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| gardening |
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
blog interuption
I am sorry for not updating the blog, there are two reasons this has happened. One Stan took the camera to Japan and I have not had time to upload his pictures because and this is reason number two we just had a cyclone! It came out of no where on Monday, Josie and I had no clue it was happening, as we were driving back from Nadi, after a weekend of relaxing. We were 30 minutes out of Suva and the winds pick we heard on the news that the storm was coming so we got Josie's girls from school, and then did an emergency supply run to cost u less. Then off home to batten down the hatches. I got Ana's husband to come over and put up the storm shutters, I pulled in all my plants, secured the bamboo art and went inside to collect water in every tub conceivable. Power and water went out that night,I sat up all night so I could stop the water from coming in my front door. 10-15 towels, bed sheets, garbage bags and duck tape later, I was able to stem the flow and get some rest. I woke up with a cold and no water or power. Power came on Tuesday night, water came on today, Thursday but is the color of rust which is understandable. So laundry will have to wait another day!!! or two. Nadi is in much worse shape, under 6 feet of water in some areas and flash flooding from the rivers.
This news article from the Fiji Times:
This about Frozen Food:
Avoid frozen food: Kumar
Thursday, January 31, 2008
STAY away from frozen foods. That's the advice from the Consumer Council of Fiji after extended power cuts across the country.
Council chief executive Premila Kumar said many supermarkets would have been affected by the power cuts in the past two days, which would have affected frozen food items.
"'It is advisable not to purchase thawed products even if the sale price by supermarkets is attractive," she said.
"Once thawed the bacteria on food items and meat can multiply to dangerous levels and possibly cause serious illnesses if consumed.
"'If food in supermarket freezers are soft despite supermarket owners putting their freezer on again, consumers should refrain from purchasing them.
"'Frozen food when thawed also losses its original shape and can help consumers identify if they have been affected by the power outage."
Mrs Kumar urged supermarket owners to be ethical and responsible by destroying all food items and meat that have been affected by flood waters or power cuts.
The council called on the Health Ministry to follow up on the post cyclone clean-up by supermarkets and take appropriate action to prevent the sale of salvaged food and meat products to consumers.
Ministry of Health chief health inspector Waisale Delai also issued a warning against the purchase of frozen goods.
He urged people to thoroughly check frozen foods they buy from shops and supermarkets.
"All defrosted food items such as meat and ice cream must be rejected or disposed of for fear of contamination or food poisoning," he said.
Mr Delai said a team of health inspectors was mobilised on Tuesday to carry out a thorough inspection in all centres.
"They are continuing today (yesterday) and will take all necessary action on their findings after these inspections," he said.
He also advised people to boil all drinking water, especially rain water.
This was a category one cyclone, basically a baby:
This news article from the Fiji Times:
This about Frozen Food:
Avoid frozen food: Kumar
Thursday, January 31, 2008
STAY away from frozen foods. That's the advice from the Consumer Council of Fiji after extended power cuts across the country.
Council chief executive Premila Kumar said many supermarkets would have been affected by the power cuts in the past two days, which would have affected frozen food items.
"'It is advisable not to purchase thawed products even if the sale price by supermarkets is attractive," she said.
"Once thawed the bacteria on food items and meat can multiply to dangerous levels and possibly cause serious illnesses if consumed.
"'If food in supermarket freezers are soft despite supermarket owners putting their freezer on again, consumers should refrain from purchasing them.
"'Frozen food when thawed also losses its original shape and can help consumers identify if they have been affected by the power outage."
Mrs Kumar urged supermarket owners to be ethical and responsible by destroying all food items and meat that have been affected by flood waters or power cuts.
The council called on the Health Ministry to follow up on the post cyclone clean-up by supermarkets and take appropriate action to prevent the sale of salvaged food and meat products to consumers.
Ministry of Health chief health inspector Waisale Delai also issued a warning against the purchase of frozen goods.
He urged people to thoroughly check frozen foods they buy from shops and supermarkets.
"All defrosted food items such as meat and ice cream must be rejected or disposed of for fear of contamination or food poisoning," he said.
Mr Delai said a team of health inspectors was mobilised on Tuesday to carry out a thorough inspection in all centres.
