What about a Bula Sia Festival?

from w
On a cold morning in Australia I read about the warm babasiga land and what Tui Macuata has to say about culture. Looks like he wants a kind of Bula Sia Festival to remind people of culture which may be disappearing. Which aspects of Fijian culture are the best to continue, and which actually needs to disappear? From my observations, many of the customs still take place. Anyway, a festival is usually a good thing as long as money is spent on the right purposes. Respect is the word for most situations, respect for families, elders and the needs also of children.
From Fiji Times today:

To keep their cultureTheresa Ralogaivau
Sunday, June 06, 2010

TO avoid a situation where they become strangers in their own land, Macuata chiefs have resolved to take cultural preservation to a new level. Following the footsteps taken by the people of Bua, Macuata is also proposing to stage a festival to showcase different cultural dances and songs, and other traditional habits unique to its 12 districts.

Roko Tui Macuata Sitiveni Lalibuli said cultural erosion had reached a state in the province with many habits fast dying out due to non use.

A provincial office delegation led by Mr Lalibuli attended the Bula Re Festival of arts and culture in Bua. "The Fijian race is the most unique in the world because when a baby is born he already belong to a certain mataqali, vanua, province and will inherit certain amount of land and so forth," he said. "Additionally the habits and cultural practices clearly set the indigenous race apart. "But the distinction is becoming blurry as most indigenous live the modern way and have forgotten their traditions and cultural practices and very soon will become strangers in their own land."

Sevu or offering of the first crop to chiefs and traditional rulers is also being enforced in the districts. Mr Lalibuli said these were habits that were once religiously practised but were hardly observed these days.
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May I be presumptuous and suggest that they go further than the usual mekes, speeches, and good food. Have workshops on the history of Macuata, get school children to interview old people and collect chants wuch as veitiqa (throwing) or how to choose a bride or groom throwing oranges, look at local dialects, look at local medicine trees. How many Macuata girls and boys (or their parents) have read the following book:
Histoire de Macuata : d'apres un manuscrit trouve a la mission catholique de Nabala, Macuata = History of Macuata : from a manuscript found in the Catholic mission, Nabala, Macuata / edited by Francoise Gardere and David Routledge
Book Bib ID 668274
Format Book
Description Suva, Fiji : Service culturel de l'Ambassade de France, c1991.
xviii, 78 p. : facsim., maps ; 21 cm.
Notes Parallel text in French and English.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 76) and index.
Subjects Oral tradition - Fiji. | Macuata (Fiji) - History. | Fiji - History.
Other Authors Routledge, David | Gardere, Francoise, 1949-

Or for that matter, read bits of a thesis at USP on the music and vanua of Labasa? There are plenty of chants and songs in that one. Ha ha.

Ratu Epeli visits Macuata

from Peceli,
I am happy to read that Ratu Epeli, the new President, is spending a week in Macuata which is a very practical thing to do, to get away from Suva's damp to the clean air of babasiga land. Macuata is the central area of development in Vanua Levu. Also there is a large Fiji Indian population connected with the sugar industry and Labasa town. Some time ago Ratu Jone Madraiwiwi visited Naduri and joined in the taralala with the Macuata people there. There is a good relationship between Macuata and Kubuna and the chiefly island of Bau. I read the story in yesterday's Fiji Sun.

President pays first visit to Macuata
11/9/2009
Just days after being sworn into office, President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau arrived in Labasa yesterday on his first official tour as President. The week-long tour begins this morning where the President is expected to travel with senior government officials to Dreketi, Batiri and Seaqaqa visiting agriculture and irrigation sites. Since the arrival of Ratu Epeli, police has beefed security with at least 50 officers working on the ground. Ratu Epeli was quickly whisked away to his hotel by his personnel soon after a brief meeting with senior government officials at the Waiqele airport.

Regional Police Commander Senior Superintendent Luke Qionibaravi said the paramount role of the police is to look after his security. SSP Qionibaravi police security will be accompanying the President during his week-long visit. "We are providing the best security until Saturday for the President to see that he is being taken care of."

Divisional Planning Officer Northern Ratu Eliki Tikoidraubuta said the President's first official visit will be restricted to Macuata. Ratu Eliki said the province is privileged to have the President visiting.

The President will also be chief guest at the Remembrance Day celebrations on Wednesday in Labasa.

He will also open the Macuata Provincial Council meeting on Thursday in Naduri.

