68
F. Gelves-Gómez and S. Brincat
when he conceded in 1854, Cakobau was compelled to ‘lotu’ (enforced religious
conversion) alongside the destruction of the traditional temples in Bau and cutting
down the sacred nokonoko trees. This was a visceral example of how social takeover and colonial order went hand-in-hand with spiritual and natural destruction.
Another story from Kadavu in 1863 recounts of when a chief ordered a sacred vesi
to be cut down declaring: “If the God is in the tree, the axe will be spoilt, but
if the axe cuts it, that will be proof the tree is only wood. The trees were felled,
and thus the ‘religious test went in favour of Christianity” (Thornley 2002, p. 23;
Tomlinson 2009). This was a shift between human powers tested through the divine.
Such political actions challenged the very foundation of the traditional metaphysical
assumptions, significantly undermining the ‘old gods’ and Nature with it. Jehovah
“towered” over the local gods: such symbolism was particularly resonant in Fijian
metaphysics and characteristics of hierarchy (Toren cited in Tomlinson 2009, p. 86).
But the old gods were sidelined, not abolished or disbelieved. This was part of a
sustained campaign by missionaries to shame aspects of traditional Fijian culture by
over-emphasising “warfare, cannibalism, torture, infanticide, widow strangling, and
treacherous murder” (Brantinger in Kaplama 2016, p. 157). Aspects of this shaming
continue today in some sermons. However, this was a two-edged sword for whilst
the Missionaries recast local spirits as ‘demons’ and denounced them, it nevertheless
affirmed their very presence and power in their respective “bailiwick” (Tomlinson
2009, p. 67). The missionary trod a contradictory path between justifying gods on
one hand and denying them on the other, leaving ample space for the old metaphysics
and its spirits to exist alongside Christianity, though subordinate to it. This hybrid
spiritual world is captured poetically by Tippett (Cited in Tomlinson 2009, p. 67)
when he describes in Kadavu:
One can walk round the coastline for a fortnight and never run out of stories and legendary
epics and origin myths…. Then suddenly out of this tradition one is immediately confronted
by some pastoral issue that shines through in a currently felt spiritual need… One is immersed
in a world view not his own; and then strangely one is led back into some strange place in
the Old Testament… It is a conflict between black and white magic… The trees one knows,
the cleared space, the little formation of stones. One knows that someone has returned to his
‘Canaanite gods’ and that the pastor or the catechist in this next village has to deal with it…
You stop saying ‘This is just superstition’.
One can feel in this passage the ongoing tension between two metaphysics, theologies, and competing worldviews. Their very contestation confirms their co-presence
and hybridisation. With the almost total Christianisation of the iTaukei population the
question is how these views toward Nature related to the iTaukei view that preceded
it? How do they blend in this hybrid today? And how do the answers to these questions affect the ‘response-ability’(Haraway 2008)
4 of Fiji’s people in view of climate
change ecological and social impacts?
4 Haraway (2008) describes ‘response-ability’ from an ethical and political standpoint that is deeply
implicated and entangled with the ways we engage, know and be in the word. Haraway suggests the
reshaping of relations in terms of actors’ (human and nonhuman) capacity to respond and attune
to each other. In this sense, being ‘response-able’ to climate change also takes on a metaphysical
dimension.
F. Gelves-Gómez and S. Brincat
when he conceded in 1854, Cakobau was compelled to ‘lotu’ (enforced religious
conversion) alongside the destruction of the traditional temples in Bau and cutting
down the sacred nokonoko trees. This was a visceral example of how social takeover and colonial order went hand-in-hand with spiritual and natural destruction.
Another story from Kadavu in 1863 recounts of when a chief ordered a sacred vesi
to be cut down declaring: “If the God is in the tree, the axe will be spoilt, but
if the axe cuts it, that will be proof the tree is only wood. The trees were felled,
and thus the ‘religious test went in favour of Christianity” (Thornley 2002, p. 23;
Tomlinson 2009). This was a shift between human powers tested through the divine.
Such political actions challenged the very foundation of the traditional metaphysical
assumptions, significantly undermining the ‘old gods’ and Nature with it. Jehovah
“towered” over the local gods: such symbolism was particularly resonant in Fijian
metaphysics and characteristics of hierarchy (Toren cited in Tomlinson 2009, p. 86).
But the old gods were sidelined, not abolished or disbelieved. This was part of a
sustained campaign by missionaries to shame aspects of traditional Fijian culture by
over-emphasising “warfare, cannibalism, torture, infanticide, widow strangling, and
treacherous murder” (Brantinger in Kaplama 2016, p. 157). Aspects of this shaming
continue today in some sermons. However, this was a two-edged sword for whilst
the Missionaries recast local spirits as ‘demons’ and denounced them, it nevertheless
affirmed their very presence and power in their respective “bailiwick” (Tomlinson
2009, p. 67). The missionary trod a contradictory path between justifying gods on
one hand and denying them on the other, leaving ample space for the old metaphysics
and its spirits to exist alongside Christianity, though subordinate to it. This hybrid
spiritual world is captured poetically by Tippett (Cited in Tomlinson 2009, p. 67)
when he describes in Kadavu:
One can walk round the coastline for a fortnight and never run out of stories and legendary
epics and origin myths…. Then suddenly out of this tradition one is immediately confronted
by some pastoral issue that shines through in a currently felt spiritual need… One is immersed
in a world view not his own; and then strangely one is led back into some strange place in
the Old Testament… It is a conflict between black and white magic… The trees one knows,
the cleared space, the little formation of stones. One knows that someone has returned to his
‘Canaanite gods’ and that the pastor or the catechist in this next village has to deal with it…
You stop saying ‘This is just superstition’.
One can feel in this passage the ongoing tension between two metaphysics, theologies, and competing worldviews. Their very contestation confirms their co-presence
and hybridisation. With the almost total Christianisation of the iTaukei population the
question is how these views toward Nature related to the iTaukei view that preceded
it? How do they blend in this hybrid today? And how do the answers to these questions affect the ‘response-ability’(Haraway 2008)
4 of Fiji’s people in view of climate
change ecological and social impacts?
4 Haraway (2008) describes ‘response-ability’ from an ethical and political standpoint that is deeply
implicated and entangled with the ways we engage, know and be in the word. Haraway suggests the
reshaping of relations in terms of actors’ (human and nonhuman) capacity to respond and attune
to each other. In this sense, being ‘response-able’ to climate change also takes on a metaphysical
dimension.