Vaka is the standard Polynesian word for a canoe (in NZ Maori: Waka). We published a book called Nga Waka Maori about them in 1998. This is the star exhibit in the Fiji Museum - info here
And while on the subject of Suva, below is the Parliament House as seen from the locked gates, used occasionally in between military dictatorships. These have had a noticable detrimental effect on the economy; according to Geoff Churchman who took these pics:
"We gave an ethnic Indian taxi driver $US 50 to show us around, which he did for 90 minutes. The roads had seen little if any maintenance for a long time, and vehicles often emitted large amounts of smoke. While going down a hill he said he had better pull over and let a truck behind go in front, in case it had no brakes! He wasn't complimentary about ethnic Fijians, which was no surprise, but he showed us land which used to grow rice and other crops and now only grew weeds after the ethnic Fijians had taken it back from the Indians. He said the economy kept going down and that was reasonably obvious. At least there was a big new stadium for rugby matches."
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