According to his schedule, Ratu Epeli will pay school visits on Friday and the Labasa Town Council.
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from w
reposted from Fiji Village; And I wonder when he checked out the market did he really want to check out the public facilities? also, IMO these twenty minute dashes to inspect rice fields etc. may be good PR but unless they are followed up by the Agriculture departments aren't going to change anything. Actually, what is the role of a President, to open buildings, meetings, have a general overall look at the society, meet the people, be there when things get tangled up? Certainly it is good to see Ratu Epeli moving amidst the people and not sitting in his official office waiting to sign decrees!
President tours the North
Publish date/time: 11/11/2009 [11:51]
As the President tours the North this week, he has assured the farmers in Dreketi and Seaqaqa that the government knows the potential of rice farming. Ratu Epeli Nailatikau urged the farmers to work together with Agriculture officials in order to realize the pot of gold in the area.

Ratu Epeli visited the Dreketi Rice Irrigation, the Natural Seafood Company, the Taiwanese Timber Company which has been exporting timber from Vanua Levu to overseas buyers for some years now.

He told the farmers that it is the aim of the government to boost economic development in rural areas and enhance infrastructural development as priority. He told them not to lose hope but have faith and one day their problem will be taken care of.

Meanwhile, on his tour to the North visited a number of places in Labasa yesterday but people were shocked when Ratu Epeli made a surprise visit to the Labasa market. The President met the market vendors and exchanged some stories with them. Ratu Epeli also went to the extent of checking out the state of some public facilities in Labasa town.

The President will officially open the Macuata Provincial Council meeting in Naduri village tomorrow morning.

The pearls of Raviravi

from w
The women of Raviravi in Macuata are working hard in their collective to grow black pearls. Way to go, ladies.
article from Fiji Times today:
The hand that rocks the oysterSunday, May 25, 2008

Black pearls and their potential have attracted the women of Raviravi Village in Macuata. Fringed on three sides by the third largest reef in the world and sheltered on the other by a pristine swathe of lush Macuata coastline lies a simple waterborne shed from which protrudes several yards of wooden gangway and a floating pontoon.

The blue iron-roofed structure opens on three sides and no more than 20-feet square has been built out of exterior ply and home-grown flooring timber, as with the gangway, visually seductive with their uneven saw tooth finishes. The local artisans have left their charming indelible marks and unique workmanship on this quaint four-year old example of marine architecture known as the 'seeding shed'.

The small buoys at the front, gently bobbing up and down on the cut glass water, seem innocuous enough until you look closely and realise they have been laid out in an organised and highly structured grid pattern. It is only then that it dawns on you that something else is, quite literally, under foot.

Silently lurking in the depths of this stupendously beautiful marine park are about 15,000 Pinctada Margaritifera in various stages of strictly monitored incubation in vertically closed square nets distributed over 20 hectares.

After two or four years depending on whether they have been gathered wild or farmed from the start, they are harvested and prised open by inserting a small wooden wedge and a mounted clamp keeps the bivalve open wide enough for technician, Dionani Salaivanua, to extract a single gem - a black pearl.

Navatudua Pearl Farm, floating a few hundred metres off the north western flank of Vanua Levu, is a small intimate operation owned and managed by a 39-member women's collective from Raviravi, a village about 70 kms from Labasa and accessed only by 4WD in dry weather and by boat from neighbouring Navidamu Village during the wet season. The farm is an outcome of a Fisheries Department drive in 2004 to encourage maritime communities to invest in pearl farming as a sustainable source of income. The department provided the initial seeding costs of the oysters and equipment and support at the outset.

Trainee technician Alacia Diana trained for six months in pearl farm management at the Government Pearl Oyster Demo Farm set up in Savusavu in 2004. Ongoing aquaculture support and guidance is being provided by marine biologist Dr Maraia Haws from the University of Hawaii.

Other women are being trained as technicians, those who plant a 'seed' into each oyster thereby kick starting the coating process which eventually produces a pearl.

"The success of the harvest depends on how good the technician is at seeding the oyster. If the technician is good, about 60% of the oysters which are seeded will produce saleable pearls of which 10 per cent will be A grade, 10 per cent B-grade and the rest C-grade and 'circles'. So a major factor is how good the technician is," Diana said.

"The best technicians, who are mostly Japanese, get paid between $1000 and $2000 a day, so we're training our own technicians," she said. The farm harvests between 1500 and 3000 oysters between the cooler months of May and October when the bacteria levels in the sea are at their lowest.

Each oyster is retained and can be re-seeded up to four times after which they are retired back to the sea to breed, restock the reef and help maintain a large gene pool. All Navatudua pearls, which range in colour from a dusty ivory to ash to slate grey (none are actually black), are sold to buyers in Suva and Nadi and the occasional tourist who visits,

Earnings have fluctuated from year to year and as the farm is still in its infancy it is difficult to predict a regular annual profit margin. Diana says a 5-15% return on turnover on a good harvest would be a good return as there were a lot of factors which influenced this - whether the harvest had been a good one, the quality and health of the shells, the quality of the pearls themselves, whether the technician had done a good job and lastly, the weather.

