State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project
Australian National University
MELANESIAN WOMEN, MOTHERS OF
DEMOCRACY
by
Polini Boseto
Ministry of Health and Medical
Services
Honiara
SOLOMON ISLANDS
1. Chairperson, distinguished guests, fellow
Melanesian brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great honour
to receive an invitation to be here with you. I hope that in our sharing
together from each of our contribution to the workshop, we will be able
to see clearly our affirmation of existence, reality and our anticipation
of our set goals.
2. Understanding the theme
The theme of this workshop is 'Women, Christians,
Citizens: Being Female in Melanesia Today.' The formulation of the theme
has been arranged in a way that a plain simple mind of an indigenous mother
in a Melanesian community may find hard to grasp and to inter-relate its
integrated focus. This is simply because our indigenous peoples' concept
of life in Melanesia cannot be fragmented into various compartments and
be dealt with separately or independently from each other.
The term 'woman' and 'female' can be translated into
my local dialect (that is the babatana language of Choiseul) as
'qolekaji' and 'boseqole'. Qolekaji refers to 'married woman' and 'boseqole'
refers to both the woman and the female's place and function in family
and in the wider community. In order to understand the internal connection
of 'women' and 'female' in our context, it is very important for us indigenous
Melanesian women to grasp what the workshop expects to probe during the
course of our deliberation. The internal connections of 'women and female'
are inseparable in our traditional expectation of the woman's place and
role in the family and the community. Being a woman cannot be understand
in isolation to being a female.
I think this workshop attempts to address our traditional
community's perspective of woman-female place and role in comparison to
the Christian community and national community's expectation of women-female.
I may be wrong but I am under the impression that words used for the theme
are inter-related. Our indigenous mind and thinking looks at life and community
in their totality; we cannot treat them separately in the context of 'human
relationship'.
I see community as threefold: indigenous traditional
community, denominational communities (collectively called Christian community)
and national community. This short paper shares with you these communities'
independence and inter-dependence. And where our woman-female fit into
our modern Melanesian context today.
3. Women-Female in Traditional Context
Women-female's life and work are confined within
the nuclear family. Their main concern is the sustainability of extended
family living.
Sustained community living is inseparable from land's
nurturing and feeding members of the nuclear family and its inter-relationship
within the wider circle of their tribal community in each locality and
island.
Educational roles of women (qolekaji) focus on 'sustained
community living.' They are an education for living and for the survival
of family and tribe.
Women-female's experience is rooted in human levels
of relationship and care within the circle of their responsibility of looking
after their children and members of their nuclear family. Each day they
learn from a deep feeling of compassion and an endured struggle for their
sustained community living.
Women are trusted as supervisors and implementaters
of most household duties in relation to the preparation and distribution
of food from the gardens, caring for every members' and visitors' comfort,
and teaching the young girls on a day to day basis (boys are usually under
the direct supervision of their fathers).
4. Christian Community
Missionaries within denominational labels and organisations
introduced Christianity. Unfortunately missionaries of the past promoted
a sense of western cultural superiority rather than 'Christianity.'
Our indigenous people were firstly attracted to western
civilisation prior to their conversion to Jesus Christ and to his Gospel
of love, forgiveness and reconciliation. The question of equality, justice
and participation came later through educational awareness.
However, in certain cases the missionaries had their
first hand encounter with some spiritual powers in relation to spirit worshippers
and sorcerers. In such situations the missionaries exercised their faith
in prayers and in the words of God before they (missionaries) rebuked and
cast them out from the possessors of these supernatural powers.
Conversion to Jesus was simply a conversion to the
'missionaries' way of life.' The word mission was connected to expatriate
missionaries who came from abroad, especially from Europe. The word 'church'
-- Ecclesia -- was originally understood to mean 'attend church service.'
The word used in my language is Mata Ia Lotu. Lotu is a word,
which I think was adopted from Tonga which means in my local dialect 'Church'
or 'Christian.' To 'attend a church service' and to be a 'Christian' are
identical. For example: Mata Ia lotu (Let us go to worship) and
Boseni
Lotu (A Christian) are identical. A denomination is translated
Lotu.
The Methodist Church is Lotu Metodisi in the local dialect. Therefore
our original understanding of Christianity is more or less related to a
church organisation, not to a 'Christian community.' I am afraid many of
our ordinary members maintain this understanding of the church. This understanding
of a 'Christian Church' is more organisationally and denominationally oriented
but not so much inclusively responsive to 'people's church.'
The growing understanding of the study of our culture
and Gospel has given our women an opportunity to begin to naturally relate
and accept their spirit of sharing, caring and compassion which has been
an integral part of their nature and everyday function.
The Christian Gospels message of equal participation
of men and women in Church and society has opened the eyes of our women
to discover their place and role in the Melanesian context today (compare
Gal 3:28)
5.National Community
Citizenship belongs to a national of a nation. Hence
a citizen is a member of a 'National Community.'
Solomon Islands became a nation on July 7th
1978, twenty years ago, the Birth Day of our Political Independence. We
were under British Sovereignty for almost ninety years.
Although our Islands' nation became politically independent
twenty years ago, economically we are increasingly dependent on loaned
and borrowed money from international monetary institutions such as the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund as well as other countries and
international organisations.
As the inter-relatedness of the global-local reality
grows, women-female's place and role as national citizens in our national
Melanesian community's political and economic development today are important
and must be recognised, developed and empowered. I think this is an area
this workshop tries to address.
