Distributing natural disaster aid within villages in developing countries strongly relies on village institution and governance. This paper examines mutual help and hierarchy as self-distribution mechanisms. Using original household survey data gathered in rural Fiji, the paper compares relief/early recovery phases (food aid) and recovery/reconstruction phase (housing construction materials). When aid is distributed as part of informal risk sharing, the validity of targeting performance, but not weak performance, is a primary issue. Social hierarchy leads to elite domination in aid distribution. The paper shows how kinship-based risk sharing and hierarchy interact with each other in distributing disaster aid.