"They are continuing today (yesterday) and will take all necessary action on their findings after these inspections," he said.
He also advised people to boil all drinking water, especially rain water.
This was a category one cyclone, basically a baby:
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| cyclone |
Friday, January 11, 2008
Laundry in Suva
Well I have a washing machine but not a dryer, and considering that I live in a hot climate you would think that would be a great thing! But when it has been torrential rains for days you wonder if you will ever be able to do your laundry? Especially before you run out of undies!
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| laundry in suva |
Thursday, January 10, 2008
This was sent to me...
Was Nukuleka really the cradle of Polynesia?
10 Jan 2008, 11:36
Auckland, New Zealand:
Editor,
The pronouncement by the prominent Pacific archaeologist, Professor David V. Burley, from Simon Fraser University in Canada, together with his archaeological team of researchers, that the small fishing village of Nukuleka on the northern shores of eastern Tongatapu, at the entrance to the Fanga'uta Lagoon, to be the cradle of Polynesia, let alone the whole of Tonga, does certainly raise a few critical questions of some serious historico-cultural significance (Matangi Tonga, 7 January, '08).
Tonga has, of course, largely been argued by Pacific archaeologists to be the origin of Polynesia, followed by the settlement of Samoa, both in western Polynesia, from where the rest of Polynesia were settled, beginning with the Cook, Marquesas and Society Islands in the central Pacific, then succeeded by Hawai'i in the north, Rapanui (Easter Island) in the east and Aotearoa (New Zealand) in the south, in that order.
This chronology-based argument, as far as western Polynesia goes, was later critically revised, leading to its being replaced with a region-based argument, which propagated the view that at least both Tonga and Samoa were settled relatively at the same time loosely regionally rather than strictly chronologically, i.e., as a region rather than a chronology.
If that was the case, how would the regionally-led argument (and not a chronologically-driven one) affect the local settlement scenario in Tonga? Would Fanga'uta, of which Nukuleka was and is still very much a part, physically, historically and culturally, be considered to have been settled as a single lagoonal area more or less at the same time?
Chronologically speaking, why, then, Nukuleka? But, really, why not Lapaha, 'Alakifonua or Folaha? Or, indeed, why not one of the other many adjoining offshore islands? There must be reasons, most, if not all, of which have remained unanswered. To unearth many, if not all, of these questions would undoubtedly give us a fuller picture of the human history.
Would the truth about Nukuleka solely hinge on the archaeological evidence alone? If not, there is a need for us to bring all the evidence to a convergent point, be they archaeological, linguistic or oral historical. How does, for example, oral history play a role in the scheme of things?
We know for sure that the history of Tonga before the emergence of the Tu'i Tonga is overly symbolically and mythologically represented (in correspondence with the so-called archaeologically and linguistically constructed Lapita society, culture and history), which does not mean (and not an excuse at all) that, because it is highly mythical, it is entirely impossible to make sense of both its complexity and historicity.
With the effective use of heliaki, the refined and sophisticated ephiphoric and metaphoric device for the qualitative and associative formal, substantial and functional exchange between ideas, images and objects in mythology and history, we can surely be able to effectively demarcate between the symbolic and the historical in connection with the human conditions. In effect, the same device can be applied to all forms of formal language, as in oratory, proverbs and poetry.
How does Nukuleka, then, relate to the shifting landscape movement of the Tu'i Tonga, which was mostly confined to Fanga'uta and its adjacent areas, which included an inland coastal-inland turn from 'Alakifonua through Pelehake and Toloa and along the fairly lengthy windward stretch in the southern coasts to Heketa in eastern Tongatapu?
How does Nukuleka stand in relation to Heketa and the shoreline mobility of the Tu'i Tonga from there along the northern coastlines through the Niutao Point (which is opposite Nukuleka) to Lapaha in Mu'a? How is Nukuleka implicated historically and culturally in its close physical proximity to Niutao, where the Langi Tamatou stands?
Was Nukuleka an island, later joined to the Niutao Point, hence its literal meaning "Small-island", in the same way that Nuku'alofa (literally meaning "Island-of-generosity") was connected to mainland Tongatapu in subsequent times? Intentionally or accidently, it is interesting to take note that somehow this particular early landscape movement took place in full circle, both beginning and ending in the Nuku'alofa area.
