Page 27 - IB April 2018

Culture

His only connection with his father and
The boy who grandfather were pictures - of him, of a
model of their dream village and the drua
cruise business.
Ironically, his only solace was the ocean.
was not afraid jumped on his camakau and let the wind
Once day, when his heart felt heavy, he
push him into the harbour.
Curse of the canoe family ing and contemplating the future.
There, he’d spent hours fishing, think-
“I love the ocean. As much as I often
looked at it with anger when I think of my
father and grandfather, I eventually learn
to love it for all the things I could do on it,
in it and all the blessings from it that have
Facing his fears ... JIm Fuluna mans the ropes as the Uto Ni Yalo dips into the ocean during the voyage across the Pacific. sustained my family,” he said.
Inset: Tua PItman ...reviving a lost tradition. Photos: Ilaitia Turagabeci
“How I felt about it is hard to explain.
Part Two of a 3-part series on a Pacific family’s survival and dream to revive ancient One thing I was sure about was that I could
respect the ocean and everything in it. God
canoe technology as a cultural tourism venture. It is a story of despair, wonder and created the world and everything in it.
pride and holds the answers to the future. “The ocean has a purpose and we also
have a purpose to protect it for ourselves
drua. and our future.”
“Our mother’s people are skilled boat- When Cama asked Fuluna to accompany
builders and my father wanted to come him to Yanuca in Beqa to deliver a ca-
back on one from there,” he said. makau, Fuluna agreed. It was the furthest
By Ilaitia Turagabeci “It was hard to stop him at that age. he had sailed on one.
Of course we worried about him. But like Over the years as the ocean became the
Metuisela, when we told him not to sail at only solace for the boy who grew up being
that time, he was stubborn.” afraid of it, his love affair with it grew.
AFTER his son disappeared at seas, life Paki was last seen sailing past Moala Then the Uto Ni Yalo was born. Based on
was never the same for Jimione Paki in 2006, the same place his son was last the Polynesian vaka design for long-haul
He was restless. All that the old man had seen on his drua in 1993. ocean voyaging, it was one of seven built
worked for and dreamt of for his children Whether he fell off the drua, or suffered by German anthrolopologist Dieter Paul-
and grandchildren was disintegrating some other fate, the family will never man, who saw one in the Cook Islands on
before him. know. a visit there.
The death of Metuisela Biuvakaloloma “We sometimes think it had something Paulman was fascinated by the simple
- believed to be linked to his defance of to do with my brother’s breach of the taboo technology and the ancient skills that
traditional protocol and taboo of waters to sail in the waters of the Tovata confed- early seafarers had to determine their
in and around Cakaudrove when the body eracy (of which his island Moce is part of). course as they travelled across the vast
of former Fiji president and and Tui Cakau “We will just never know. Pacific Ocean.
Sir Penaia Ganilau in 1993 was taken by “The curse of the land is a difficult thing Paulman ordered the vaka built in New
sea to Somosomo took the wind out of to understand and deal with. Zealand using modern material and con-
his sails. “We lost our beloved brother and then tacted voyaging societies in the islands for
Korova, the swampland settlement our old man in exactly the same way. crews to man the canoes.
near Suva where he had moved to from Only this time the drua he sailed on As the plan unfolded, so too Fulana’s
Korotolu in Moce in Lau with his children from Ogea was never found.” desire to face his fears out in the open
in 1991, remained unchanged. Fuluna Tuimoce, Biuvakaloloma’s son, on a vessel that looked like one from his
Paki’s kin there had big dreams of turn- was only 16 when Paki met his fate. father’s dream.
ing it into a traditional Fijian village and As a teenager growing up under the old When the opportunity came, he joined
showcasing it as part of a cruise business. man’s wings after the death of his father, the Pacific Voyagers in 2010 and the past
That was the reason Biuvakaloloma losing Paki was an emotional and painful was buried with his fears.
returned to Moce. experience. “I have learnt to put my worst fears be-
Eleven years after that mission failed, The ocean had taken away two people hind me. I learnt to understand the nature
Paki told his children he would sail again that he had truly loved. of bondage with fear, which had become
to Lau and bring back another drua. He And there was nothing he could do to a curse on us.
was 86. ease his anger at the waves that rushed “What my father did was wrong. I have
Semiti Cama, his eldest son, said the up to his home in the mangroves of Ko- learnt from it to understaand my culture
old man Paki ws adamant about the voy- rova, next to the Unirversity of the South and traditions better, to understand tra-
age despite their concerns for his age and Paciific’s School of Maritime Studies at ditional sailing and that is not isolated
health. Laucala Bay in Suva. from our way of life as islanders. They are
This time, he planned to go to Ogea, His life was one of turmoil and frustra- inter-related. Our land, our ocean and our
his wife’s island and collect a newly-built tion. traditions, they have mana and we must

Islands Business, April 2018 27