Recently we have celebrated Girmit and Ratu Sukuna after a lapse of some years. People complain of the money spent, and perhaps we should celebrate a little less expensively! Despite the cost, these celebrations of remembrance have a deep value for us. They are an important part of our history. They have many lessons to teach us that will help us improve our modern ways that seem to be so dominated by speed and money. Years ago the Reverend James Bhagwan said, and I quote: “In our desire to move forward, history is a map. It shows us where we are and where we have been and helps us to figure out how to get where we need to go”. We can learn much from studying the past. We see the mistakes and can learn not to repeat them. We can learn a great deal about how people lived before our modern times. They survived conditions that we no longer face nor do we understand. There are times when we need the wisdom that the past has to offer us.
Wisdom from the past
In the Bible we read in The Book of Proverbs Chapter 8: “Hear how wisdom calls and understanding lifts her voice. She takes her stand at the crossroads, by the wayside, at the top of the hill … at the entrance to the city. ‘It is to you, mankind, I appeal; understand, you simpletons, what it is to be shrewd; you stupid people, understand what is to have sense’.” Now, when we want wisdom we turn to Google. Google gives the facts, but is not a good source of wisdom. In our twenty-first century of technology and the blooming artificial intelligence, it is wise for us to look back and learn from the slower ways of olden times. One thing that immediately comes to mind is the way we speed up and down our roads putting ourselves and others into great danger, because we cannot waste time. Perhaps we should treasure our Fijian culture of arriving late for meetings!
Medical wisdom from the past
Today, when we have a medical problem we rush to the hospital. The busy doctor orders blood tests and scans or hospitalisation. In the past a doctor had time to examine thoroughly before making any decisions. In the 1960s Dr George Hemming ran the Bayley Clinic and he worked tirelessly at little or no cost to us patients, depending on how much we could afford, usually seeing two patients at once, one on each side of his table. He was excellent at making the right diagnosis. He would send us home with good advice and sometimes a trip to the pharmacy on the way, but we rarely had to return to him. I guess it was his experience and his special gift. But hospital referrals, blood tests and scans, if there were such things in the ’60s and ’70s, were rarely part of his advice, and only when necessary. In the distant past, we went into the garden or the forest, or sent someone to find suitable plants and often a special brew would be made, or certain leaves applied to a hurting limb. I know the modern medical world does not often accept the validity of those old remedies, but many did work well, and we should be sensible enough to make room for both the old and the new. Suliana Siwatibau has given us a wonderful book with details of our natural medicines and remedies waiting for us out there. Sadly, with our modern rush to live in urban centres these natural gifts of our Creator are not so easily available.
The wisdom in other histories
Let us treasure our history, and we are blessed here in Fiji with histories from our different ethnic groups that can all assist us in our quest to move forward wisely. This is why it is good to remember the harsh times of Girmit, and why it is important to celebrate Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna. What is taught to our children now in their history classes? In the earlier days of education in this country, just as I learned in school as a child in England, the rich histories of the European nations, especially the mediterranean stories of ancient Greece and Rome, the Egyptian pharaohs and the pyramids were studied and we even learnt of pre-historic times and the development of early human beings. These did not always fit with the Bibles stories, but many ancient stories have much to offer us and can be valued for the wisdom they hold rather than facts.
Our religions are a source of wisdom
The religious books of our different faiths have much to offer us, vast amounts of wisdom lie in their stories from the past, and they have much good advice. Our faiths teach us the values that we are rapidly losing to the detriment of our society as a whole. The Vedas of the Indians are full of wisdom and Upanishads emphasise harmony of the people with the rest of the universe, including others, the Divine and the environment. The Muslim scriptures, known as the Koran, is full of teaching as the life of the Prophet is revealed. The Bible has history, stories, and writings that are full of wisdom.
