Culture and the Art$

   So, for those of you not in Fiji, before we started working here, we were officially welcomed to the country by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Arts at the Fiji Museum. This was very formal - our group sat crossed-legged in two rows in silence for the ceremony on ibe, Fijian woven mats. The morning began with speeches followed by  the most elaborate form of kava ceremony: 

Making Kava

Nikki, our tutor, accepting Kava on our behalf

  and a traditional meke (Fijian dance):

Meke

 Both were performed by students from the Fijian conservatorium of Music. Throughout the trip they'll be our buddies showing us around us around Suva. It was a great honour to be welcomed so elaborately. 


   Felipe Bole, Minister of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Arts mentioned in his welcoming speech that the students from the conservatorium were a great asset to the country, both as representatives of the country and financially. The next day at work, I was reading material about various projects that my workplace, the Fijian Arts Council has been involved in. I found a really relevant essay by Teresia Teaiwa entitled 'Ways of seeing' which was in the exhibition 'VASU, Pacific Women of Power.' She focuses on female artists, but many of her arguments are relevant in a broader discussion of this issue.


    I recognize that commodification of culture is a consequence of socio-economic reality and makes the arts a realistic life choice for Fijians like the conservatorium's students. Similarly, it can also lead to the acknowledgement of individual artists, who more commonly go unrecognized worldwide due to what Teaiwa terms the 'fetishism' of Pacific art. This is a phenomenon where art (especially any traditional art) is displayed and collected as an example of a region's handicrafts with no credit going to the person who produced the art itself. Thus, commercialising and placing a monetary value on art places importance on the producers i.e. the artists, potentially leading to their increased visibility.

Tapa cloth and mats in Suva's flea market - no credit to the artists who made them.

   However, I agree with Teaiwa that there are many disadvantages to this process. Firstly, it alienates artists from 'organic collective environments where they learnt their crafts' and their communities where they find meaning in being well-rounded people. In addition, a process of cultural commodification requires an initial set-up investment. This capital carries with it the expectation that there will be returns creating a pressure to produce only commercially viable dance, music and goods. This is dictated by the market which, in Fiji, consists largely of tourists. Artists can subsequently become 'mere workers and commodities in the global capitalist economy,' limiting their creative output to producing souvenirs that appeal to visitors.


  I know that this was a very shallow overview of pros and cons of this issue, but we're just my initial thoughts. I think that blogs give freedom to flesh out thoughts and discussions without necessarily coming to any hard conclusion ;) For now, I'll conclude that there are both advantages and disadvantages to the commercialising of a culture and I can't decide which outweighs the other. Hopefully, Fiji and Oceania will  somehow be able to negotiate the best of both worlds.


ALSO, credit to Hester Li who took the photos on this blog post.

Homage to Hau'ofa

Epeli Hau’ofa is an influential Tongan* Pacific Studies academic. He pioneered a conception of the region that radically countered the prevailing view amongst government officials, international agencies, aid donors and academics that due to our isolation from the rest of the world and small size, Pacific nations are will always be disadvantaged and of no importance in the international sphere. I regularly encounter this in Australia; some of my friends have coined my Pacific Studies courses ‘coconut class.’ While tongue-in-cheek, this reflects the genuine derogatory attitude of some students towards the region.

As the pilot announced we were descending into Fiji, I looked out of the window and looked out at the Pacific Ocean. I couldn’t help but think of Hau’ofa, who I have studied before, and his views. He emphasized the important distinction between seeing the Pacific as a ‘sea of islands’ rather than the aforementioned isolated ‘islands in the far sea.’

(The Pacific Ocean - part of not separating Oceania)

He argues that the description of a ‘sea of islands’ more accurately describes the region. It acknowledges the traditional relationship that Pacific States have had with each other and the sea. In a previous post, I mentioned Lapita pottery – remnants from some of the first people ever in the Pacific. They travelled on canoes across huge distances and gradually settled the islands. Historians view their settlement of the islands as one of the greatest feats of humankind.

The Pacific Ocean didn’t separate tiny islands, instead, it acted as a highway, connecting communities that intermarried, battled and communicated with each other. The water was not only a mode of transportation, but also where people played, and got their sustenance (through fishing) and their livelihoods. Hau’ofa argued that this holistic view of the region is relevant today as arbitrary national boundaries have little influence in the movement of ordinary Pacific Islanders.

I definitely saw evidence of this on the plane flying from Hong Kong to Nadi. The man sitting next to me was returning to his village for his brother’s wedding from his current posting with the army in the UK. He and other Fijians in his division had served all over the world, in destinations like Afghanistan, Norway and Northern Ireland.

Throughout this blog, I will view our experiences through the prism of Hau’ofa’s perspective. ‘Fiji’ is not limited to its geographical area, rather it expands to include Fijians throughout the Pacific and the world, such as my new friend on the plane, that have interdependent relationships with their family back in Fiji.

Personally, Hau’ofa’s perspective gave me as both a Pacific Studies student and a Pacific Islander (I am half-Samoan) a lot of hope! Official documentation of a failing, small and insignificant region doesn’t accurately reflect the position of Oceania in the world and I don’t want to contribute to that here.


*This was changed from Samoan to Tongan on the 8th of January. Thank you for the correction.