Was Nuku, the island, named after Leka, the prominent navigator of the Tu'i Tonga? Leka was a toutaivaka, navigator, not a toutaiika, fisherman, although both professions, toutaivaka and toutaiika, were under the generic professional class ha'a toutai. In fact, Ula-mo-Leka, the famous poet-navigator, happened to have combined both navigators of Tu'i Tonga and Tu'i Kanokupolu, i.e., Ula, in his person.
Or, was Leka, the navigator, named after Nukuleka, the small neighbouring island, which was opposite the Niutao Point? Or, was Nukuleka (like the island of Mo'unu opposite Lapaha at later times) merely a safe and convenient anchorage for the imperial fleet of the Tu'i Tonga led by his famous navigator, Leka?
In fact, Kula was the toutaiika of the Tu'i Tonga, and he was based in the Popua-Ma'ufanga area, which was and still is part of Fanga'uta. The word kula, red, in addition to 'uli, black, is prominently featured in Pacific arts, where kula is symbolically man-related, as in kula 'i moana, sunburnt in the ocean, and 'uli 'as in ma'uli, birth-delivering, and moa'uli, courting-go-between, as a female symbol.
Of all the related complex and elaborate beautiful kupesi, geometric designs - such as those used in the arts of tufunga tatatau, tatooing, tufunga ngaohi kulo pottery-making and nimamea'a koka'anga, fine art of bark-cloth-making - which Professor Burley mentioned are, in fact, derived from the master material art of tufunga lalava, line-space-intersecting, kafa sennit-lashing, associated with both tufunga fo'uvaka, boat-building, and tufunga langafale, house-building.
Perhaps the bigger, more important, question would be, How does the kupesi as an significant facet fit in here, as far as the multiplicity of opposed and complementary physical, psychological and social tendencies, characterising the totality of the reality of Tongan society, both synchronically and diachronically?
These artforms were the fatongia, prerogatives, of the so-called hereditary ha'a professional classes, such as ha'a tufunga, class of material artists, ha'a faiva, class of performance artists and ha'a fa'a, class of cultivators, amongst many others. There were class sub-divisions, as in faiva toutaivaka, long-distant navigators and faiva toutaiika, deep-sea fishermen, amidst many others.
The practice of ha'a in the Tu'i Tonga rule was radically scrutinised by the powerful Samoan-led, Tu'i Kanokupolu-informed regime, when it was changed from it being fatongia-based, economically-led, e.g., ha'a tufunga, material artists and ha'a tufunga nimatapu, artists-of-the-handling-of-the-dead, to it being ego-centred, politically-driven, e.g., Ha'a Ngata and Ha'a Havea.
In conclusion, I would also like to throw in a point that is both timely and politically necessary for us all locals and foreigners, academics and non-academics alike, to reflect upon. I refer here to the need to "indigenise" both anthropology and archaeology, not to mention the whole of the disciplinary spectrum vis-�-vis Tonga and the Pacific.
By "indigenisation", as in the case of both Tongan archaeology and anthropology, reference is made to seeing things Tongan as they objectively are, as opposed to their subjective imagining in what we would like them to be. In short, we must observe things Tongan on their own terms rather than by imposing upon them qualities extrinsic to Tongan society, culture and history.
For example, our words for Polynesia and Lapita, imposed by foreigners rather than mediated between them and the locals, are Moana and Pulotu. These local terms are deeply embedded and broadly endowed with sophisticated forms of knowledge, developed carefully and systematically over centuries of life-long, experientially-refining, trial-and-error application and experimentation.
In fact, early ethnographers were correct in classifying Polynesia, literally "many-islands", into western and eastern Polynesia, Pulotu and Havaiki, yet subsequent scholars in the field still fail consciously or unconsciously to recognise that, in terms of local knowledge, the physical, psychological and social dynamics at the interface of this western-eastern divide, can be truly and fruitfully critiqued within the locally-made Pulotu-Havaiki distinction.
Pacific archaeologists, like Pacific linguists, have, for example, come up with the dual marine-based, land-based as characteristic productive and reproductive features of the so-called Lapita social organisation, yet they still refuse to take into account the notion of the kaimoana, kaifonua duality in local understanding and praxis � and many more.
