A NIU WAY: Nurturing the vā with the coconut palm tree
In 1990 when I first arrived in Hawai’i, the coconut trees in urban Honolulu and around high rises and tourist resorts that had no coconuts on them greatly bothered me. Why this important food and water source in the rest of Oceania should become just an exotic backdrop for tourists lounging on the beach seems such a travesty and an insult to the kanaka maoli of Hawai'i as well as diasporic Pacific Islanders such as myself. There was definitely a forced disconnect between niu and Oceanic peoples living in Hawai'i; however, I tolerated this indignity along with those who knew better. After all, I was hired to be an academic, not an activist for niu and niu culture. But the corona-virus pandemic brought this tension to a head.
Ironically, the corona-virus pandemic that swept through the world like wildfire and killed millions of people is also responsible for reconnecting me with my humble origins growing up on an island surrounded by coconut trees laden with coconuts everywhere. Living in the urban concrete jungle of Honolulu, I became more and more aware of my growing disconnection with the natural environment. For example, I swam in a swimming pool, not in the ocean. I ate foods bought from the supermarket, not foods I had grown myself. When I saw homeless people during the pandemic foraging in garbage bins for food to eat, I thought about the meat of coconuts that saved my life growing up on Rotuma. During the lockdowns when the tourism industry came to a standstill and the coconut trees without their coconuts started bearing fruit again, I found this inspirational and hopeful. Interestingly, I felt that the coconut palms wanted to reconnect with me as much as I wanted to reconnect with them.
At this time of writing, there is a growing sense that the pandemic will soon be over. What will not be over for me is a renewed relationship with niu and niu culture. Now I have a passionate desire to continue to nurture and celebrate what Rotumans call the vā, the space between. This nurturing of the space between myself and niu while living in an urban concrete jungle allows me to feel connected to the land. Now niu is not only a food and water source in the city for me, but a mentor in my creative endeavors. In partnership with my niu, I have finished a short film about the "dangerous" coconuts of Waikiki, almost completed an animated short on the origin of niu, and have just started filming a documentary about niu and niu culture in Hawai'i. I am also in collaboration with other friends and colleagues in Hawaiʻi and Europe in the making of these films and in promoting and fostering the return of niu and a niu culture in Hawai'i.
References
Bell, Joshua A, Paige West, and Colin Filer, eds. 2015. Tropical Forests of Oceania: Anthropological Perspectives, Canberra, ANU Press.
Churchward, C. Maxwell, 1940. Rotuman Grammar and Dictionary, Australian Medical Publishing Company Limited for the Methodist Church of Australasia, Department of Overseas Missions.
Evans, Nicholas, 2020. "One Thousand and One Coconuts: Growing Memories in Southern New Guinea" in The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs, Vol. 32, No. 1, 72-96.
Hau'ofa, Epeli, 2008. "Pasts to Remember" in We are the Ocean: Selected Works. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 60-79.
Horowitz, Lea Sophie, 2001. "Perceptions of Nature and Responses to Environmental Degradation in New Caledonia," Ethnology 40 (1): 237-250.
Howard, Alan. Rotuma Website: http://www.rotuma.net
Titifanua, Mesulama & Churchward, C. Maxwell, 1995. Tales of a Lonely Island, Institute of Pacific Studies, Suva.