< Going back to tradition is a myth… No people have ever accomplished it. The search for identity that is the model for me is in front of people. Our identity awaits us. -Jean-Marie Tjibaou Kanak Elder < When I turned the seemingly young age now of fifty, I decided to give myself a special gift by flying to the Melanesian island of New Caledonia, where the 2000 Pacific Arts Festival, was being held. This two-week cultural gathering of all the Pacific island nations was held every four years on a different island. While there I met the Lifou Island Kanak dance group, WETR, and at their invitation extended my time after the festival to stay with their people on a small island in the Loyalties chain. Through pure magic Wetr was later sponsored by U.S. and French Government grants for a tour which I helped organize to Hawaii and California, visiting L.A for a show at the Greek Theatre and then on to Bolinas where the troupe performed at the Bolinas School and on our downtown beach, followed by several appearances in S.F. Later that year I then returned to Lifou, accompanied by my partner at the time, Meka, to their 10th anniversary celebration, staying a couple extra weeks to soak in this warm-hearted loving culture and their magnificent island home. As guests of the royal family we were feasted and well storied as we were guided through this strange and marvelous land. There are many stories from that time, but what comes to mind now with this shared vid clip is how this dance group recovered their culture from the present…found a way to reclaim their roots and restore new growth to missing ancient traditions that had been all but erased by Christian missionaries. The members of WETR told me that since they had no record of songs and only hints of their traditional dances, they decided to live together in a large cave for several weeks until they could hear the songs and dream the dances back into this time. They played the hanging rock and broken stone with wooden sticks and found that the same forces that had informed their ancestors were still there. That tradition is more about the power to retrieve a living perennial wisdom and maintenance of the vital connection rather than the repetition of a set of rules. When the rules are gone the game becomes finding out what they were trying to remember and preserve in the first place. ..why they are worthy of continuance…why they are true….. Check out this wonderfully creative example of bridging the past and future with authenticity…respect….creativity….and joy. Lets make joy a tradition…and art the ceremony. Sound like a good religion? Our identity awaits us….
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 14:54:07 +0000
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