'Ofa atu fau,
Dr 'Okusitino MÄhina
Lecturer in Pacific Political Economy & Pacific Arts
Anthropology, University of Auckland, Auckland
New Zealand
and
Director, Vava'u Academy for Critical Inquiry and Applied Research
Tapinga'amaama Campus, Dr 'Okusitino Mahina Education Centre
Tefisi-Nga'akau, Vava'u
Tonga
10 Jan 2008, 11:36
Auckland, New Zealand:
Editor,
The pronouncement by the prominent Pacific archaeologist, Professor David V. Burley, from Simon Fraser University in Canada, together with his archaeological team of researchers, that the small fishing village of Nukuleka on the northern shores of eastern Tongatapu, at the entrance to the Fanga'uta Lagoon, to be the cradle of Polynesia, let alone the whole of Tonga, does certainly raise a few critical questions of some serious historico-cultural significance (Matangi Tonga, 7 January, '08).
Tonga has, of course, largely been argued by Pacific archaeologists to be the origin of Polynesia, followed by the settlement of Samoa, both in western Polynesia, from where the rest of Polynesia were settled, beginning with the Cook, Marquesas and Society Islands in the central Pacific, then succeeded by Hawai'i in the north, Rapanui (Easter Island) in the east and Aotearoa (New Zealand) in the south, in that order.
This chronology-based argument, as far as western Polynesia goes, was later critically revised, leading to its being replaced with a region-based argument, which propagated the view that at least both Tonga and Samoa were settled relatively at the same time loosely regionally rather than strictly chronologically, i.e., as a region rather than a chronology.
If that was the case, how would the regionally-led argument (and not a chronologically-driven one) affect the local settlement scenario in Tonga? Would Fanga'uta, of which Nukuleka was and is still very much a part, physically, historically and culturally, be considered to have been settled as a single lagoonal area more or less at the same time?
Chronologically speaking, why, then, Nukuleka? But, really, why not Lapaha, 'Alakifonua or Folaha? Or, indeed, why not one of the other many adjoining offshore islands? There must be reasons, most, if not all, of which have remained unanswered. To unearth many, if not all, of these questions would undoubtedly give us a fuller picture of the human history.
Would the truth about Nukuleka solely hinge on the archaeological evidence alone? If not, there is a need for us to bring all the evidence to a convergent point, be they archaeological, linguistic or oral historical. How does, for example, oral history play a role in the scheme of things?
We know for sure that the history of Tonga before the emergence of the Tu'i Tonga is overly symbolically and mythologically represented (in correspondence with the so-called archaeologically and linguistically constructed Lapita society, culture and history), which does not mean (and not an excuse at all) that, because it is highly mythical, it is entirely impossible to make sense of both its complexity and historicity.
With the effective use of heliaki, the refined and sophisticated ephiphoric and metaphoric device for the qualitative and associative formal, substantial and functional exchange between ideas, images and objects in mythology and history, we can surely be able to effectively demarcate between the symbolic and the historical in connection with the human conditions. In effect, the same device can be applied to all forms of formal language, as in oratory, proverbs and poetry.
How does Nukuleka, then, relate to the shifting landscape movement of the Tu'i Tonga, which was mostly confined to Fanga'uta and its adjacent areas, which included an inland coastal-inland turn from 'Alakifonua through Pelehake and Toloa and along the fairly lengthy windward stretch in the southern coasts to Heketa in eastern Tongatapu?
How does Nukuleka stand in relation to Heketa and the shoreline mobility of the Tu'i Tonga from there along the northern coastlines through the Niutao Point (which is opposite Nukuleka) to Lapaha in Mu'a? How is Nukuleka implicated historically and culturally in its close physical proximity to Niutao, where the Langi Tamatou stands?
Was Nukuleka an island, later joined to the Niutao Point, hence its literal meaning "Small-island", in the same way that Nuku'alofa (literally meaning "Island-of-generosity") was connected to mainland Tongatapu in subsequent times? Intentionally or accidently, it is interesting to take note that somehow this particular early landscape movement took place in full circle, both beginning and ending in the Nuku'alofa area.
