Kava Documentary Film from Fiji

[verticity]

This just came out from Walker Films in Fiji. I haven't had a chance to watch it all the way through. It appears to mostly be in the Fijian language with subtitles, but some parts are in English. (And some parts in Fijian without subtitles)

The film in mp4 format on Google Drive:

Walker Films Facebook page

Here is a Youtube link

 

[verticity]

OK, having watched this here are some impressions:

The pace is quite slow, but that seems appropriate to the subject matter of farming a plant that takes 5 years to mature. It's the story of a devout, salt-of-the-Earth family who sell kava to fund their son, who needs money to travel to the UK as a recruit in the British Army. There are lots of detailed sequences showing planting, harvesting, and selling kava at the market. It seems maybe the intended audience is young people in Fiji, who are encouraged to take up kava farming as a profitable venture. The father's mention of "our Indian brothers" is interesting. He seems to be saying that Fijians of Indian descent are more attuned to the export market, whereas the iTaukei (native Fijian people) are lagging as far as organizing to sell for the foreign market, so he is trying to encourage them to organize.

All in all, despite the slow pace, it is a very interesting glimpse into Fijian society, and the mindset of people in rural kava farming communities.

 

[Odourman]

I like slow paced movies. Fast paced movies, like action movies, are hard for me to follow. I will watch this one!
Good thing It's not an action movie.
Imagine a action movie about kava, that would be confusing. All that running around and throwing roots over each others heads and screaming.
"Oh no! Who stole the baby kava plant!?" and "Bula muthafuckers!" Big bada boomS and nude scenes in the bushes.

 

[Odourman]

I like slow paced movies. Fast paced movies, like action movies, are hard for me to follow. I will watch this one!
Good thing It's not an action movie.
Imagine a action movie about kava, that would be confusing. All that running around and throwing roots over each others heads and screaming.
"Oh no! Who stole the baby kava plant!?" and "Bula muthafuckers!"
and nude scenes in the bushens.

"Forget about me... Save my babies!", big fall from hellicopter into the flames of a burning farm. "Protect my kava babiiii..."
Tears drops as hellicopter fades into the sunset. Escaping the burning island, searching for new ground for the kava babies.

 

[Krunkaroo]

Those that like slow/meditative movies would love 'Paterson'.

 

[verticity]

I like slow paced movies. Fast paced movies, like action movies, are hard for me to follow. I will watch this one!
Good thing It's not an action movie.
Imagine a action movie about kava, that would be confusing. All that running around and throwing roots over each others heads and screaming.
"Oh no! Who stole the baby kava plant!?" and "Bula muthafuckers!" Big bada boomS and nude scenes in the bushes.

None of that here, lol. Machetes are wielded, but the only things hacked to bits are kava plants... The level of action is more like a Fijian language "My Dinner With Andre"... the pace is kind of exemplified by the scene near the beginning where they are walking through the jungle to the farm, and the guy says something like "...take your time. Relax. There is no hurry to get there..."

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

The father's mention of "our Indian brothers" is interesting. He seems to be saying that Fijians of Indian descent are more attuned to the export market, whereas the iTaukei (native Fijian people) are lagging as far as organizing to sell for the foreign market, so he is trying to encourage them to organize.

In my view, as an outsider, this appears to be true. More often than not, every time I come across Fiji kava vendors or exporters they are Indo-Fijian.
Likewise, when Fijians start communities abroad, they are almost always Indo-Fijian. In the northern hemisphere anyway...

So it definitely seems like the native Fijian tend to live more simple localized lives, while the Indians are more internationally minded.
Probably has a lot to do with why Indians are in Fiji in the first place. They were brought to do the labor that supplied big international trading.
That and obviously they originally came from a place with different lifestyle and culture. Also, I assume many still have contact with family in India, a big industrialized nation, so they'd be more likely to be exposed to this type of thing, have other family members involved with business throughout the world and are probably more likely to have traveled internationally in their lives.

Again, just an outsiders view...could be wrong.

 

[kasa_balavu]

In my view, as an outsider, this appears to be true. More often than not, every time I come across Fiji kava vendors or exporters they are Indo-Fijian.

This isn't a kava thing. It applies to all entrepreneurship in Fiji. iTaukei are hampered in business by their communal culture and in particular the practice of kerekere.
See:
http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpress...chunk.id=d0e1948&toc.id=d0e1926&brand=ucpress
http://www.indianweekender.co.nz/Pa...rekere-bad-for-Fijian-business-says-Professor
https://sites.otago.ac.nz/Sites/article/viewFile/243/253

While this is a generalization (there are many successful iTaukei entrepreneurs), it isn't controversial. This is something all iTaukei business-people struggle with on a daily basis. Family and clan are core to an iTaukei person's sense of identity, and it's very difficult for one to say no to a kerekere. It's both beautiful and tragic.

While your non-iTaukei competitor can spend 100% of his available funds on getting his startup off the ground, you find your money trickling away to family commitments, clan/village contributions, church contributions, your third cousins daughters school fees, etc etc.

Likewise, when Fijians start communities abroad, they are almost always Indo-Fijian. In the northern hemisphere anyway...

Indo-fijians were terribly ill-treated during Fiji's first coup in 1987 and this resulted in the emigration since then of large numbers of them. In the late 80's they were close to 60% of the population whereas now they comprise around 40%.

 

[kastom_lif]

Hmm, kerekere sounds similar to "wantok system" in PNG and Solomon Islands.

http://www.indopacificimages.com/index.php/papua-new-guinea-2/papua-new-guinea-the-wantok-system/

I agree that it's both beautiful and tragic. Beautiful because it keeps families strong and protects the needy. Tragic because the system can be abused, and works awkwardly across the gap between rural and urban societies.

Anyway, I'm gonna have one more shell and listen to... ONETOX