TheHouse of Chiefs inFiji consists of the Fijian nobility, composed of about seventychiefs of various ranks, majority of which are related. It is not a formal political body and is not the same as theGreat Council of Chiefs, a political body which had a prescribed role under the1997 Constitution of Fiji, although the membership of the two bodies did overlap to a great extent.

Fijian society is traditionally very stratified. A hierarchy of chiefs presides over villages(koro), sub-districts(tikina vou), districts(tikina cokavata), and provinces(yasana). These administrative divisions generally correspond roughly with the social units of the extended family(tokatoka), clan(mataqali), tribe(yavusa), and land(vanua). Each mataqali is presided over by a chief, styledRatu if male orAdi (pronouncedAhn-di) if female. Chiefs presiding over units above the mataqali have other, more prestigious titles, although they, too, are typically addressed and referred to asRatu orAdi, although there are regional variations. InRewa,Ro is used instead ofRatu andAdi, while in theLau IslandsRoko is used. InKadavu Group and in the west of Fiji,Bulou substitutes forAdi. The method of appointing chiefs is not uniform, although the position is generally held for life (with some exceptions) and there is a hereditary element, although the son of a chief does not automatically succeed to the position on his father's death. A chief may hold more than one title, just as apeer may in the United Kingdom; the lateRatu Sir Kamisese Mara, for example, was bothTui Nayau andTui Lau.

For administrative purposes, Fiji is divided into fourteen provinces, each of which has aProvincial Council in which the chiefs from the province are represented, along with commoners. Each Provincial Council is headed by aRoko Tui, whose appointment must be approved by theFijian Affairs Board, a government department, which must also approve all bylaws passed and taxes levied by the Councils. (Titles can be deceptive: not every chief styledRoko Tui heads a Provincial Council). The Provincial Councils are significant in that they not only administer communally owned land (more than 80 percent of Fiji's total land area), but also elected most of the representatives to the Great Council of Chiefs. Moreover, the Great Council of Chiefs, which was charged with choosing 14 of the 32 members of theFijian Senate, theupper house of theParliament, normally delegated that task to the fourteen Provincial Councils.

All of the chiefs also belong to one of three confederacies:Kubuna,Burebasaga, andTovata. For the most part, the boundaries of the confederacies correspond to the boundaries of the provinces. An anomaly exists in the west of the country, where the provinces ofBa andRa are split between the confederacies ofKubuna andBurebasaga. This does not affect administration, however, as the confederacies and the provinces fulfill different roles, the former being based on the relationship of chiefs and clans, and the latter being formal political entities.

The highest chiefly title, theTui Viti (King of Fiji), has been vacant since 1874, whenKingSeru Epenisa Cakobau and other prominent chiefs ceded the islands to the United Kingdom. But the Tui Viti title was relatively new; it was never a traditional kingly title of Fiji, but came into being after the death ofTanoa Visawaqa and the rise of his sonSeru Epenisa Cakobau who proclaimed himself Tui Viti after conquering much of Fiji and persuading his fellow-chiefs to recognize him as their overlord.

However the title has been recognised since that time and the British monarch has filled a similar role since; even since Fiji became a republic in 1987, the former Great Council of Chiefs continued to recogniseQueen Elizabeth II as its most senior chief, even though she ceased to beQueen of Fiji afterSitiveni Rabuka's two military coups in 1987, which overthrew theDominion of Fiji and the1970 Constitution of Fiji.

The following table depicts Fiji's districts, sub-districts, and villages, with their chiefs. Each chief, if known, is named in italics under his or her full formal title, which is in bold. The majority of chiefs rule over a group of villages(koro) belonging to aTikina Vou (sub-district); someTikina Vou are subdivided into two or more groupings of villages, each with its own chief. In a few cases, two groups of villages, or even two sub-districts, share a single chief. This is more common inNaitasiri Province than elsewhere. In the table, this is indicated by backgrounding in the same colour the areas shared by a chief. TheLau Islands are an anomaly: unlike the other provinces, their districts are not divided into sub-districts. All the 14 provinces have their own paramount chief with exceptions to Kadavu.Kadavu Province has nine chiefs; all are paramount in their own districts.

The districts, sub-districts, and villages are arranged, not alphabetically, but in theorder of precedence of their chiefs. This order is not without controversy, but protocol generally observes it.

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• Malvatu Mauri (House of Chiefs) ofVanuatu

• Tui Viti and 1st Vunivalu of KubunaNakorotubu District
• Bula Vakavanua, by Semi B Seruvakula – 2000 – Ethnology (Fiji); Fijians (Social life and customs)reference to chart composition
• Fiji and the Fijians by Thomas Williams, James Calvertreference to Tui Viti title Chapter 2 Pages 33–34, also good reference for social structure and villages and titles
• The World of Talk on a Fijian Island: An Ethnography of Law and Communicative Causation – Page 64, by Andrew Arno – 1993,reference on social structures such as Yavusa, Matagali and Tokatoka along with other aspects

• Ai Cavuti
• web article listing women Chiefs refer briefly to [./Http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/Fiji%20Heads.htm^{[permanent dead link]} House of Chiefs] as some were members

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