If you’re interested in natural dyes, or want to know more about hands-on textile techniques, this episode is a joy. It's also a great one if you are into ideas around seasonality and connection to Nature. Aren't we all?!

Continuing our Pacific theme (don’t miss last week’s Episode with Fiji Fashion Week’s Ellen Whippy-Knight) these two stories are also from Fiji, but a long way from its capital Suva. They’re both about different aspects of Indigenous practices, and living in balance with the the land, the oceans, the skies and biodiversity.

First, meet Letila Mitchell, a renowned artist, designer and performer from Rotuma. Her work in the fashion space grew out of costume, & has developed into a practice that’s all about revitalising traditional Rotuman textile making, and re-finding cultural knowledge disrupted by colonisation.

Our second interview is with Noleen Billings, from Savusavu, on Fiji’s northern island of Vanua Levu. Noleen isn't famous or a fancy expert in anything other than common sense, but her simple message is a powerful one: In the busy modern world, it’s easy to forget the Nature usually knows best! Indigenous wisdom is deeply connected with reading Nature’s signals, and we can all learn from that. There are universal lessons in here, as well as some thought-provoking questions. For example, what does it mean to be wise? Where does schooled knowledge, written down in books, fit in - and why do we have to so rigid about it? Knowledge that’s shared and passed down in different ways is just as important…

NOTES

FURTHER LISTENING in keeping with the Pacific theme, last week’s Ep with Fiji Fashion Week founder Ellen Whippy-Knight. Listen here. Also related, Flora Vano, on women’ climate action in Fiji’s close neighbour Vanuatu, in Episode 199.

LETILA MITCHELL is a dancer, artist, fashion designer and big thinker. She is the artistic director of the RakoPasefika dance company and a former producer of First Nations Programming at Sydney Opera House. She also an academic - she got her PhD from Queensland University of Technology, exploring Rotuman creative practice in the context of Indigenous knowledge, seeking: “to develop a model for engagement in and with heritage practices as systems of knowledge, in particular, focusing on ecological principles and an embodied approach to creating new work.” 

ROTUMA

hich is a more than 460 kilometres north of the main Fiji island. Colonialism actively disrupted Indigenous knowledge when language were banned. After Rotuma was ceded to Britain in 1881, the British decided to administer as part of the Colony of Fiji. 

TATTOOS “Western laws that were established in Oceania from the seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century removed Oceanian cultural practices to make way for a hierarchy that was more advantageous to Westerners. Tattoo art was one of the cultural practices that suffered,” writes Dorell Ben, in Violence: Embodiment, published in Parse journal, issue 15. Read the article here.

In Rotuman fạ’i (tattoo) culture, “fa’i means to pair, to be together,” says Letila, whose work in textiles re-imagines what that practice might have been, “by understanding our biodiversity on the island, by nderstandong the patters the birds make as they walk on the sand, or understanding the patterns on our trees. It’s about reimagining what those symbologies on our bodies would have been, on fabric.”

VESVES is a traditional cloth made from hibiscus fibres. “The exceptional skill of our Rotuman weavers is passed down from generation to generation,” says Letila.

MENA is a turmeric plant native to Rotuma, it is yellow or red depending what it’s mixed with. Read about its cultural uses and significance here. Letila also mentions the tradition of colouring cloth with local RED SEAWEED and that certain BANANA SKINS can be used to creates purple.

SAVUSAVU

Located on Fiji’s northern island of Vanua Levu, Savusavu is considered one of Fiji’s best kept secrets. reminiscent of how some of the more popular tourist areas were some 20 years ago.  The pace is slower and there are far less tourists, while the waters contain “miles of unexplored reefs with seemingly bottomless drop-offs, multi-coloured soft corals and the perfect coral gardens supporting an abundance of marine life.” More here. Shhhh don’t tell everyone. The island was a GOLD MINE, literally, in the 1930s, and Australian companies dominated. Today a Canadian company runs the island’s largest mine, Vatukoula, 9 km inland from the Town of Tavua. Mining is always dirty work, see this Oxfam report for the issues.

SEASONALITY & SUFFICIENCY A time for everything, from certain crabs to certain fruits, the rhythm of the seasons dictates what’s good, when. Also, everyone takes just enough to ensure there is plenty for everyone else. Listen out for what Noleen says about going with the flow of nature - it makes so much sense!

BALOLO are wormlike animals that, as Noleen says, baffle the botanists by also containing chlorophil, as plants do. Dr Paul Geraghty is an associate professor in linguistics at the University of the South Pacific in Suva. His explainer is fascinating: “Pacific fishers learned long ago that the moon affects many other forms of sea life, determining the spawning of certain fish and crustaceans, especially land-crabs and hermit-crabs,” he writes.

“Balolo is a kind of edible sea worm, scientifically known as Eunice viridis, which spends most of its time in the deep recesses of certain coral reefs. It rises in its millions to the surface for a few hours once or twice a year, at a certain phase of the moon, for the purpose of reproducing itself… The time when the Balolo rise … is watched for with the greatest anxiety, and predicted with unerring certainty.” Scoop them up and they look like blue spaghetti. But hurry - by sunrise they’re gone.

PANDANUS It is usually the women who collect the pandanus leaves (voivoi) to weave mats. “The work of weaving mats and selling goods is part of the tradition of solesolevaki, the practice of cooperation that ensures everyone gets the help they need and strengthens ties throughout the community.” More here.

TOTEMS Noleen shares her own experience of the meaning of totems in her community, where people feel a deep connection with the tree, the bird and the fish that represents them. It’s a beautiful idea. Does everyone relate? Not necessarily - more here.

What is WISDOM? Who gets to decide. Noleen reminds us that deep Indigenous knowledge abut everything from the food system, to the lunar system pre-dates book learning, but somewhere along the line, colonisation and western educational ideas usurped it to the point where some in her community began to doubt the validity of their own knowledge. Now, the tide is turning. Thankfully. We know through habits and observation… and passing the knowledge down from generation to generation.

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