from w
I don't know the rules about copyright but I did find lots of photos about Labasa and Vorovoro Island, mainly from tribewanted visitors. Now that their blogsite won't allow me to peek into their info about current happenings as I'm not a paid up member, there are other ways to sneak a look at their pictures! Flickr!
Here are some of the kids at Mali District School which is in Ligaulevu village, Mali and there's some pics of Tui Mali, the guys from Matailabasa, the floods and so on. Go Babasiga! Despite floods and cyclones!
Reminds me of the good old laid back way of life in the villages where time passes without a concern at all. A Fiji that still pulls us back every time we see or hear of it.
ReplyDeleteVillage life today is more complex than what used to be. The picturesque bures seem to have gone and there's a TV and videos in most houses. Usually one in every household has a waged job and perhaps a mobile phone.
ReplyDeleteBut the relationships still matter, the connectedness. Pio Manoa wrote a great poem about this aspect of Fijian culture,(on a FVB video) but didn't go far enough to include the non-indigenous people. A new poem is needed for today.
w.
What is the name of that poem by Pio Manoa? Would love to read it.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I haven't seen it printed anywhere but I wrote it down when I viewed an old Fiji Visitors Bureau promotion. Very old. There was a voice-over as the scenes changed.
ReplyDeletew.
This is it:
My home, it’s not just this house we live in. It’s that house next door and the next and the next. My home is this entire village and not this village. It’s also the next one and the next, and even those other ones across the sea. Home can be a spread of islands.
The land’s bounty and human toil, the fruits of earth, the gifts of earth, we bring our gifts of time and labour.
We work together to secure a place in the life cycle. The energies of the community meet and blend and are renewed in ceremony and ritual. Each one knows his place and function. The forms, the gifts of age, the collective wisdom of the old, the calm, the dignity, the depth, touch the living chord of our history.
The life chord is woven into this piece of earth. It is part of us as we are part of it. Touch this common pulse in us. Touch our living history. We will change as time directs the river to carry these hills down to the sea.
Sounds nice! Really reflects the art of communal living and sharing of the native Fijians. However, with this day and age, you're right too that some of it is slowly being lost to more pressure of having a nuclear family environment with high costs of things, urbanisation, etc.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the nuclear family idea is the norm for Fiji people. For example our son in Suva has a basic family of him, his wife, two kids, but usually also in the house are two cousins doing tertiary studies, and three or four other people.
ReplyDeleteEven for us - and me being a vavalagi, in our first year of marriage, there were usually us, grandma, a kid, a school-girl from Naikoro, a third cousin, a hanger-on, a guy chucked out by his wife, etc. etc. Actually I did get some of them to move on. For vavalagis the lack of privacy is difficult.
w.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteYou should still be able to view the Tribewanted blog, even if you're not a paid-up member.
Try this webpage
http://www.tribewanted.com/chiefs%2Dblog/
Yep, I could read Chief's blog but last week the extra links didn't work. Maybe now they are okay. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOh, ok. Yeah, if the link is to something that has been written on the forum, you won't be able to get into it, but, if there's something that you would like to read, send me an email at adamcarter@iinet.net.au and I'll see if I can get the information for you (I am a member of Tribewanted).
ReplyDeleteThanks Adam but I won't really be getting into email about it. It's just that the Mali people are our relatives and it all seems such a good news story.
ReplyDeletew.