Knowing our past for the future

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The skills and knowledge of learning in school before have evolved over the years. Picture: SUPPLIED

Part of schools’ extra curriculum in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s included the mentoring of students on traditional knowledge such as carving, sailing, weaving, dance, chants and traditional stories.

Many of us, who were students in those decades and perhaps students today in our villages, would be familiar with weaving, whether it be baskets or mats.

These knowledge and skills are also required when those baskets and hats become old and worn-out, the old strands need to be replaced with new strands.

The skills and knowledge have evolved over the years. Today, mats, baskets and hats are still being woven and sold in urban centres – one of ways many women earned their living.

A recent The Fiji Times article featured a young sister’s woven mat of the Fiji flag.

Nevertheless, weaving insofar as the tradition is concerned, involves three things: one is the indigenous knowledge and the technical skills of the past and present; the second is the spirituality that connects the weaver to the past and the purpose for which the weaving is done; and, the third, a certain moral responsibility to the future to ensure that the outcome is of quality.

In other words, the mat’s durability and resilience will depend on these three key elements – knowledge and skills, spirituality and moral responsibility.

So, what is this initiative ‘Reweaving the Ecological Mat’ or REM is about?

It is about three things: one is to develop what is called an ‘ecological framework for development’ or EFD; the second is to propose a way in which our wealth and losses can be measured more fully; and third, it is to produce educational materials on the EFD and the measures.

It draws from traditional knowledge, spirituality and religious values of stewardship as the strands to weave the kind of development that is durable and resilient. In short, the REM initiative is about strengthening the resilience of our people.

Dame Meg Taylor, in launching the REM publications, an initiative of the Pacific Theological College, the Pacific Conference of Churches and the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, in September, said “The ecology of our vast ocean, forests and natural environment underpins our wellbeing as Pacific peoples. Our cultural wellbeing is inseparable from our ocean ecology. Our food security is dependent on it. Our economies are driven by it, whether that be in the form of tuna fisheries, tourism, ecosystems or biodiversity, Perhaps, an answer on the viability of our Oceanic future, could lie in the protection of and accounting for our shared ecological biodiversity.” (PIFS, 2020).

In 2017, the PIF Leaders adopted the Blue Pacific, a conceptual framework for Pacific regionalism as its version of regional mapping.

This was intended to be the region’s political and economic leverage against the major powers.

It was adopted to be the region’s development framework to reshape regionalism and enhance regional cooperation in development, and its political framework to engage with the global powers.

However, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, self-determination in Pacific diplomacy and trade policy hangs in the balance. Most strikingly, it revealed

  •  The loss of resilience across all sectors of society; and
  •  The illusion of dependency on a flawed development model.

Much has been written on the flaws of the current model of development in the Pacific region.

These write-ups highlighted the extractive nature of development, its destructive ethics of ‘more and more’ and ‘growth’, and its anthropological assumptions that the natural environment is nothing more or less than a commodity for trade and exchange.

The consequence was the depletion of our region’s bio-diversity and our resilience.

Since then, people are intensifying their questioning about the prudence of the extractive development model, that on one hand, promises so much yet delivered so little, and on the other, stripped away our resilience and depleted our bio-diversity.

The COVID-19 provided, albeit regrettably, the ‘breathing space’ for human creativity and the agency of our duty of care to emerge.

It highlights the urgent need for a ‘sustainable and distributive household model of development’ as key to a new story of development.

It affirms the relevancy of traditional knowledge (indigenous and local knowledge) and religious values, concepts and worldviews in the push for a ‘Household’ model of development, one that strengthens resilience across all sectors of our Pacifi c societies.

Before the Secretary-General of the Pacifi c Islands Forum expressed her sentiments and the advent of Covid-19, the Pacifi c Church leaders discerned quite accurately, the debilitating nature of the region’s development trend.

Back in 2013, the Moderator of the Pacifi c Conference of Churches, Rev.

Dr Tevita Havea, warned that our region is in what he called “a context of insecurity” due to the pressure of multiple climate change impacts, and deep development and governance issues (2013:2-10).

If these are not addressed, he warned, violence would mark the development of the region in this new century (Ibid:10).

He then urged the churches in the assembly to work towards ensuring security by contributing towards the articulation of a ‘Household’ model of development that is cognizant with Pacific worldviews.

In concluding his remarks, he said that “the ultimate purpose of this task is to renew our people’s confidence and capacity to choose, act and take the responsibility to gift to the next generation a region
and societies that are much better than the ones we have now.” (Ibid:12)

In a recently published article, he and the Pacific Church Leaders called for a new story for our region.

“Let us map out a new way of living and relating to each other.

Let us draw from the wealth of resources in our cultural and faith traditions, and our hermeneutical experiences about God and what God is saying to us.” (2020:1-10)

Then he proposed that “development, politics and theology in our story of the New Normal will depend on how well we understand ecology as the fundamental framework of our region as ‘God’s household.”

And we need to anchor this framework in our philosophies, cultures and faith traditions, and the wisdom therein.

Unless we do this, development and its measures will continue to favour the few and disadvantage the many among us, and the ‘normal’ that was will be the story of the New Normal.

This is our task, not someone else’s.” (Ibid:8)

Is our old story still relevant? It is and it may be the only story – traditional knowledge, spirituality and moral responsibility – that could save us from the harm we are inflicting on our Pacific household.

The VOID Art Exhibition, and the fundraising dinner and auction, from October 27th — 30th at the Holiday Inn, is one significant aspect of weaving this new story of development.

The paintings that will be exhibited and auctioned, reveal the diverse dimensions of Pacific life.

They remind us of the values and perspectives of life that we need to capture in our weaving.

But more than, it is responding to an ancient call. As a dear friend recently wrote, “we are called, just like those who came before us.

It was and is gentleand genuine like a mother’s call.

It rang true through many generations of our liquid continent, and it still does today.

The mother’s call for us is to listen and rise.

In the weaving of our story, let us reframe to respond to the mother’s call.”

  •  Aisake Casimira is the director of the Institute for Mission and Research of the Pacific Theological College. The views and opinions expressed in this article are his and notof this newspaper.
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