Their dreams of becoming successful business women have been tempered by the reality of the nature of the operation - it is a hard grind with a two to four year waiting period for harvests, the lack of technical expertise which would maximise their return, the absence of good technical equipment and last but not the least, the need for crucial ongoing investment funds to keep the business, quite literally, afloat.

There is also competition from larger farms, Tahitian pearls, Chinese freshwater pearls and cultured pearls farmed in other countries. They are trying to break into the US with the help of the Fiji's Trade Commissioner in Los Angeles, Ilisoni Vuidreketi.

So far most of the profits have gone back in the business. They've invested in two boats and equipment. The rest has gone into electrifying the village, rebuilding the hall, building a kindergarten (since collapsed) and setting up a scholarship fund. The women also run a shop.

Work on the farm itself is done by the women on an 8am-4pm shift rotating shift basis and between 7am-5pm during seeding season. The men are co-opted for the heavy building and maintenance work and any scuba diving required.

It is a fledgling business and after four years the women are still coming to grips with the complexities of running a complex and highly technical operation, not to mention having to grapple with the sales and marketing side.

Hard as it is the women are driven by the benefits their unstinting efforts so far have had on the upkeep of the village and the welfare of the villagers, especially the children. The business has catapulted them and Raviravi smack bang into the shrewd face of the global gem market and the often exasperating fluctuations in the US Dollar on which the price of black pearls is based.

It is a small cog in a very big wheel, but a cog nevertheless, and a very special cog at that.

Vanua Levu - small news items

from w
Bits and pieces relevant to Vanua Levu were in today's news - from more help to Cikobia, re-thinking about qoliqoli, to a dream-on workshop, a muck-up at Labasa hospital, (cartoon) and a trip by interim leaders. Hmmm. There's so much 'dream-on' talk but who is really gettin' on with the plantin' of food crops and fixin' the roads, etc. etc. etc. as the King of Siam once said (in a film version of course).

A letter to the Fiji Times editor complained about waiting at Labasa hospital with a chest pain while all and sundry were at the Labasa airport going through a drill of a small disaster - but it wasn't real!

GOOD TO HELP THESE VILLAGERS AS THE CROPS TAKE TIME TO GROW.
More Daman relief reaches Cikobia
3-Apr-2008 09:57 AM THIRTY-six families in Cikobia that were affected by cyclone Daman have received additional farming assistance from the Ministry of Primary Industries through its Cikobia Rehabilitation Programme. A team of agricultural officers from the northern division led by the Principal Agriculture Officer (Northern), Ilaitia Naigani visited the island last week to hand out the farming implements to the affected families.

After a survey done by agriculture officials, a report was tabled to the Disaster Management Committee (DISMAC) who then submitted it to the Cabinet. Naigani said that the assistance worth $19,000 would benefit the families as they only plant for food security. “After cyclone Daman hit Cikobia Island, the ministry acted quickly and handed out to the families, kumala planting materials in January which have already been planted and is growing well on the island,” he said. “With the assistance that we have been granted, we purchased more root-crop planting materials, knapsack sprayers, vegetable seeds and fertiliser,” he added. Naigani said since the families live far off from the main land, they would only concentrate on rehabilitating their farms and food gardens for their own consumption. “These families only plant for their needs and the Cikobia Rehabilitation Programme is part of the Agriculture Department’s Vision of providing food and income security for all,” explained Naigani.

Recipients of the assistance were happy and will begin their farming activities after training courses with the agriculture extension staff. Headman of Vuninuku Village, Mesulame Ratulevu was happy that they were now able to plant a variety of produce for their family meals. The Agriculture Department would also be working with the Coconut Industry Development Authority (CIDA) in assisting the families on the island with a coconut nursery.

NOW ABOUT FISHING OFF THE COAST - IT'S RELEVANT BECAUSE THE GUYS ON THE SUPER-SIZE FISHING BOATS SNEAK INTO THE ONSHORE REEF AREAS TO CLEAN UP THE FISH FOR THEIR BAIT. BUT THE FEE SHOULDN'T APPLY TO SMALL LOCAL FISHING ENTERPRISES IN MY OPINION.
From Fiji radio
A $20,000 entry fee imposed on companies buying marine resources from Macuata has been put on hold. A province qoliqoli committee shocked many earlier this year when it imposed a $20,000 entry fee into Macuata fishing grounds. Tui Macuata, Ratu Aisea Katonivere says they are carrying out discussions with the Fiji Trade and Investment Board on the issue of business licenses. Ratu Aisea says these buyers are one of the reasons behind over-fishing in provincial waters. “Well FTIB issues their business licenses. It’s the fisheries that give the licence. But with them having the money up here it causes the people to go and over-fish and over extract so the element of control is minimum because we have no other alternative so it will be a catch 22 situation,” he added. Ratu Aisea adds marine protected areas have made Macuata waters the richest in the country and that could easily change if controls are not placed on over-fishing.