Was Nuku, the island, named after Leka, the prominent navigator of the Tu'i Tonga? Leka was a toutaivaka, navigator, not a toutaiika, fisherman, although both professions, toutaivaka and toutaiika, were under the generic professional class ha'a toutai. In fact, Ula-mo-Leka, the famous poet-navigator, happened to have combined both navigators of Tu'i Tonga and Tu'i Kanokupolu, i.e., Ula, in his person.
Or, was Leka, the navigator, named after Nukuleka, the small neighbouring island, which was opposite the Niutao Point? Or, was Nukuleka (like the island of Mo'unu opposite Lapaha at later times) merely a safe and convenient anchorage for the imperial fleet of the Tu'i Tonga led by his famous navigator, Leka?
In fact, Kula was the toutaiika of the Tu'i Tonga, and he was based in the Popua-Ma'ufanga area, which was and still is part of Fanga'uta. The word kula, red, in addition to 'uli, black, is prominently featured in Pacific arts, where kula is symbolically man-related, as in kula 'i moana, sunburnt in the ocean, and 'uli 'as in ma'uli, birth-delivering, and moa'uli, courting-go-between, as a female symbol.
Of all the related complex and elaborate beautiful kupesi, geometric designs - such as those used in the arts of tufunga tatatau, tatooing, tufunga ngaohi kulo pottery-making and nimamea'a koka'anga, fine art of bark-cloth-making - which Professor Burley mentioned are, in fact, derived from the master material art of tufunga lalava, line-space-intersecting, kafa sennit-lashing, associated with both tufunga fo'uvaka, boat-building, and tufunga langafale, house-building.
Perhaps the bigger, more important, question would be, How does the kupesi as an significant facet fit in here, as far as the multiplicity of opposed and complementary physical, psychological and social tendencies, characterising the totality of the reality of Tongan society, both synchronically and diachronically?
These artforms were the fatongia, prerogatives, of the so-called hereditary ha'a professional classes, such as ha'a tufunga, class of material artists, ha'a faiva, class of performance artists and ha'a fa'a, class of cultivators, amongst many others. There were class sub-divisions, as in faiva toutaivaka, long-distant navigators and faiva toutaiika, deep-sea fishermen, amidst many others.
The practice of ha'a in the Tu'i Tonga rule was radically scrutinised by the powerful Samoan-led, Tu'i Kanokupolu-informed regime, when it was changed from it being fatongia-based, economically-led, e.g., ha'a tufunga, material artists and ha'a tufunga nimatapu, artists-of-the-handling-of-the-dead, to it being ego-centred, politically-driven, e.g., Ha'a Ngata and Ha'a Havea.
In conclusion, I would also like to throw in a point that is both timely and politically necessary for us all locals and foreigners, academics and non-academics alike, to reflect upon. I refer here to the need to "indigenise" both anthropology and archaeology, not to mention the whole of the disciplinary spectrum vis-�-vis Tonga and the Pacific.
By "indigenisation", as in the case of both Tongan archaeology and anthropology, reference is made to seeing things Tongan as they objectively are, as opposed to their subjective imagining in what we would like them to be. In short, we must observe things Tongan on their own terms rather than by imposing upon them qualities extrinsic to Tongan society, culture and history.
For example, our words for Polynesia and Lapita, imposed by foreigners rather than mediated between them and the locals, are Moana and Pulotu. These local terms are deeply embedded and broadly endowed with sophisticated forms of knowledge, developed carefully and systematically over centuries of life-long, experientially-refining, trial-and-error application and experimentation.
In fact, early ethnographers were correct in classifying Polynesia, literally "many-islands", into western and eastern Polynesia, Pulotu and Havaiki, yet subsequent scholars in the field still fail consciously or unconsciously to recognise that, in terms of local knowledge, the physical, psychological and social dynamics at the interface of this western-eastern divide, can be truly and fruitfully critiqued within the locally-made Pulotu-Havaiki distinction.
Pacific archaeologists, like Pacific linguists, have, for example, come up with the dual marine-based, land-based as characteristic productive and reproductive features of the so-called Lapita social organisation, yet they still refuse to take into account the notion of the kaimoana, kaifonua duality in local understanding and praxis � and many more.
