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.
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