Reportage

Fiji: a return to ancestral knowledge to preserve the environment

Lilieta Saokai, member of the Uto Ni Yalo initiative.

© Clea Broadhurst / RFI

Text by: Clea Broadhurst Follow

11 mins

The Pacific Islands experience the consequences of global warming on a daily basis, such as rising sea levels and more and more – and violent – ​​natural disasters.

In Fiji, the health and food security of the 900,000 inhabitants are already impacted.

Today, more and more, to adapt to these changes, the inhabitants of the Pacific seek to return to a way of life close to their ancestors, in communion with nature.

The main motivation is to ensure that future generations will still be able to access and use the same resources as current generations.

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From our special correspondent in Fiji,

It is essential, not to preserve nature, but rather to reconnect, and reclaim indigenous spirituality because what stems from this are our values.

They revolve around our traditions and our way of doing things.

This is how Simione Sevudredre, better known in Suva as 'Master Simi', a cultural knowledge consultant and facilitator, talks about the importance of indigenous knowledge in Fiji.

In the indigenous worldview, time is cyclical.

It is not linear.

Therefore, the past is before us.

So when I say and refer to the past, the word I use is "e liu", but it's the same term as when I say "before".

The philosophy behind this worldview is that our ancestors lived very closely and intimately with nature and the environment.

And they knew.

So when we talk about reconnecting, going back, we are talking about a “decolonization” of our mind.

To reclaim its values, the old attitudes of the world.

Go back to what our traditions have taught us.

Master Simi explains that life lessons, distilled by millennia of living in close collaboration with nature, can prepare us for the future.

This is why maintaining traditions and preserving them is important.

When we ignore this, we expose ourselves to vulnerability.

When we became a British colony after the wave of colonialism in the 1800s by Western countries, our indigenous ways of life were marginalized.

A new way of thinking has been imposed on us, introduced by the formal education to which we have been subjected.

This new form of education, with all that it entails, has set aside old values, in particular the values ​​we had towards Nature, the environment, water and air.

But there are still proofs of this ancestral system, according to Master Simi: the totems.

The three totems are the sky or the bird totem.

Earth or tree totem.

And the water or fish totem, whether marine or freshwater.

These totems are part of an ancient spirituality, anchored in us… It is our inspiration.

We must save them, feed them and protect them.

New ideals arrived and told us that it was not Christian, that it was superstitious, that we should not validate these ancestral values.

Then you teach this to generations of people for 50 years, 100 years and the memory fades.

Today, we are fighting to find solutions.

Residents of Narikoso, Kadavu Archipelago, weaving baskets.

© Clea Broadhurst / RFI

Food security and loss of territories

Having recourse to ancestral knowledge, drawing on the resources at hand, this is what the Fijians are trying to find today.

Because one of the issues facing island countries is ensuring their food security.

" 

 ", points out Etika Qica, who works at the within

, a network that brings together and mobilizes the knowledge and resources of more than 1,400 environmental organizations around the world.

According to him, it is essential to return to a more traditional culture.

Our local communities know the types of yams found in the bush that will feed them during disasters, types of Taro.

And those are the ones we stopped planting because it wasn't making enough money.

Most of our communities plant Kava and Taro to sell.

They are not resistant plants nor adapted to climate change.

So I think we need to reintroduce our old ways of farming, to rebuild our own traditional, climate-resilient practices.

Vanuatu is doing it again.

He studies the most climate-resistant crops with local communities.

The problem is whether we still have the necessary knowledge.

I think there are a lot of

Food security, loss of territory, these are subjects that affect Vanuatu, Tahiti, Kiribati... almost all the island countries of the Pacific.

“ 

 ,” says Stacey Jupiter, a marine biology specialist with the NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (

), which works with rural communities. on the best ways to preserve their environment. 

What some governments do is think proactively, like the government of Kiribati that bought land in Fiji, that way, if and when it comes down to it, there will be somewhere their citizens can relocate.

But there are many social consequences that can occur after a relocation.

People lose their sense of belonging.

They lose their identity.

They are losing their connection to their ancestral lands and seas.

Residents then lose their ability to carry out the cultural practices they are familiar with, and so wherever possible, consideration should be given to solutions that allow people to stay where they are, while preparing for the inevitable, she explains.

 I was in Papua New Guinea a few years ago talking to the people of a very low island in the province of New Ireland and asking them how they saw the future because they had had flooding on their island… I heard the best climate adaptation strategy I have ever heard.

I asked them, how do you deal with it?

And they told me that they marry off their children to the villagers who live up the hill on the main island.

It's a great idea because they get land rights and their children will have them when they get married and they can live on higher lands.

People find creative solutions!

The "Uto Ni Yalo", Fijian canoe traveling in the Pacific.

© Clea Broadhurst / RFI

Reconnect with Nature

Future generations are also those who are taking charge of the return to traditions.

At the Suva nautical center are the Fijian canoes – the vakas – of the Uto Ni Yalo association, which promotes sustainable maritime transport while promulgating the knowledge necessary to preserve the environment.

Members of the initiative sail across the Pacific bringing traditional vaka construction, sailing and travel to life.

“

,” explains Lilieta Saokai, one of the initiative's volunteers. 

One of them is ecological stewardship, the need to advocate for the protection of the environment, from a holistic perspective.

Another pillar is the search for and revitalization of cultural links between the countries of the Pacific.

Before the colonial times, we had certain relationships with each other, which were kind of broken, whereas for us, the ocean was a means of transportation and allowed us to establish deep relationships.

With colonialism, we entered these little boxes which were drawn properly by the empires.

Now we are working with rural communities to explore sustainable shipping.

Voyages across the Pacific are a way to reconnect with the ocean, but also their past.

" 

 ," says Taholo Kami, one of the directors of the association.

The experience of travel is a critical reminder of our disconnection with the ocean, which potentially applies to the vast majority of our Pacific island societies.

And it reminds us of the urgent need to recreate that connection.

There is no better time than now.

Today, the fear for them is not only to lose their territories, but also their ancestral knowledge.

“

 ,” reports Lilieta.

When I was little, I remember hearing the reports that said it would happen in the next century, but as I get older, I realize that the published reports indicate that something big will happen in my lifetime, so the awakening is a little brutal.

I am really worried about Pacific Island countries, because we are the most vulnerable to climate change, and yet we have contributed so little to it.

Beyond the land changes resulting from global warming, his concern is linked to intangible heritage.

I'm also very worried about more intangible things like history, what people remember about the land.

How people will remember their ancestral land and how we can keep our communities safe from extreme events.

Communities would take a real hit.

And people, their ways of life, memory and identity, it's not just a physical land mass that would go away, it's all that would go there too.

All eyes are on COP27, which is taking place in Egypt.

"

," said Taholo Kami.

We see the consequences, it is no longer a prediction.

Here in the Pacific, in our short lives alone, we have probably seen more Category 5 cyclones than our ancestors.

We live in extremes.

There is no doubt about it.

According to him, the emergency message was put forward.

We put it at the heart of the global discussion.

We continue to remind the world of this, but we have overstepped the bounds when it comes to this battle.

I think we need to send a message of hope now.

To say, to show that there is this opportunity, at least in our societies, where we can begin to connect, to consider lifestyle changes that reflect our traditions and the lessons that our ancestors have already experienced.

Some, even among us, say, “So, what to do?

Go back ?

I think that in fact, on the contrary, we move forward by learning from our past.

►Grand Reportage: Fiji, Pacific Islands on the front line

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