Muriel
Experience Exchange Programme
Fiji
July 2004
The place we have been staying at Nadave is the most beautiful place. It is set on rolling
hills and the houses are built on stilts to accommodate the shape of the ground they
stand upon. I was sharing a bure (wooden bungalow) with five others, a Rotuman who
works in New Zealand at the Maori college, a Fijian who works in Australia, a Samoan
who works in Fiji, a Tongan working in Tonga and a Samoan working in Western Samoa.
As I sat on my bed I could see all that was happening outside as the wall next to my bed
folded away and there was only a mosquito screen between me and the outside world.
Looking behind me, through a louvered wall, I could see the river below. Looking
towards the other end of the room through large windows and louvered walls, I could
again see the river far below as it winds its way around the bottom of the hill which we
were resting on, in the final stage of its journey to the sea; which I would be able to see
through the canopy of trees below, were I to move to our meeting room.
The last five days have been quite amazing and I’m not sure where to start or what to
make of it all. The hope was that at the end of the workshop we would have convinced
the schools and colleges that Violence Against Women was a subject they needed to
face and we would have at least started working out how it could be included in the
curriculum. By the end of the workshop, we had convinced everyone that violence was
present in some form or another in their school or college and they needed to go back
and do something bout it. Some schools still have a long way to go but at least they are
now aware. It is difficult because a lot of what we consider to be violence is to them
considered the normal way of life and we met some resistance. We have more than
started work on the curriculum, we have written a new diploma course. The colleges in
the South Pacific are funded by the churches and so are very much controlled by the
churches.
At the workshop, we had delegates from nine different denominations; the Churches of
Christ, Anglicans, Evangelical Church of French Polynesia, Seventh Day Adventist,
Congregational, United Church of Christ, Methodists, Catholic and Presbyterian. This
means there are nine different church bodies to convince, so it is not a good idea to try
and implement this new diploma into the colleges straightaway. The metaphor of fire has
been used, as fire is very important in Oceania. Some islands still rely on making fire
themselves, they don’t have matches and a lot of the cooking is done by fire. If, in the
bush, you need fire, you go out until you find one and then take away just a small part to
light your own wood. Very soon the part you took away is nothing more than ashes but
your own fire is growing. You keep your own fire big in case someone needs to come to
you for fire. The diploma we have written is our fire - we aim for it to be imperfect, still
green, so that it smoulders and burns slowly for a long time, it doesn’t burn up bright and
soon turn to ash.
The delegates will each take back with them a small stick, a module from the course and
they will integrate it into their own courses. They can do this without the churches’
permission. They will tend their small fires and SPATS will keep the main fire burning so
they can return if their fire fails. Meanwhile, SPATS will work on the churches and the
colleges will be able to say we have been using this part of it and it works well. Maybe
then, the Diploma will be able to commence. It will pass accreditation as the
accreditation officer was with us and we have built the course with this in mind. We have
also planned how to upgrade it to BD level. This is a major step forward and a
remarkable achievement in such a short space of time. The manual has been very well
received, two principals, who are also theological authors, have said how good it is. One
said it was the best manual he had ever seen.
One thing I found amazing and very moving was the story-telling session, which I had
timetabled for the second day. Pacific culture is an oral culture so much learning
happens through story telling. I was aware that the second day was very early in the
process but was relying on our WCC rep from Colombia in South America to assist us.
He started the story telling with stories of South America, including telling us that his wife
is receiving death threats and their phone is tapped; and then the emphasis was moved
to Oceania. Seven people told their own personal stories of living with extreme violence.
There were many tears, not just from the storytellers, but what was most moving was
that four of the seven were men and the men started the story telling. Men in Oceania
have a very strong dominant image, so to story tell in front of women is very unusual.
As I said, the last few days have been amazing. In the ‘thank you’ speeches at the end,
many people thanked me. It was said that without me, this would not have happened
and because of my work, little fires are being lit all over the South Pacific. All of this is
very difficult to take in and will need much thought. In the meanwhile, I am in the process
of writing volume two of the manual, the workshop process, discussions and resolutions.