EXPECT MORE LATER ON ABOUT THIS TOUR
Interim ministers on North tour
SERAFINA SILAITOGA
Thursday, April 03, 2008
TWO interim ministers will visit the north today but on different schedules.
While the interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama will visit government departments and the Labasa Hospital, interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry will visit cane farmers in the Labasa area. Mr Chaudhry is expected to arrive by plane this morning while Commodore Bainimarama will arrive at Nabouwalu by boat. Commissioner Northern Inia Seruiratu said Commodore Bainimarama would visit areas in the provinces of Bua, Macuata and Cakaudrove. "It's a tour of the division and he is also interested in seeing the much talked about road conditions in the division," Mr Seruiratu said.

Commodore Bainimarama is expected to visit the Public Works Department depot at Nabouwalu after arriving by boat and is expected to be at the Labasa Hospital later in the afternoon. He will also pay a visit to Labasa Town councillors and have a brief discussion with them on development issues. Commodore Bainimarama is expected to visit Seaqaqa, Batiri and Savusavu areas on Friday before returning to Suva on Saturday. NFU executive Rosan Lal said the farmers were all looking forward to the visit by Mr Chaudhry.

AND A DREAM-ON WORKSHOP AND WHAT IS THIS WORD 'BELONGINGNESS"?
Learn new ways, chief saysSERAFINA SILAITOGA
Thursday, April 03, 2008

TUI Macuata Ratu Aisea Katonivere yesterday told participants of a community based workshop that there was a need to learn new ways of understanding people of many races, cultures and religions. His comments come as participants at the 'Sustained Dailogue on Identity and Belongingness in Fiji' workshop were encouraged to work towards finding a sense of belongingness and identity for the people of Fiji.
"We need to seriously survey the landscape of our mindsets and entrench patterns of interaction from which we view ourselves as insiders and outsiders," he said.
"Today, we can begin to recognise and acknowledge the challenges that threaten to blight our efforts of becoming a people and of building a common destiny." He encouraged participants to use the seminar as a platform of bringing people together to build a better Fiji. "This opportunity can be an opportunity for us to use to increase dialogue about issues related to identity and belongingness in Fiji. "We readily accept ethnic separateness as normal part of our national life in a way that our mutual fears and distrust have become greater than the risks of forging real bonds of friendship, collaboration and unity," Ratu Aisea said. He told the participants that after having four coups in Fiji, acknowledging fear in the community amongst people was more then enough reason to experience. "Our responses to issues that deeply divide us have been more the classic mode of fight or flight but hardly dialogue or we sit and wait for others to do the talking for us or even wait for others to facilitate space for us to talk like such seminars," Ratu Aisea said.

University of the South Pacific's Professor Vijay Naidu said that in this time of globalisation, there was a need for national harmony and stability to take Fiji forward for the benefit of all its citizens. "All leaders have special responsibility in promoting a more inclusive sense of the nation that goes beyond ethnic exclusiveness. "We have many identities and we belong to many groups and the possibility of making choices about which identity we use depends on us," Professor Naidu said. The three-day workshop at the Saint Mary's hall in Labasa ends tomorrow.

Going softly softly with turtles

from w
There is still talk in the Fiji papers about the turtle-catching in Macuata and even 'Have your say' resulted in a hundred or more responses - many silly.

I saw this photo with an article in the Fiji Times which revealed the Fisheries Department as going just too softly softly. The photo of baby turtles is from Treasure Island and I just wonder how successful this project is in getting the baby turtles safely on their way to adulthood.

One writer in 'Have your say' said he was making T-shirts with SAVE THE TURTLE on them and also EAT A METHODIST! It's a printer from Savusavu and he's making 50 t-shirts for starters! Fiji Times today wrote about it. The pic below is not the Savusavu design.


Three websites worth visiting are I.
Article about turtles in the Pacific and 2. from wildlife activists
and 3. a good website and a story about education about turtles in rural schools
Kia Island is of course a small island west of Vorovoro and Mali Islands and many of the people there are traditional fishermen and women.