How was that!

You can take the girl out of Wales (you can even lose her on a small tropical island), but she'll still follow the rugby.........For those out of the loop, Wales just won the Six nations with a grand slam, beating France 16-9 at the Millennium Stadium in their final match, it was a good game (why o why didn't we manage it in the world cup?). I was up at 4:30am for the match, and it was worth it! This will have to make up for me neglecting my usual St.Davids day blog on the 1st. GOOD ONE WALES!

Welsh Cakes

I've been feeling rather guilty, having totally failed to celebrate St.Davids Day this year (March 1st), so here are a few things welsh, to make up for it. I even got to making welsh-cakes, though I have to admit they didn't taste quite the same as I remember!

You know you've been living on an isolated Pacific island for a while when .....

> you get excited that there are fresh carrots in the local grocery store
> you are overjoyed when some friends in Tahiti send you a care package with sponge squares and Weetabix in it (a BIG thank you to the Manate family for that!)
> your idea of a big night out is going to get 'Steack frites' at the local snack
> you blog about the Mexican soap opera that you're watching!
> you're reduced to tears (of laughter) by a BBC comedy show filmed partly in Barry (South Wales) Gavin and Stacey, because it's just so spot on, and reminds you of some reasons why living on a small Pacific island seems like a good idea (another thank you to the Mme Manate for that)

Roots

Cultural identity is a very potent force, one that you can only really appreciate when you leave the comfort of your own culture for places new. It's something that I find myself thinking about and discussing at length with many of my wonderful friends, who travel far and wide across the globe (take a look at Mandy's blog: wonderful life). One of the most refreshing things for me, living in a culture so far removed from my own, is that I really am able to define myself as an individual, with my many strengths and weaknesses, outside of the distorting lens of cultural norms, I can even consciously decide what aspects of myself and my cultural baggage I would like to keep and what needs to be left well behind.

I'm not from Rurutu and let's face I never will be, and I'm not even French either, so I fall neatly in between. I've never been much of a conformer, so I'm OK with that, though I understand how troubling some people may find that. For me, my lack of roots does not stop me feeling a deep sense of belonging and even attachment, to my new found home, it just allows me to be different. Few people from Rurutu know where Wales is, and they have no sense of what it means to be Welsh. I don't fit into the traditional Rurutu gender roles, and certainly the ideas and opinions that I have differ dramatically from those of my relatives here. But it doesn't matter, there are no expectations that I should conform to their norms - something that is immensely liberating.....but which also leaves you floating somewhere out in the vacuum . I don't always have a good idea how I should behave and what is and isn't acceptable - Tahitians tend to be a lot more laid back on the whole social protocol thing, compared to us Brits (or Europeans in general) but there are still some limits! The other down side is that I don't always truly understand social interactions, or what motivates people here, which can be both frustrating and lonely! Of course I'm lucky, I have Viriamu to help me decipher some of this and Matotea brings me joy (and some frustration too, but mostly joy). Viriamu and I have always almost unknowingly shared deep-seated values and we both have so many dreams that we can realize together, these are bonds that tie us together, despite the gaping chasm of our differences. Our very strength lies in our very different abilities, Viriamu might not have enjoyed (nor wanted) the education that I have had (frankly, he's just not into the whole reading and writing thing), but together we can achieve so many things that would not be possible apart - though of course being so different does have its challenges too. It's often hard for people to understand our relationship. I've even had people tell me that "it couldn't work between us", most other people just look at us with a mildly confused expression on their face, others probably just think I'm slightly mad. I'm not sure, I feel saner than ever, but then that may be the first sign of madness! But I have always been one for a challenge.....

St. David's day reflections

Today is the St.David's Day - patron Saint of Wales. Even though I'm far from home my roots are still important to me. I'm originally from South Wales, in the UK. I went to a welsh-medium school (my parents speak only English), so I was bilingual from the age of four and I identify very strongly with being Welsh. I'd even go so far as to say that I'm proud to be able to speak welsh, even if I don't get too much chance now that I live in Rurutu! It's strange, but while tahitian culture might, at first glance, seem to be so very different from my own, I find many parallels between being Welsh and Viriamu's tahitian roots. Granted there are a lot less coconuts in Wales, but all the same we are a people anchored by our history. In a similar way a friend of mine tried to explain tahitian culture to me - she said that Tahitians stand with their backs to the future, we can't predict it or see it coming so we don't worry about it, rather we look to our ancestors for guidance. I know it's a slightly strange concept, but I think this is a very profound difference, certainly I and many of my English, French or American friends and colleagues are very goal-oriented and are always looking to be in control of the future, while most of my Tahitian friends are much more able to let life happen to them - and I think this is something that I could learn from.