In the Bible we find story of the young shepherd boy who was not afraid to take his sling shot and slay the gigantic Philistine who was terrifying the army. When we celebrate Ratu Sukuna, we remember that when World War I broke out, he left his studies in Oxford, in England, and tried to enlist in the British Army. When they refused to let him enlist, he went to the French Foreign Legion and fought bravely in the terrible conditions of that war, winning medals for his bravery.
Need for bravery today
Such bravery is an example for all our young people. They do not have to try and enlist in an army, there is so much to fight for in the war against drugs and other problems enticing them away from studies and work. They have a lot to learn that needs bravery as they navigate their way through their teenage years and the move into further study or the workplace environments. The bravery of the indentured labourers gave them strength to survive in the foreign environment of Fiji, with little provision for their necessities of life and with many other hardships, working in the cane fields. There are lessons here for our modern youth, particularly those expecting scholarships and lazily wandering through some years of study without managing to achieve anything, causing frustration to parents and members of the scholarship boards. When we see the olden ways of doing things, like grinding the grains by hand, and working together in groups. Then the women could talk and laugh together at some of the hardships. Those old ways can teach us how to work hard. Working hard together can be surprisingly enjoyable when everyone does their best. There is much satisfaction in using the old skills which bring a great sense of achievement. The sensible cook, the mother who stays home to care for children, family and kitchen, can gain great personal sense of pride when the baking goes well, or when she can present the family with homemade jam or chutney instead of running to the supermarket. The children do not need snacks, none of us do, except perhaps just occasionally for some fun together. In the old days mum would rustle up something good in the kitchen.
The climate question
Today we are greatly troubled by the changing climate; weather patterns are different and our seas are beginning to swallow up our coast lines and submerge the smaller islands. We need to look back and learn from the past. Recovery from a cyclone was not dependent upon aid from others. Rural communities built houses that were reparable, being made out of local natural materials. Flying sheets of roofing iron were not there to injure people and damage other buildings. Our forefathers were good at weather forecasting. They had methods of food preservation for hard times.
Agricultural practices are suffering. Now we are having to learn how to grow foods organically using the old ways of the past, before pesticides and weedkillers came to poison the soils. We should be grateful to those scholars who are searching the old ways and reviving the old customs that can benefit us.
Sources of money
In our need for money we turn to mining and logging. The damage to the world’s forests is causing much of the climate problem. Mining is destroying our lands and with the land away goes our traditional ways of using the land benevolently, giving it necessary time to lie fallow. Village life is doomed by our need for metals that take away the land that the villagers have used traditionally over the centuries. We damage our rivers and creeks taking gravel for our roads, and building dams to supply electricity. Of course we don’t want to return to the days of candles and lanterns, but do we really need all those air-conditioners. Can we use other forms of power like the wind? Many of us make use of the sunshine. Other countries in cooler climates have mined for coal to give them the heat and power that they need Now we understand that coal extraction and the use of coal are causing a great deal of damage. Some of us have been complaining of cold nights in this sudden change to cool season conditions. We turn to blankets and wrap ourselves up. Do the Inuit people in the cold arctic regions still build igloos? They knew the ways to keep warm in houses built of snow and ice. Surely we can find ways to raise money ourselves without having to bring in mining companies, and without damaging our beautiful yet increasingly fragile country. The big increase in women, mostly working from home, in small businesses is an example to our young men. There are so many opportunities to build their own fortune like these women if they cannot find employment in a workplace. Life is so much richer if the skills and resources available are developed, and young people work together instead of roaming the streets, falling into bad habits that destroy life. All it needs is a good look at our heroes and heroines, and the wisdom of the past, some initiative and some bravery and our little country will grow, develop and prosper.
Conclusion
We sit like wrecks on a reef, our phones in our hands, helpless in the face of the rising tides of drugs, rising costs, and disasters. Unless we make some big changes in our life styles and learn from the past we will never succeed in making our country the paradise of which we dream.
- TESSA MACKENZIE is a regular contributor to this newspaper. The views expressed here are that of the author and not necessarily that of this publication.