The first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about five thousand years ago.

Pottery art from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled before or around 3500–1000 BCE, although the question of Pacific migration still lingers.

Lapita pottery shards have been found at numerous excavations around the country.

It is believed that the Lapita people or the ancestors of the Polynesians settled the islands first but not much is known of what became of them after the Melanesians arrived; they may have had some influence on the new culture, and archaeological evidence shows that they would have then moved on to Tonga, Samoa and even Hawai'i.

Aspects of Fijian culture are similar to Melanesian culture to the western Pacific but have stronger connection to the older Polynesian cultures such as those of Samoa and Tonga.

Trade between these three nations long before European contact is quite obvious with canoes made from native Fijian trees found in Tonga and Tongan words being part of the language of the Lau group of islands.

Pots made in Fiji have been found in Samoa and even the Marquesas Islands.