How shall we sing the Lords Song..In a strange Land?

1971

The seemingly large, long and endless green and white Formica table, was fully laden with food fit for a King..No a Queen..no Two Kings and two Queens! A preparation my Aunties and Uncles rehearsed time and again as children and now as Adults play out like a symphony striking each chord with a resonance that sings of the lessons learnt and now passed down from one generation to the next. A learning understood, and observed and reborn as Adults with a new set of eager faced learners looking on.

We all gather at the appropriate time..with a command we are called to the table with the slow and less eager abruptly hurried to the awaiting feast. The smells permeate the room as does the sense of anticipation of who will befall the task of the Pure..or Prayer before we dine. Fortunately or unfortunately for them it is always the task set aside for the Tuakana or older brother of the flock of cousins that have gathered..Maybe he or she was standing in the wrong or right place at the right time..nonetheless a Pure is offered and we all mostly close or eyes as we squint to see what we shall eat first and how far from the table we are from the prized possessions. The Pure nears its end and the inevitable Amen..is ever so close.

The Children then begin to plate their feast ..carefully placing each piece, balancing the many prized possessions, but also ensuring a few inedibles are placed strategically so as the ..”where are your vegetables?”..is met with a gentle…”here Aunty”…as we wished in our hearts that those hungry kids in Africa could eat all our broccoli, salad and Cucumber.

The children eat, laugh and play as the Adults then feast and no sooner are the bellies full the minstrels and choir of which there are many take their positions. With Ukeleles in hand we are then serenaded by the simple two finger chords, and a sound that resonates and echos a time when life was seemingly so much simpler. The strumming picks up as does the timber of voice, as I realise looking back that we actually could “sing the Lords Song in a strange Land”..and that I was a stranger in a strange Land..with a strange song.

Lyrics bounce around the room as shoulders and hips begin to sway and bring back for me the happiest of childhood memories. Melodies that seemed to soothe and placate all that was different and helped us celebrate all that was the same. Smiles break out almost spontaneously as if in unison as the chorus of the songs reach their crescendo and then break like waves on the reef as laughter and mirth splash over us all.

Though there is so much that is familiar, the experience is muted in that I am unable to speak or understand the language of my Mother. Nevertheless though my tongue is muted this doesn’t stop me being able to join with the universal language of Aro’a..Love..and the wonderful symphony that is Whanau, that is family that is for me being Cook Island Maori.

What a portal it is to experience the Song and Dance of my forefathers, my Mother and my large extended Family. Though I have learnt so much in the Papaa..European world, It is times like these that I realise I have so much to learn about Te Ao Maori..or the Maori World. It is times like these that I am a child again..a child that needs to walk, to know to speak and to understand again a new way of being. So many things I need to learn, and some things I will also need to unlearn. Skills and lessons that will equip me for the voyage ahead as I have reached a new place and a new journey.

With a new-found tenaciousness I question, reason and want to discover again. I want to glean from those that know a way and a way to live that at one time I felt was unecessary, redundant and surplus for the world I then lived in. Now eating every morsel until my belly is full and eating more again..almost insatiable this appetite grows inside me. An appetite that once feasted on another way to live walk and talk. How well I ate from that table and gorged myself on the Papaa..or European way to live. I have worn those “Four Layers” so well and they have served me well in the journey so far. But how cumbersome they now seem for the journey ahead.

I am Cook Islands Maori..but I am also Papaa. I now must learn to walk in both worlds..sometimes more in one and other times  more in the other. This is the challenge ahead..a challange I welcome with both arms..one white and one brown.

Advertisement