Imitating Another Lifestyle Is Losing Ours?

IMITATING ANOTHER LIFESTYLE IS LOSING OURS.

Lifestyles are developed over time, guided and influenced by the things people interact with, relate to or are governed by. Each niche environment shapes the way those people behave in that locality and so a peculiar sense of identity to that locality is duly born.

Everything stands to be different from location to location – that is just the way it is. Everywhere. So when a foreign practice is to be adopted, a whole lot of factors need to be considered by the adaptor. Such as habits, perspectives, perceptions, applications etc which need realignment. Adaption must follow adoption otherwise the new lifestyle will simply not fit into the “system”.

Imitating foreign ways of doing things that developed under different circumstances can have issues simply because, social systems, political make up, culture norms, traditional values and individuals are different. Therein lie the pivotal points that men all too often fail to gauge or lazily ignore – We readily adopt from a domineering group something because we like it but, we seem to take little time to think whether accepting that change will work well in our setting or satisfy the intended need. And, it usually does not unless some tweaks here and there are done. While some foreign ways can be beneficial, copycat-ing (or copy-pasting) exactness more likely than not, brings unintended negative consequences. So to avoid a lost cause, either don’t adapt at all, or pull available resources together in readiness beforehand.

In my opinion, Papua New Guinea is a master at Copycat-ing. We have allowed ourselves to be inundated with western ways of thinking and living that some of our own ways that have worked well for generations have now been displaced, forgotten and are unfortunately ceasing to exist for no good reason. A certain degree of our pride and identity suffers in the process. An end that is of course undesirable.

Below are some influences that have altered our Gokata lifestyle.

Adopting foreign names is one. The Chinese, Arabs & Japanese particularly do not easily adapt foreign names. Much the same can be said of the Fijians, our Melanesians ‘brothers’. Almost all of their names are original. Just by looking at most of the names of these peoples you can be tongue-tied even before you begin the pronunciations. They have some of the longest-hard-to-pronounce names in the world – why – because they proudly hold their culture at heart – the names have stuck. That’s reasonable, in fact it is applaudable. Flipping over to PNG, I am led to believe that we have more adopted western names like Marys, Johns or other bizarre kinds in our midst than any other nation in the world!! An adoption that is of no good reason except maybe to feel accepted. How we have chosen to change so readily and quickly? In so doing, we have invariably discounted our ancestry by way of discontinuing the use of our ancestor’s names. Remember, all of our history was orally handed down from generation to generation so we need to practice it to maintain it. PNG people should take a leaf out of the book from these mentioned peoples so we do not in any way ‘lose sight’ of originality.

Our names alone are a story waiting to be told. Some poets have penned beautiful ballads just on the names of their loved ones. Mister Kurona L. Bala wrote one such piece for his paternal grandmother some years back. A short piece but very meaningful indeed. In my case, the name ‘Moru’ was originally ‘Muru’ and got passed up from the lowland Rigo areas. It means “lips”. The original “guy” may have been a whisperer and a good one at that, I’d like to think. My surname ‘Kokoro’ is a name of a local tropical plant species with many colourful varieties. It is still used in ceremonial decors and adornments as well as a protective food wrapper in the area. Putting the two together, this mantle of a ‘decorative whisperer & custodian’ that the name suggests is priceless. In other words I am a descendant of a keeper of information for the society. Therefore our original names are indeed invaluable, a source of pride and identity and should be guarded.

Another adoption is foreign music. Nowadays, the young in Gokata, like anywhere in PNG, like to carry around boom-boxes with blaring hip hop music. The thumping beats play in sync to the steps the young take. Although their moves are graceful and artistic, these are done at high volumes and not often at the right time of day. The street becomes a dancefloor to these young people where respect for people nearby seems non-existent. In fact, for a community to live in peace and harmony, communal respect should be top agenda. That is how order reigned in the villages in the days of old. Anything apart from this might I say, is not our culture. It seems to our young people that anything modern must be ‘western’ and anything apart from western is hanua or ples type.

We can correct that view. It would be very pleasing if we could rather encourage our young to rethink that mentality. Teach them our ways. PNG Ways. Gokata ways. Maintain respect for others, even strangers. It be learned that loud hailing was only for speeches by the elders to the village folk. Were there disruption to that norm of peace & quiet, the offender was compelled to ‘pay’. So, we owe it to ourselves to allow the young to enjoy their trendy music however, we ought to also sit them down and drum into them the richness of their ancestry. Expose and guide them to ways of sitting around bonfires under the open skies to practising the kundu dances Balamai, Lulu votu, Konedui & Vakova. Other similar genres, although introduced like Kitoro, Seseva, Ute or Peroveta, can also be taught in parallel as these have blended well into our culture. In doing so, we instil in our young, pride for our unique traditions.

In addition, more than half of our mother tongue has eroded to no return. Words expressing honour, respect, chiefly or elder are rarely used these days. Words like Mune (masculine) and Dabu (feminine). These were titles with highly dignified references when bestowed. A person who was referencing another by these titles acknowledged a deep shared empathy, oneness, loyalty, uniqueness and identity to one another.

