Tribewanted: Vorovoro

In the Fijian culture family relations are everything, your cousins become your brother and sisters, your “aunties” your multiple mothers. Extended family is who you depend on and they are all very close, no matter where they are. The endearing term for brothers and sisters varies according to your birth order, if your brother or sister is older, you call them Toca-qu (pronounced tocangu) if younger, Taci-gu (tathingu) – there are some variations on that but I won’t elaborate, that is as far as I have gotten. One of my greatest joys here has been in one month’s time to establish a personal rapport with each of the guys who are here all week to work, discovering the personalities of each and their particular strengths. They now call me “Toca-qu” or older sister, and I call Va and Frances Toca-qu in turn. The guys are all Taci-qu to me. It creates a bond and a respect, and it is infinitely satisfying to be able to have this rapport.

Watching the men work together here is always great fun as any work is not to be born but to be enjoyed; it is a game, there is always a lot of teasing and laughter, and if the work might progress a little more slowly so be it, what ever is built will be imbued with joy.
I won’t talk about this being my last week, it is too hard to do! I am treating it as another week like the other three, and just hoping that all that I have been doing this month will carry over with the next chief, finishing the ongoing facelift of the village, and always looking for where we can make things better, moving the Tribewanted project always forward.

Tribewanted is an experiment that has never been tried here, and who knows to what extent in other countries. To keep it alive and well takes constant evaluation and constructive criticism. Just because we started with a particular organization does not mean it is written in stone and cannot be improved upon. Once you have a system in place, then and only then can you see where it works and where it does not.
SaraJane is on the island this week and a lot of discussion has gone on about the organization of the work, the kitchen, the rapport between the “gapers and tribe administrators”. Working to give more definition to the individual roles and responsibilities, the collaboration and work load for each, and to keep fresh in each person’s mind that what our role is here primarily is to be part of the tribe, representing them and making it all work.

We all feel a particular kinship here after a short time, we all feel attached to the island and it becomes a part of us; we want to protect this relationship and sometimes become jealous of it or of our role here, and this has been a reoccurring source of conflict among who is here representing the tribe and who is newly arrived. Defining each person’s role and evaluating how we are interacting or not, keeps the project from stagnating from an administrative point of view. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes here to keep “camp Vorvoro” working that most are not aware of, and the smooth interaction of the local tribe and visitors is to be admired, but it is also something that only works smoothly because a lot of work goes into it; you don’t bring a foreign culture and the local Fijian Culture together just assuming that it is all going to work. Just go look at the disastrous rapport between the local people and the big hotels here in Fiji. It is disheartening to see how most Fijians are treated and what little good these huge concerns bring to Fiji. Our project may not be perfect, but we are striving to create collaboration instead of looking at the Fijian people as a work force to just be dealt with as such, bending them to our way of thinking and organization. It is our goal to find a way to continue to respect them and their ways, and try to make it work, and maybe we can learn something along the way about our own interpersonal relationships while taking on the role of administrators here.

Working on specific guidelines for each person who comes to stay here on Vorovoro who has the job of keeping all things practical and essential to the daily life here on an even keel is an ongoing process and I don’t believe that there have ever been moments when all was hunky-dory for months on end. With every administrative change and new person coming to work on the team, you get new view points and a shake up in the group dynamic, just as you do when every new person arrives on the island. If there is a positive flow of things and people are getting along, it tends to keep going that way, but if the chain is broken, it takes time to fix it; it is not at all an easy task to keep everyone happy. I am always seeing parallels here to what I have to work with keeping my guest crews working on the sailing trips that I have been running for over 10 years. An island is like a boat, you have a set number of people in a small space that have to work in harmony if you want to have a good sailing trip. That does not always mean that everybody loves everybody else but you still can respect them and work together. The ultimate responsibility rests with the island administrator who is now Giles, he has taken over from Ben for the present. We have spent time discussing the definition of the roles that each person here should play who is here as administration and how the work should be organized to avoid conflicts which either slow the work down, or cause it not to get done at all. We are at the half-way mark of Tribewanted, and the process of improving the running of this project is ongoing. We have made it through the phase of getting the project up and running with no set platform really to go by, inventing the system as we go. Now is the phase of fine tuning it so that it will keep going and also run more smoothly.

Recently we have discussed at length the importance of Tavita in keeping all relations running smoothly. Tavita, being a chief himself and a good one, not to mention TuiMali’s person of confidence, is pivotal in the workings of the Tribe, both native and visiting, watching how the group dynamic is working- or not. We have discussed among us how we have to guard against the organization of the people working here at anytime disintegrating, it takes constant vigilance and both Giles and Tavita has a watchful eye over it all and share the load. The smooth running of Vorovoro is not something that is left up to chance. Too much is at stake here for the Mali people and for chief TuiMali who put his reputation on the line to allow Tribewanted to be established here.

We all arrive with our own ideas of what Vorovoro is and most people are more than pleasantly surprised. There is hardly a person here right now who has not extended their stay, from one week to two, two to three…or more! The life on Vorovoro is in sharp contrast (unfortunately) to the alternatives offered in other islands here in Fiji, many of the places have become a place to booze it up and raise hell, and a good part of the people here who have been on extended trips are relieved to find a haven and much more what they hoped to find here in Fiji. I have heard that only on Wailailai, is there anything like here where there is real community interaction with the local tribe.

This week we had the honor of being the chief guests at the Presentation of the Badges at the All Saints Secondary school near Malau, which I believe serves the greater Labasa area. We received a written invitation from the Principle of the school, Mrs. MaKensie, and I was asked to present the badges to the head girl, head boy of the school as well as make a speech to the 1000 students, visiting parents and 40 teachers. This was a significant moment in the Tribe’s history as the school had never had guests such as us, and the Tribe has never had such recognition or honor. Our talented me sat in in the tradition way in front of the students and teachers (all seated on the floor, traditionally barefoot, but with the utmost decorum!).
After all the speeches were made and sang two traditional chants, their booming voices resonating through the hall; it is a sound that sends chills up your spine. You could see that the crowd of young people was visibly taken by the singing. I have been told that they do not often hear their elders singing as they once did, it is a part of the society that is disintegrating sadly enough, while we here on Vorovoro are lucky enough to have the men singing many nights, often long after we retire. One of the songs was in honor of their Chief, TuiMali, seated next to me on the stage along with the Principle and the Reverend. Following this our male tribe members filed in, dressed in the traditional leaf decorations, bare chested and with black smudged on their faces. You could see the amazement on the faces of the students there, ages 14-18.

I have run out of time, the boat is leaving for town.
More later this week as we finish the Ecotricity Hut, make new bamboo screens for the showers and the big one, prepare for the March 1 Celebration, Tribewanted reaches the half way mark!