'Ofa atu fau,
Dr 'Okusitino MÄhina
Lecturer in Pacific Political Economy & Pacific Arts
Anthropology, University of Auckland, Auckland
New Zealand
and
Director, Vava'u Academy for Critical Inquiry and Applied Research
Tapinga'amaama Campus, Dr 'Okusitino Mahina Education Centre
Tefisi-Nga'akau, Vava'u
Tonga
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Tonga is the birth place of Polynesia!?!?!?
Tongan site dated oldest in Polynesia
By MICHAEL FIELD - Fairfax Media | Thursday, 10 January 2008
A small fishing village established 2900 years ago in Tonga has been confirmed as the first settlement in Polynesia.
Using pottery shards, archaeologist David Burley says they have confirmed Nukuleka, just east of Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, is Polynesia's birthplace.
The confirmation comes as something of a blow for Samoa which has advertised itself for decades as the "cradle of Polynesia".
Fiji's Sigatoka dunes have also made claims to be Polynesia's birthplace but they appear now to be several centuries younger.
Archaeologists have focused on Nukuleka for the past five years following the discovery of rich pickings of Lapita pottery.
A distinctive type of pottery, named for the site in New Caledonia where it was first found, was carried through Melanesia and into the Pacific by a mysterious group of people who eventually became the first Polynesians.
Professor Burley, of Simon Fraser University in Canada, told Matangi Tonga website that a final excavation last year had nailed Nukuleka's position as Polynesia's first. The pottery was 2900 years old.
"Tonga was the first group of islands in Polynesia to be settled by the Lapita people about 3000 years ago, and Nukuleka was their first settlement in Tonga," he said.
The site for the village, at the mouth of the Fanga'uta lagoon, was ideal.
"They came here first about 3000 years ago when the lagoon sea level was higher than today.
"There were no mangroves, so the lagoon shore was a big beach, and the lagoon was full of shellfish, and everything that we have dug up was packed with layers of shellfish."
The area was rich in shells and researchers found that the people were eating lots of turtles and birds, he said.
"What we are trying to prove is that this is the first site in Tonga, and everything that we have found verifies that," he said.
Within a century of establishing Nukuleka the first Polynesians had settled the whole of Tonga. "Then a thousand years later they moved eastwards to eastern Polynesia."
By MICHAEL FIELD - Fairfax Media | Thursday, 10 January 2008
A small fishing village established 2900 years ago in Tonga has been confirmed as the first settlement in Polynesia.
Using pottery shards, archaeologist David Burley says they have confirmed Nukuleka, just east of Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, is Polynesia's birthplace.
The confirmation comes as something of a blow for Samoa which has advertised itself for decades as the "cradle of Polynesia".
Fiji's Sigatoka dunes have also made claims to be Polynesia's birthplace but they appear now to be several centuries younger.
Archaeologists have focused on Nukuleka for the past five years following the discovery of rich pickings of Lapita pottery.
A distinctive type of pottery, named for the site in New Caledonia where it was first found, was carried through Melanesia and into the Pacific by a mysterious group of people who eventually became the first Polynesians.
Professor Burley, of Simon Fraser University in Canada, told Matangi Tonga website that a final excavation last year had nailed Nukuleka's position as Polynesia's first. The pottery was 2900 years old.
"Tonga was the first group of islands in Polynesia to be settled by the Lapita people about 3000 years ago, and Nukuleka was their first settlement in Tonga," he said.
The site for the village, at the mouth of the Fanga'uta lagoon, was ideal.
"They came here first about 3000 years ago when the lagoon sea level was higher than today.
"There were no mangroves, so the lagoon shore was a big beach, and the lagoon was full of shellfish, and everything that we have dug up was packed with layers of shellfish."
The area was rich in shells and researchers found that the people were eating lots of turtles and birds, he said.
"What we are trying to prove is that this is the first site in Tonga, and everything that we have found verifies that," he said.
Within a century of establishing Nukuleka the first Polynesians had settled the whole of Tonga. "Then a thousand years later they moved eastwards to eastern Polynesia."
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Kula park
We decided to go away for New Year's to Sandy Point. New Years eve we went to Kula Eco Park. Other than that we spent most of our time swimming and hanging out, reading, and napping. A perfect way to bring in the New Year!
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| kula eco park |
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