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MY FOOD REVOLUTION

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When I woke up the sun had climbed high enough to peek over Hairasa Point to the east. Its rays squeeze through the holes on the thatched wall and dance on my sleepy face.   I know I have to hurry if I was to avoid the punishment gang. That is what they call those who cut the grass around the school compound after school because they had broken the school rules. Being on time is one of those rules that Mr. Totosasaha enforces diligently. He is the school principal and had taught at Puratangisia Community High School long before I was born. He seems to have been trapped in the era when Solomon Islands was still a British colony. He is in his fifties or maybe sixties, has a long unkempt beard attached to a wrinkling face, and an infectious  smile that reveals his betel nut-stained teeth. His hair and beard look like they’ve never seen the tooth of a comb. He wears shorts, shirt and a pair of slippers that have seen better days. I often wonder how he became the principal.  My Kaka and Nan
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BELA FOR A KABU

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  The sound of tavuli echoes in the distance accompanied by fearsome shouting. It is still so far away that by the time it reaches my village it fades into the reverberating cries of a distant war.   Baleo is quiet for a village preparing to host a big kabu. Smoke filters through the thatched roof of several huts, drying the dew left from the previous night and sending geckos clambering out from their hiding places between the woven sago palm leaves. Inside the huts women are busy preparing food, undeterred by the suffocating smoke and the heat of the fire.  My Nana is in our kitchen, the little hut next to our sleeping house. She is cooking cabbage, kumara and uvi by placing red hot stones in the popo with the food. She then covers the popo with banana leaves, and ties a rope around it to hold the leaves together. I was helping her until I heard the tavuli and shouting.             My family had lived in Baleo ever since I was a kid, although my Nana tells me that our ancestors were o
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LESSONS FROM THE VIRUS

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The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is taking a toll on human societies worldwide. It affects all of us, whether you are in New York or in a village in Solomon Islands.   We were caught with our proverbial pants down or our  lavalava  untied.  In just five months, more than 1.8 million people worldwide have tested positive and about 113,191 have died.  The global economy is on a recession. Trade is expected to fall by between 13% and 32% in 2020 as normal life and economic activities are disrupted.  Even the U.S., the self-proclaimed “world power”, has been brought to its knees. It is now the epicenter of the infection with over 550,000 positive cases and 21,649 fatalities. This is anticipated to increase. Some Pacific Island countries are yet to register a positive case. We pray they will stay uninfected and we support their efforts to keep the virus off island.  But given our global interconnections, even they have been affected. The economic, social and psyc
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PANDEMIC AND DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSES

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In Solomon Islands, the government has declared a State of Emergency in response to COVID-19 although the country is yet to have a positive case.  As part of this declaration, both the Governor General and the Prime Minister have asked Solomon Islanders in towns, especially Honiara, to return to their villages.  A crowded boat traveling to East Guadalcanal from Honiara - Photo: Jared Koli This week, we have seen thousands of Solomon Islanders in crowded boats going “home” – to their villages. It is interesting that in t he face a global health crisis – a pandemic – Solomon Islands leaders see villages as a place of refuge and safety from COVID-19. This also highlights the resilience of our people, especially our village folks and village governance. Yet, in discussions about “development” we rarely acknowledge or build on that resilience. We always look for answers elsewhere, especially from neo-classical economics, which preaches and measures "development"
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PASTS TO REMEMBER

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Tarcisius Kabutaulaka Labeana Village, Longu-Avuavu, Tasimauri, Guadalcanal Photo: Joseph Foukona This  Tok Stori  focuses on something that we engage with daily. It defines our existence. But it is something we often take for granted, or dismiss as irrelevant. It is histories – the embodied interpretations of what happened in the past. Our individual and collective histories, as well as that of the living and non-living environments around us is intrinsically intertwined with our present and futures. In fact, it defines and provides the foundation for current and future endeavors. Sometimes, our pasts can also be haunting because something terrible had happened. But even if that was the case, we can hopefully learn from that experience to inform our futures. Because we often use the English term ‘history,’ it implies that it is an academic discipline with organized theories, syllabus, etc. that is taught in schools and universities. Consequently, many of us grow up
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LAND REGISTRATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

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Tarcisius Kabutaulaka Avuavu Secondary School, Tasimauri, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Photo: Julian Maka'a  My last Tok Stori  focused on  the  relationship between stories, land, economic development   and land disputes.  Today, we continue that conversation by focusing on land recording, registration and economic development. There is a push by the  current  government, supported by individuals, development partners and corporate entities, to record and register customary land.  It is driven by the perception that customary land tenure impedes economic development, and land recording and registration will reduce land disputes and engender development. But, will land recording and registration reduce disputes and enhance economic development? The simple answer is, ‘yes’ and ‘no’.  Land recording and registration does not always reduce land-related disputes or engender economic development. The process of registration can create conflicts as groups compete to legi
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LAND AND CONTESTED STORIES

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Tarcisius Kabutaulaka In Solomon Islands, as in other Pacific Islands places, there are close relationships between stories, land, economic development and land disputes.  These are complicated issues. This piece does not offer prescriptions, but hopefully it raises issues for us to think about. Here, I propose that what is at the center of land disputes is not land  per ser . Rather, the disputes are over competing stories about relationships between people and landscapes; stories about genealogies, migrations, settlements, tabu sites, etc., which are used by groups (tribes/clans) to claim particular parcels of land.  These stories are “written” or “told” onto landscapes. I will come back to this theme later.  As you know, land is central to economic development. But in Solomon Islands, it is also at the center of many disputes that have either delayed or halted economic development projects.  Only this week, the Tandai landowners filed a case challenging the acquisit
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