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Vanuatu 2020 Kava Pilgrimage, Tanna Toka Ceremony

Good day Folks,

I realize it has been quite a while since I have posted, but health issues and personal issues have kept me plenty bust outside of things. To those that don't know me - I opened the 6th kava bar in the country, the 1st outside of Florida, and was a drug sociologist at FAU and Lynn before doing that. As a result of my business and studies, I have travelled extensively across the SoPac and formulated many relationships. Some of those have resulted in a personal invite to a Toka ceremony in Tanna this summer, the largest in 50+ years, and have permission to extend the invite to the community!

In August, for up to a month, or a little as 10 days, you are invited to come to the Toka and a following village Circumcision ceremony if you are interested. It will be the first time some of these things are witnessed by westerners, and is truly the opportunity of a lifetime. I have an entire month long itinerary that I am working on which includes snorkeling, surfing, hot springs, waterfalls, and of course kava drinking every night. We are looking at perhaps a week in the capital, and 3 weeks in Tanna, on the plateau overlooking the ash plain, volcano and ocean.

As I am not on here that often, I ask that if you have interest, you email me at [email protected], or [email protected] and I can give you more details there. There is also a provate facebook group that has been formulated for people interested, that includes a couple of my VU contacts that will provide details as they come available, since August is still a few months out.

Our industry has grown leaps and bounds, 33.000% since I started. I hope it is time that we are large enough to have a meaningful number of us come together for something like this, and in the future, look forward to proposing other projects that will benefit the industry as a whole if we can get enough of us to just dedicate a few moments of time each! I'm really looking at pulling back from business, and working behind the scenes for the good of the whole kava project, and would love to get s many interested people on board as possible... but first... let's go to Vannaz for the biggest shindig in our lives, and get cross-eyed on some potent grog! cheers! Much Love!

Tank yu Tumas. Lukim yu!
Andrew Procyk (Iahi)
 

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The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
Sighhhh....if only Tanna wasn't literally on the other side of the world :(.
Same. Considering I spent all of my vacation time sick and in the hospital....I'm afraid I wont be able to attend. This sounds like the most awesome thing a kava lover could experience, and I'm 100% jealous.
 

kastom_lif

Kava Lover
That sounds amazing and I’d love to make the journey. Tickets oli sas tumas.

Here is a small excerpt from “Sounds of Secrets: Field Notes on Ritual Music and Musical Instruments on the Islands of Vanuatu”,

The images seem to be out of order. The second page ended up in 4th place for some reason. Anyhow, I hope you find it interesting.


Southern Vanuatu culture is not as familiar to me as the northern parts. Rather than having grade-taking ceremonies where individuals rank up by distributing wealth to their local community, I was under the misconception that Southern Vanuatu had simple hereditary systems. But it’s more complex than that... Toka is a way for _entire_villages_ to flex their wealth and share it with their neighbors. The location for the ceremony is chosen by island-wide consensus. Feuds are set aside as villages exchange gifts. It’s pretty amazing.
 
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sɥɐʞɐs

Avg. Dosage: 8 Tbsp. (58g)
Review Maestro
There was talk of one of these lining up with my last trip to Vanuatu...I was really hoping it would've panned out but it didn't.
There's a chance I might be able to get back down there this year, and if so, I will definitely hit you up about the nekowiar. ::KavaChug::
::vplastik::
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nabanga

Kava Enthusiast
I went to the Toka about 1996 or thereabouts - well worth going. It is usually every 4 years but sometimes one is skipped. Hundreds of pigs are lined up in the host nakamal and clubbed & cooked, lots of dancing and massive amounts of kava made.
It gets very dusty with all the foot stamping so expect to eat a lot if dirt over the few days..enjoy

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