Wednesday, November 02, 2005

once were warriors and probably like to think they still are

Happy Diwali everyone! Yesterday we had a public holiday to celebrate this Hindi festival of lights. I went out into the streets last night and all the Hindu households had their houses covered in lights and their lawns and steps lit up with candles. Then the air was filled with the smoke of firecrackers and you could hear the squeal of them as they explode dand combusted. I even held a few in my hand as they let out their balls of colored fire. I felt very daring. The last time I handled a firecracker with my own bare hands was when I was 14 just before they were all banned in Australia. They said Diwali was a bit boring and quiet this year as a number of the really good firecrackers have now been banned. Nothing for the young boys to blow their hands and faces off with now. What a shame. But I did enjoy eating the multi-coloured sweets and various curries which is all part of Diwali.

The last time I wrote was about going to Lautoka, a sugar making town on the west of the island I live on. Since then I have been to another sugar making town on the other main island of Vanua Levu (big land) called Labasa. Again amazing how different another place can be when it is only an hour’s flight north east of Suva. Labasa is basically a town with one main road that leads to the sugar mill and small roads coming off it where people live. It is dusty and drier than Suva. It also appears to be a muslim town with people wearing more traditional muslim attire. I went with a Rotuman, Fijian and Rabian (from the island of Rabi - looks Rotuman). Not only were we deaf and therefore signing in public but we were also different in skin hues from the majority of Indians. I found the staring hard work to ignore. People can stare a bit here in Suva because you do stand out a bit but the intensity was of a different level in Labasa. People would turn their heads, stop what they were doing, open their mouths, even make eyes at you. I mean we were a good looking group of people but I found it hard to take and even when I stared back or made an expression as if to say “yes?” the staring continued unabated.

The staring is balanced out by the friendliness of people though. Everyone says hello and being deaf as well you get cheaper taxi fares and even free entry into nightclubs. I am sure by the end of the weekend, the whole of Labasa town knew that there were 4 deaf people from Suva staying at the Takia Hotel and that two of them went to a night club on Saturday night.
The lone cinema shows only Hindi movies. Costs $2 in the stalls or $3 in the circle. It took me some time to decide which seat to buy! Remember in the old days, at the back of the cinema where you entered the dark space, they had a curtain which was pulled to block out the light? They still have that curtain in Labasa!

Fijians pride themselves on their physiques especially the men and I can say I really understand why. They are gorgeous looking people (especially the men). In particular they have perfect white dazzling teeth, long slender hands and fingers, perfectly clean and cut fingernails, there are plenty of 6-packs to be seen, muscular calves and thighs, thick luscious lips that put botox to shame, noble noses with slightly flared nostrils and they ALL have wonderful smiles.

There seems to be this warrior theme in Fiji which I am sure is related to their physiques but I have sensed it goes deeper than that. There are numerous shops in town that sell t-shirts with “Fiji Warrior” emblazoned on it and then a Sin City style cartoon of an overly muscular man wrestling a pig. The muscles would put the Incredible Hulk to shame. There are other shops that sell sulus (sarongs) with “Fiji Warrior” printed on them and again a picture of a Hulk or a man with a big Afro holding a war club. Alot of the postcards are photos of hulky Fijian men in traditional dress again titled “Fiji Warriors”. Even in my research work when I have asked for suggestions of names for Fiji Sign Language, people have come up with “Fiji Warrior Sign Language”! This all got me to thinking about where this has come from. I have been reading a book about the militarisation of Fiji. It talks about the role of the warriors in pre-colonial times called bati. Their role was to defend the land and the chiefs. Tribal wars were a way of life in Fiji and men were born and bred to become bati. There were ceremonies to celebrate the successes of the bati in protecting the tribe. It now looks like the Fiji military have taken on this role as they protect the chiefs, the government and those with power and wealth. Certainly many young Fijian men look up to the military and even copy their hairstyles and style of dress. The military, government and church are certainly interconnected here very tightly to protect the land of Fiji just like the warriors, chiefs and priests of earlier times were. When the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Australia, Alexander Downer made a passing visit (he drove by me as I walked home from work) and commented on how inappropriate and wrong it was for the military in Fiji to be making comments about the government and getting involved in the internal affairs of the country; he was howled down because the role of the military here IS just that and very different from the Australian military. Of course Downer was making the comment from the perspective of the role of the Australian military and implying that that is the ‘right’ way to be.