Not many of the younger generation know what lolaka, doaka and gilo mean in our dialect. Just a couple of words from the countless others that have long been allowed to be replaced by fancier types. Read on to the end of the article and I’ll be glad to give you the English meaning equivalent for these three words. Hypothetically, were we to create writings entirely in our mother tongue, it would go a long way in conserving some words in print for the future generation.

Attire is another. Don’t get me wrong as I do not mean for all to resort to blouse-less and barefoot attire. No. Decency has its boundaries and so must heritage against influence. Let me explain this angle of assessment. I grew up seeing womenfolk go about in the village doing their chores in grass skirt (dimudi) over a ‘material’ skirt and a bright red singlet. Along with these, a hibiscus (goukaka) flower placed in their big afro hair and a goukeke on their foreheads, a frangipani (sale) flower on the pierced earlobe, a black bead string (guu) around the neck with armbands (lobo) tucked with sweet smelling herbs (damudamu) or bright coloured feather/s (polo). I can remember seeing Buo Gobaki, Gemoli Gobaki or Nauga Ode dressed thus in their heydays. They literally lit up the place. That kind of attire gave me great pride of being who I am – a Gokatai, a Boku, a Rigo, a Papuan, a Papua New Guinean, a Pacific Islander, a Melanesian. Re-living that in my mind always, always gives me goose bumps. The goose bumps of the very good kind; special, the uniqueness, a sense of belonging to that uniqueness and a deep sense of worth.

Finally, diet. The one that dominates as the most benign killer for our traditional ways. The kinds of food we eat has changed. Oily fast foods & greasy take-aways aside let’s take rice as our example. Rice is an introduced food but it is hugely popular. The Government ships this in in gigantic volumes from overseas to feed its population. The population whose fathers were great gardeners. Ironical isn’t it? Sure, rice has its advantages. It tastes great, is simple to cook and it lasts longer in storage compared to garden foods. Nonetheless, it is still a foreign food that has become our adopted staple food. So when people prefer rice (or any store foods for that matter) more than mosala, gwabuli, dava, kovotu or galivata, etc despite it not being readily grown here, it is gut-wrenching. Same can be said of flour, sugar, soft drinks etc. Where a child convinces the parents to walk to towns just to buy and get a taste of these foreign fatty toxic foods is absurdity! Processed food do have unnoticeable disadvantages regardless of how good the taste may be. On the other hand, bananas, yams or any garden food rarely do and are outright nutritious that do wonders for our body naturally. Our adaption would be advantageous if we were more engaged in better and tasty meal preparation methods of the foods we already have. Furthermore, let us encourage our children to get a feel of local foods roasted on open fire. That is hanua right? Yes. But the western knowledge proves that the burnt part of foods from open fire cooking is good value for the body and mind because of its carbon content.

Okay, we could go on forever on copycatting but I believe my point is made – that foreign ways displacing our ways without proper adoption is not beneficial and is actually detrimental to our unique centuries-old identities. Knowing reasons why things are done in a certain way must be clear. Admittedly, complete change is not helpful. What shouldn’t be done is blind acceptance of foreign ways without thinking of the consequences. A mixture of beneficial ways of foreign and traditional is the more likable way for progress.

The general view here is not to say we forego modernisation and go back to living like our ancestors. Far from that. Having a purpose in life begins with us knowing where our roots are. Our ‘state of origin’. That should give us a strong inward feeling to stand with pride and confidence in the global community.

Imitating others is losing our true self. Gokata can live better by taking on-board the good from others, moulding it to suit us and foregoing what was bad in our system. That is the go in the right direction.

Elaborate significance of our history can also be kept through other means. However, here we have touched on maintaining traditional names & words, dance & music, attire and foods. Claiming ownership of any or all of these means, intrinsically make our ancestors proud and ourselves a big status boost on how others see us.

I know for a fact that anyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Mine has been stated.

Lest I forget: The three words mentioned earlier on translate in English to ladder, latrine (pit toilet) & salt respectively.

For bonus, the words used in this article are;

Polo – any single feather of a bird.

Balamai, Konedui, Vakova, Kitoro, Seseva, Ute are traditional kundu dances with their own unique songs and beats

Peroveta is a type of traditional Pacific Island dance. Contemporarily renamed, danced and sang at christian gatherings.

Mune – masculine title for one suffering a deep loss

Dabu – a feminine title for one suffering a deep loss

Goukeke – a string of sewn feathers lining the forehead in part of the headdress gear

Damudamu – leaves or feathers tucked in armbands on the upper arms

Hanua is ‘village’ in the Motuan language. Equivalent to ‘vana’ in ours.

Hanua/ Ples Type in this context colloquially means primitive or unacceptable kind of conduct or views

Mosala – sweet potato

Gwabuli – red yam

Galivata – a banana species especially a stout yellow or red colour

Gabugabu – open fire cooking; or and any dish cooked this way.

Do you think the Gokata way of life is dying out? Should we allow that? Should we discuss these things now before it becomes too late? Please share your thoughts in the comments section. I learn as much from you all as you do from me. Only our frank discussions can help us build a better insight on how we value ourselves and responsibly chart our progress.

A big, big thank you to Lavui C. Bala for his editorial work on this article. 

~Moru J. Kokoro. L