A cultural advocate has delivered a stinging warning to Fiji amid ongoing tension between the influence of Western culture over centuries-old traditions of iTaukei Indigenous knowledge.
Simione Sevudredre – the founder of Sauvaka Culture Consultancy, which has advised the Fijian ministry of iTaukei Affairs on culture and language for a decade – said the legacy of colonialism has skewered the values and perspectives of past Fijian wisdom.
Mr Sevudredre told media after the Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge conference that unless the iTaukei people work to revive their Indigenous understanding and to embrace their traditional languages and practices, future generations of Fijians may inherit a "cultural void".
"We've forgotten much of our traditional knowledge," Mr Sevudredre said.
"Not finger-pointing because through our colonial experience, colonisation, and the education system respectfully, we've remained silent on our Indigenous knowledge.
"We learned other knowledges, other histories over time.
"Our cups, metaphorical cups, and our minds are full. We excel at everything else except our own, our Indigenous knowledge because over time when it's out of sight, it's out of mind."
The iTaukei Fijians are believed to have arrived from western Melanesian lands around 3500 years ago and are the descendants of the Lapita people, a Neolithic Austronesian people.
Mr Sevudredre, who has a Master of Arts degree in Pacific Studies at University of South Pacific, said the recent Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge conference was a timely intervention for the comprehending cultural values in the region.
Fiji needs to reclaim its Indigenous knowledge, he added, and return it back into the mainstream society and its school system, using both Fijian and Hindi languages and its tangible and intangible elements.
"On the ground, we tend to look at our Indigenous languages with disdain," he said.
"Indigenous knowledge is in our language – when we choose to remain silent in our language or consider it unworthy or not worthwhile, then this is a challenge.
"We, as Indigenous people, face our greatest challenge in ourselves, often valuing or believing that the grass is always greener on the other side, with other knowledges and ways of doing things, while forgetting that ours is ancient."
Mr Sevudredre said iTaukei Fijians should take note that other Indigenous communities throughout the world take pride in its ancient knowledge and that "we need to reclaim that".
For these international and regional intervention conferences to remain purposeful, he feels otherwise it's "like building a house with no floor".
The conference that took place in Nadi had brought together a variety of cultural practitioners, knowledge holders, policymakers, academics and development partners from across Fiji and throughout the Pacific
It was also a joint initiative of Fiji National University, the Pacific Community – formerly the South Pacific Commission – in addition to the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs and the World Bank.