But back to the warriors.......I am very happy looking at them.

Music is almost non-existent in my life here. I have no TV, no stereo and no radio. I do find that my mind perhaps because of this drought has dredged up old songs from years ago that I never thought I would remember. I am also ‘hearing’ lots more static inside my head which not even my hearing aid is managing to mask anymore. But that might be due to other things. The only times I hear music is on the bus where it is blared out so much so that many people with normal hearing have to cover their ears. The other time I am lambasted with it is when I catch a mini-van. They are reknown for dangerous driving (they are cheap, fast and go 24 hours a day) and their music. Having been with a friend who has come to visit me lately, she has been able to inform me that the music which I thought was pacific islander ukele style is in fact Celine Dion set to reggae, or Australian Crawl set to reggae, or Kenny Rogers set to reggae or country and western set to reggae. When hanging out with the deaf community, sitting around a bowl of kava, the party is not considered complete unless the stereo with speakers the size of toilets are blaring out some reggae. It has to be of a level that deaf people can appreciate but that never seems to be a problem as most of the hearing people listen to it at the same level anyway.

We have had Spring here. I never thought of Fiji as a Spring-time kind of place but it happens. All of a sudden the ‘chill’ in the air has gone and I can now put away my knitted blanket which I used perhaps for 5 nights during the ‘winter’ season. We have frangipani’s blooming as well as a whole variety of ginger plants which have amazingly heavy and colorful flowers. The air is also alot steamier and we have had more rain again. It is also now hurricane season which will end in April. The cochroaches and ants have returned and the mildew on the walls has grown a little further.

When my friend visited we did a 2 day walk through the island of Viti Levu. We stayed in 2 villages along the way where we drank tea made from lemon leaves, had our bath in the river, drank the welcome bowl of kava, ate custard pie with lime green custard, ate lots of traditional Fijian food and saw the sight were the Reverend Baker was killed and eaten in 1867 or so. The story goes that Baker and his two Fijian assistants went into the highlands of the island which are known for having lots of warriors! They insulted a chief by touching his head and hair. This is a grave insult in Fijian culture and when in the company of a chief you would always try and walk so that your head it not higher than his or if you have to, you would ask to be excused for this. There is debate that Baker must have already known about the head touching taboo as he had been in the country some time so there must be more to the story but anyway, all three of them got killed probably by some warriors who probably used their war clubs to smash their skulls in. They were then eaten. I think meat would have been hard to come by as the village is quite isolated. Years later the chief of the village feels that because of this act, on their part, the village has been cursed and so to restore the spiritual balance he sets up a memorial to Rev Baker which is the site I saw. The chief himself is a strong Christian and chooses not to drink kava or eat meat.

During this walk, again I had the opportunity to marvel at the warrior-type physiques of our guides who rode their horses bareback, walked the 6 hours a day in flipflops or bare feet with absolute grace and never once stumbled while making the 20 river crossings through fast flowing water and a rocky riverbed. While I huffed and puffed, got wet, got blisters from my 20 kilo walking boots which we were all told we had to have, got a massive migraine from being dehydrated even though I was carrying 4 litres of water while they carried and drank no water at all!

Once again it has been a while since I have written. Time flies even in Fiji! I hope I have not written and rambled on too much.
Happy Diwali and I hope your lives are filled with light and sweetness. And if you like the look of warrior-types, that you get a sighting now and again.

Kete