126
S. Sahai et al.
urban and in rural areas (Ryle 2010; Morgain 2015), and many villages now housing
more than one denomination, Tokou has remained Catholic and Marist.
Everyday life in Tokou is framed within a schedule of faithfully observed Catholic
devotional practices. The week begins with the entire village attending Sunday Mass.
Sunday School is conducted in the afternoon, followed by Rosary prayers. Weekday
masses are held twice a week in the evening. Every day at 6 a.m., 12 noon and 6 p.m.,
the vakavuvuli (catechist) rings the Angelus bell and villagers pause their activities
to pray. The Angelus is a prayer to the Virgin Mary recalling Mary’s choice to accept
the will of God and give herself to become the mother of the Messiah. Most people,
including the children, pray the Angelus. Each day, except Sunday, is rounded off in
all homes with Family Prayers from 7–8 p.m. which include hymns and praying the
Rosary.
There are two women’s church groups in Tokou: the Christian Mothers (Marama
tina va Kiristiano) and the Catholic Women’s League, and some women are also
part of the charismatic group. When a young woman turns 16, she is automatically
admitted to the vanua women’s group, the Soqosoqo Vakamarama that organises
projects for the village and the church. The women of this group assist the women’s
church groups in coordinating fundraising activities, cleaning the church and village
hall and helping the men clean the village. The group ensures each household is
equipped with household items and gardening equipment to carry out these functions
efficiently, and members visit sick women and assist them with their household chores
and gardening.
In Tokou it is first and foremost the women who, with their children, participate in
devotions. This follows the pattern in other Catholic parishes (and in other denominations) that it is generally women who gather their family together for family prayers
and who participate in communal prayer meetings. It is mothers and grandmothers
who hand down the faith, teaching their children and grandchildren to pray, teaching
them prayers and hymns. This gendered generational transmission of faith was also
noted in villages in the Yasawa island group by Kline et al. (2013), in Tailevu Province
by Ram-Bidesi (2015) and in Vanua Levu by Akanisi Tarabe and in the Lau group
by Litea Meo-Sewabu (pers. comm. 2020) Such perpetuation of faith, described by
Tarabe as “spiritual reproduction”, is an integrated part of iTaukei women’s lives and
vital to community life, yet it is often unseen and unacknowledged.
In addition to the daily family and communal prayers, the women in Tokou also
set time aside each day for their individual prayers. These can be conducted alone in
the church or at home during the day when their families are out of the house, and
some women pray the Rosary late at night when everyone else is asleep.
In Tokou the women are at the core of all the work for church fund-raising events
and special Catholic Feast Day celebrations that occur many times throughout the
year. On these occasions the women prepare and serve the food for priests, guests
and parishioners as well as clean up afterwards. As hosts, the women will eat last.
According to Tarabe, veiqaravi is the Fijian term that best captures the agency of
iTaukei women in family and community life described above and in the following
sections in the disaster situation they faced. Veiqaravi is a relational term that means
‘to serve’—though not ‘to be subservient’—but to serve others in love, compassion
S. Sahai et al.
urban and in rural areas (Ryle 2010; Morgain 2015), and many villages now housing
more than one denomination, Tokou has remained Catholic and Marist.
Everyday life in Tokou is framed within a schedule of faithfully observed Catholic
devotional practices. The week begins with the entire village attending Sunday Mass.
Sunday School is conducted in the afternoon, followed by Rosary prayers. Weekday
masses are held twice a week in the evening. Every day at 6 a.m., 12 noon and 6 p.m.,
the vakavuvuli (catechist) rings the Angelus bell and villagers pause their activities
to pray. The Angelus is a prayer to the Virgin Mary recalling Mary’s choice to accept
the will of God and give herself to become the mother of the Messiah. Most people,
including the children, pray the Angelus. Each day, except Sunday, is rounded off in
all homes with Family Prayers from 7–8 p.m. which include hymns and praying the
Rosary.
There are two women’s church groups in Tokou: the Christian Mothers (Marama
tina va Kiristiano) and the Catholic Women’s League, and some women are also
part of the charismatic group. When a young woman turns 16, she is automatically
admitted to the vanua women’s group, the Soqosoqo Vakamarama that organises
projects for the village and the church. The women of this group assist the women’s
church groups in coordinating fundraising activities, cleaning the church and village
hall and helping the men clean the village. The group ensures each household is
equipped with household items and gardening equipment to carry out these functions
efficiently, and members visit sick women and assist them with their household chores
and gardening.
In Tokou it is first and foremost the women who, with their children, participate in
devotions. This follows the pattern in other Catholic parishes (and in other denominations) that it is generally women who gather their family together for family prayers
and who participate in communal prayer meetings. It is mothers and grandmothers
who hand down the faith, teaching their children and grandchildren to pray, teaching
them prayers and hymns. This gendered generational transmission of faith was also
noted in villages in the Yasawa island group by Kline et al. (2013), in Tailevu Province
by Ram-Bidesi (2015) and in Vanua Levu by Akanisi Tarabe and in the Lau group
by Litea Meo-Sewabu (pers. comm. 2020) Such perpetuation of faith, described by
Tarabe as “spiritual reproduction”, is an integrated part of iTaukei women’s lives and
vital to community life, yet it is often unseen and unacknowledged.
In addition to the daily family and communal prayers, the women in Tokou also
set time aside each day for their individual prayers. These can be conducted alone in
the church or at home during the day when their families are out of the house, and
some women pray the Rosary late at night when everyone else is asleep.
In Tokou the women are at the core of all the work for church fund-raising events
and special Catholic Feast Day celebrations that occur many times throughout the
year. On these occasions the women prepare and serve the food for priests, guests
and parishioners as well as clean up afterwards. As hosts, the women will eat last.
According to Tarabe, veiqaravi is the Fijian term that best captures the agency of
iTaukei women in family and community life described above and in the following
sections in the disaster situation they faced. Veiqaravi is a relational term that means
‘to serve’—though not ‘to be subservient’—but to serve others in love, compassion