is that Fiji is investing in livelihoods that don't depend on tourism alone — and travellers who care about buying local will be the beneficiaries.
Story via Islands Business.
