Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Half Way There

So much has taken place in the last few days that it is going to be tough to sum it all up and post some conclusions as outgoing chief.

The events on Saturday were a perfect way to end my time on Vorovoro as February Chief.
The festivities lived up to everyone’s expectations, including Te and TuiMali. TuiMali was “showing off” his Vorovoro to the outside world; he was showing that the chance he had taken was worth it, that Tribewanted had succeeded and could be a model to look up to for Fijian tourism. Outside shade pavilions were built in just one day for the guests, just about every tribemember was involved in the preparations.

The reception area was built and decorated in the traditional fashion, with palm fronds intertwined around the poles and fronds clipped to create beautiful patterns. Colorful cloth with the typical Fijian patterns was hung, and large woven matts from TuiMali’s home were brought in so that there was plenty of seating area. Food preparation went on throughout Friday night, everyone having a good time learning to weave the Meke costumes or build and maintain the lovo, all seated on matts over by the outside kitchen area where the lovo was. The ladies quietly went about their business of preparing the banquet for some 80 people, most everyone we know that comes to help was there, obviously this celebration has much more far reaching consequences for the Mali people that we can imagine and everyone was called in to make sure it came off as smooth as silk; Mali is now “on the map” and tonight the events should be shown on Fiji One, a person was sent to film and document it all.

Our guests were mostly from the All Saints School, but some older men who are associated with TuiMali came as well as The Commissioner of the North who honored us with his attendance. Tevita presided over the ceremonies and gave a long speech as he presented the whale’s tooth tatao that was my present to TuiMali to thank him for allowing me to come to Vorovoro and serve as Chief. A whale’s tooth is considered the most prestigious gift that can be given here in Fiji

The whale’s tooth carries great significance here in Fiji later served as a thank you gift to the All Saints School who had written a beautiful song in honor of The Tribe and The Half Way Mark Celebration and then performed it in perfect harmony! The head of the school gave a thank you speech and I was honored that he should include words about my month as chief of the Tribe on Vorovoro, recognizing the ongoing projects and my part in it.

I leave Vorovoro again with a heavy heart but also with great memmories and a much clearer idea of what Tribewanted is and what it now signifies 18 months after the construction of the Tribe village began. This project will have far reaching effects, especially here in Fiji.

Tribewanted is no longer something to wonder about and speculate as to whether or not it will “make it.” The imagined Tribewanted has become a living real thing.

I and other tribe members have been interviewed more than once this month, having had the team from New Caledonia here for a week, their work will appear as a 27 minute documentary some time in June on the National Foreign French channel as well as in France. “Paradise or Bust” was the first “documentation” of the creation of Tribewanted and I have been told that others have come to document the project as well.

I now use the description “eco-friendly low impact cultural tourism,” when asked to describe Tribewanted, the likes of which do not exist in Fiji save for a tribe-run hostel type village on the small island of Wailailai.

The commissioner of the North was very interested in how the whole model could serve other islands and villages in Fiji, either from the aspect of how a village can be built without destroying the environment, or as a teaching model for cultural tourism.

During my month here on Vorovoro a really great group of people have come and gone, all really enthusiastic about joining in, in every which way; all present were more than happy to learn and perform the Meke, and all were interested in doing work on the Tribe village. Everyone seemed to get in the down time that they wanted, occupying the hammocks, swimming to the pontoon, snorkeling, exploring or doing a personal project. It takes a special type of traveller to make the best of an experience of this type, and I am convinced that there are many more in the world like those who have arrived on the shores of Vorovoro so far to experience Tribewanted.

The February Facelift is visibly noticeable; work being done under TuiKoli will continue to make our surroundings more comfortable, more organized and a lot nicer to look at. Small changes like white paint in the toilets now discourages nesting bugs and spiders and even our very arachnophobic guest this week (Natalie is happy to admit it!) found that she had overcome the “chronic” phase of arachnophobia and being able to see in the toilets is helping. The new plants in front of the kitchen and Ecotricity Hut look great and give the grounds the same manicured look as around the Gran Bure. The ladies are very pleased to be working in a bright and cheery kitchen with some very needed new equipment- nothing fancy, just more pots, pans, and cutlery. (anyone who wants to bring some good knives or large frying pans please do. Quality is hard to buy in Labasa, what we get is hard to make last)

All of the guests present on Saturday who had previously visited the island either before construction of the Tribewanted village or in the first phase were very impressed, even more so by the ingenuity of some of our “inventions” such as the coconut door closing device on the toilets! I think the guests are amazed at how well the whole of the village is organized. I took the guests on a tour of the grounds, trying to impress upon them how we were trying to keep as low key as possible, respect nature and build something that would remain low impact, eventually self sufficient, and as well, comfortable.

Our ladies served a spectacular tea during the Saturday ceremonies, much more than what anyone could eat, heaps of nicely decorated cakes and perfect cups of tea.

It was not long after the ceremony that we were called to the table and the fish, pork, chicken, dalo, breadfruit, vegetable dishes and about 5 different curries were served.

The festivities ended mid afternoon just before a heavy rain came. We were having a late afternoon grog session with TuiMali and most of the people who had worked to prepare the festivities when swift moving dark clouds appeared. We moved in to the Gran Bure just in time.

There was a good sunset and the evening finished quietly, many had been up for more than 24 hours, a perfect day on Vorovoro to celebrate the accomplishments of these first 18 months.