Tribewanted: Vorovoro

Thanks to the help of Save, Katie and Lisa – my special project while on Vorovoro was to film lessons on how to do Mekes one thru six. Here is number two as posted on YouTube:

Our mekes one to four are all from the same source and tell one story which fundamentally is the description of a tribe’s migration (hence all the place names). They neither start at the beginning nor finish at the end. Before we begin the tale goes like this: A man in Dawasamu received a message (from the sky rather than in the post) which he had written down. But he couldn’t then translate it. He wrapped it up carefully in a box and set it afloat. It sailed passed the village of Bureiwai but did not stop there. Instead it came ashore in Nabukadra.

Go to the previous lesson Meke One for it’s story.

Meke two starts to explain the message. It talks to the young men of the village, who should take over the work of their parents; the ‘around the world’ clap perhaps shows that the elders should not be working but just relaxing. Two is hard to explain because it works on both a metaphorical and literal level. It talks of a boat, which represents work, which will cross gentle and rough seas. Our red Indian pose to the left and the right is the wind. The meke says that no matter what you do the sun will set, i.e the day will end, so work right until sun set. This time when we bash our knee at the end it is on the word ‘sitima’ - steamer - as in engine; again referencing the boat but referring to the need to chug onwards, i.e as in number one, to work work work.

Special kudos to Save, Katie and Lisa for helping putting the first lessons EVER on doing the Meke.