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 three 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.

Please see the other vlogs to view and learn about Meke One and Two.

Meke three argues the other side of the coin. When we make our eagle flying move it is the sun rising, beautifully, something that could just be watched for hours. The meke is a day, from sunrise to sunset. Vuna in the east (whose headland we show with the James Bond style pointing of our hands) and Kadavu in the west are looked at from a village on the island of Koro. A boat, full of people, follows the sun’s journey. Here the boat represents the need to be a team. In the same way that more than one person is needed to navigate, steer etc, so must humans pull together each day to live well. There is huge emotion when Kandavu is reached, as that is where the sun sets (vaka-loloma is normally a negative emotion, but here the context suggest it should be positive. Perhaps this is a play on words explained by the relationship between Ra, where this meke is from, and Kandavu; they are jokey rivals, always trying to put the other place down). This meke says that life should not be all about slaving away but supporting one another and enjoying each day.

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