Like Tahitians the Welsh have our own culture, quite distinct from either the English, Scots or Irish. Tahitians are fiesty, fiery, proud and headstrong, with a strong oral tradition, not a million miles from the Welsh temperament, we also have our poets and mythology. We even have an annual cultural celebration, the Eisteddfod, paralleled by the heiva in Tahiti. Both languages and cultures were forbidden and threatened at certain points in history, and both cultures have rediscovered a new contemporary vibrancy, yet still need to be cherished and preserved. Rurutu, as French Polynesia, is currently undergoing rapid and major cultural paradigm shifts, the younger generation look to french and western culture as a model for the future and the 'old' ways are all too easily discarded. While Viriamu's parents speak only rurutu, and Viriamu likewise has trouble with french, his boys speak mostly french and many of the youngsters in Rurutu no longer speak their own language. We're trying to teach Matotea to speak rurutu, french and english (and maybe a little welsh too), in fact she is already able to understand words from of all of these languages. But this is not enough, we as a community Welsh or Rurutu need to work together to preserve our heritage, something that I hope we will be able to do!

R. S. Thomas, a famously cheery anglo-welsh poet, sums up the Welsh predicament in his poem:

Welsh Landscape
To live in Wales is to be conscious
At dusk of the spilled blood
That went into the making of the wild sky
Dyeing the immaculate rivers
in all their courses.
It is to be aware,
Above the noisy tractor
And hum of the machine
Of strife in the strung woods,
Vibrant with sped arrows.
You cannot live in the present,
You cannot live in the present,
At least not in Wales.
There is the language for instance,
The soft consonants
Strange to the ear.
There are cries in the dark at night
As owls answer the moon,
And thick ambush of shadows,
Hushed at the fields' corners.
There is no present in Wales
And no future;
There is only the past,
Brittle with relics,
Wind-bitten towers and castles
With sham ghosts;
Mouldering quarries and mines;
And impotent people,
Sick with inbreeding.
Worrying the carcase of an old song.

While I'm a bit more quietly optimistic, much of what he writes rings true to me.

Happy St. David's Day!

A Christmas pox!

We spent the last few weeks travelling in Europe, visting family and friends. It was the first time Viriamu had been to the UK - and boy was it a shock to the system! In retrospect my master plan of going back home for Christmas, might have been flawed. It wasn't just Viriamu who suffered either - in a few short months I have become absolutely cold intolerant. The moment we stepped off the plane we both got colds! The first day we went outside the house, Viriamu described the sensation on his skin as akin to being stabbed with a thousand tiny knives!!!! I though about it a while, and he got it pretty much right, I'd just never really noticed before.

It was definitely an odd few weeks, with both highs and lows. Being so cold all the time and staying in such a totally different environment was really tough on Viri, but we did still manage to get around a bit and meet up with some of the people I wanted to see. Unfortunately, however, I got chickenpox towards the end of our visit - which meant that we couldn't visit Sarah, Matt and Gwion, or Oliver, Louise and Rob, so I'm yet to officially start my auntying duties. But I did get to see some recent pictures of Oliver - he's growing fast and is as cute as a button! The chickenpox itself was pretty mild, I guess I was quite lucky from that point of view.

The highlight was that we got to visit A'a, an artefact from Rurutu, now owned by the British Museum. It was bought from the London Missionary Society in 1911, and was given to them by the famous Pacific missionary Johnny Williams in 1821. It's a funny looking statue. Quite unlike other Polynesian tikis. From what I gather it represents an early attempt to describe Christianity to Rurutuans, who had previously worshipped wooden figures of their gods (tikis). A'a means 'caress' in Rurutu, and that's exactly what the figure was made for. The figure represents a single god, the little figures attached to his body represent the families that colonized Rurutu, and inside the figure there were a series of small tikis to show how this new god encompassed all their old gods (these figures were burnt by the missionaries in 1882 likely because of their pagan connections). But of course the fact that anyone built this 'false idol' in the first place is rather odd, and there's an interesting story to be told here about a Rurutu prince called Amaeterai who set sail to discover untold treasures and instead found some missionaries, most likely in New Zealand. Anyway this was a very significant moment for Viriamu, even though he had to wear blue latex gloves to handle the figure! A'a is very important to him, so much so that he has him tattooed on his chest.

One thing's for sure, we'll celebrate next Christmas Polynesian style - on the beach!