Monday, Orientation Day

Today was orientation day, and we were the guests at a traditional ceremony welcoming us to the vanua. This ceremony involved a formal introduction and acceptance, a kava ceremony, speeches and a meke performance at the end.

Shots from the (very impressive) meke performance

The meke was fantastic, incredibly energetic and entertaining, and the level of effort and dedication required from the Conservatorium students was amazing. Practices are every afternoon, and classes include a range of handicrafts, including masi making and weaving. One of the students mentioned that this is so they are all capable of producing their own costumes, as well as weaving the mats they perform on, which is a really interesting way of preserving the more intangible aspects of heritage and culture. The knowledge that the students must develop in their three years of study is impressive in its scope. Though I'm not going to be involved in the Living Human Treasures project at the Arts Council, I was listening as the group discussed the brief, and this kind of preservation of knowledge and practice seem to be what that project aims to accomplish.

The formal introduction was, we were told, much abbreviated for our sakes. Despite the fact that we were all English speakers (and the guests not Fijian speakers), however, the introduction and acceptance was performed in Fijian. Accepting the welcome and speaking on our behalf was Jeff, a Fijian lecturer at the Conservatorium. We were then welcomed with an elaborate kava ceremony, the kind reserved for high chiefs and distinguished guests. This reminded me of an assignment I did for Introduction to Pacific Languages. It was an analysis of Maori rituals of encounter, a breakdown of the same kind of welcoming ceremony. The article associated with the assignment described the use of English in the ceremony as 'an insult [...] at worst, a foolish mistake at best', and the ceremony was disrupted by the hosts. Though English was used in the speeches, it wasn't in the formal sections of the ceremony, no doubt for the same reason. When the group being welcomed was not Maori or had no Maori speakers, a representative was to be employed, just as Jeff spoke for us today. The Maori welcoming ceremony also had different levels of elaboration depending on the status of the visitors, just as the kava ceremony today. The comparisons between the two are interesting, and though there are definite differences between the form and style of the ceremonies, the similarities were intriguing.

Preparing the kava

Though I have only glanced at Epeli Hau'ofa's 'The Ocean in Us', the content did seem to indicate a discussion of cultural similarities across the Pacific, and was certainly prefaced with a quote of Teresia Teiawa's which encompassed this concept. I'm not sure yet if this is a more general discussion, but after making these (possibly somewhat obscure) connections, it is an area that I will have to further explore after today – starting I think with 'The Ocean in Us', and the Teiawa article the quote was taken from.