As I raise the importance of our women-female's role
in our modern context, let us not forget that our women-female in Melanesia
are also wives, mothers (of sons and daughters) and families in our various
Melanesian localities. From our Melanesian perspective, Melanesian zais,
bubus,
wives, mothers, aunts, sisters, daughters and nieces are seen as the root
basis of our social security and backbone of our stability and sustainability
within our human community and philosophy of communalism.
6. Spirituality of integrated existence
In order to deliberate more deeply on why 'Melanesians
take for granted the significance of Christianity in their lives,' we must
first of all look into Melanesians' spirituality.
Melanesians' existence is rooted in the spirituality
of its inter-relatedness to the wholeness of life. There is inter-connectedness
that finds God-experience in the form of succour in time of need. God is
health in the form of blessing, medicinal plants, drinks and baths; food
that is shared on feast days or with a neighbour in times of need. Here
we learn that God communicates with us in the rhythm of our daily lives,
orchestrated by the many instruments of our various Melanesian cultures.
Earlier on, I suggested that our indigenous mind looks at life and community
in their totality and that we cannot therefore compartmentalise or separate
within the context of our human relationship the words used in the theme
of this workshop. This is because the very heart of God's blessing to our
family and community depends on our right relationship with our true worship
of God or not. If our loyalty and obedience to His will is not maintained
then the outcome of the relationship between 'us and our God' is seen as
a curse rather than blessing. For example: If a family's gardens do not
produce or yield any crops or if the family continues to be ill/sick, then
the questions asked are more spiritual ('What have we been doing in our
relationship with our gods/god) than scientific. Amongst the Lauru Community,
gospel and culture are intrinsically intertwined. Therefore it is not difficult
for our indigenous people in Melanesia to understand such biblical reference
from the Old Testament such as:
I am now giving you the choice between life and
death, between God's blessing and God's curse and I call heaven and earth
to witness the choice you make. Choose life. Love the Lord your God, obey
Him and be faithful to him, and then you and your descendants will live
long in the land that he promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. (Deut 30: 19-20)
Our ancestors' concept of worship is that God must
always be given the best, not the second best or left over.
The architects of our national constitution recognise
and acknowledge the fundamental importance of our ancestors' wisdom and
worthy customs and the supreme Lordship of our true God when they formulated
the following preamble of the constitution:
We the people of Solomon Islands proud of the
wisdom and the worthy custom and divers heritage and conscious of our common
destiny, do now, under the guiding hand of God, establish the sovereign
Democratic State of Solomon Islands
The above expresses the belief that our indigenous-citizens
must be rooted in the wisdom and worthy customs of ancestral spirituality
and that our constitution must be under and not above the hand of God.
7. Melanesian Women, Mothers of Christian Democracy
Traditionally Melanesian reality is a family-based
community. In other words it is simply a community-based democracy.
Our first value is community. We Choiseul people
living in Honiara do not usually call ourselves Choiseulese, but refer
to ourselves as Lauru Community. In our Lauru culture the word individual
is used in almost a pejorative sense. An individual is someone who is selfish,
egotistical. A person on the other hand is someone who exists in relation
to others, in relation to community. A person knows and understands that
her existence is related to others, that we are responsible to others for
who we are and what we do.
Gospel elements of caring, sharing, nurturing and
compassion are integrated part and parcel of our ancestral wisdom and worthy
customs.
Our sustainable community living depends primarily
on extended family-based social security and not monetary institutions.
Our sustainable community not only includes those alive now, but extends
back in history and forward into the future. Community for us embraces
our zais (grandmothers) as well as our children.
Land from which resources for food, fresh waters,
houses and our survival have been and are nurturing us like our mother.
Land with all that is in, on and around it, is a place where we encounter
our ancestors and our God. Land is our mother for life and our home for
our burials.
Melanesian sisters need each other in community.
The community reaches into time to include both the living and the dead.
It reaches into the space around us to include nature and all that is in
and on it. In this Melanesia community is respect for the other.
Those who take Christianity as equal to western civilisation
in their evangelisation of our Melanesian communities may not be able to
see the gospel elements of our cultural identity which under-guards Christian
principles of sharing, caring, justice and cooperation within and between
our family and wider communities.
Both male and female are equal partners to represent
the full image of God's community of justice, peace, love and joy in this
world.
We are both members of our community family and citizens
of our national community. For we are not only a 'national family of nations'
but a 'nation of families.'
Our philosophy of communalism is rooted on family-based
democracy. Here I take people-based democracy from its roots of caring,
sustaining, protecting and depending on life. When I use the phrase, 'Melanesian
Women, Mothers of Christian Democracy,' I mean that our indigenous mothers
are in Melanesia the life-blood (that is the living roots) of Christian
communalism. Our God is a community-creating God.
Being female in Melanesia today is, in my opinion,
to independently and inter-dependently live out the fullness of God's quality
of life individually and collectively in the context of communal democracy.
8. Challenges to Overcome
Women are silent listeners but slaves to domestic
duties. (Proverbs 31; cf. with Luke 10: 38-42)
The burden of gardening, cooking, child-bearing,
etc are women's primary task and must confine them to the home.
There are existing attitudes in Melanesian men that
women are 'not as capable, able equal etc' as men so they cannot do them.
Women themselves do not trust and have confidence
amongst and between themselves; hence they usually cast their ballots for
church and government leadership for male candidates and not for female
candidates.
Confidence building between and amongst the women
themselves should be encouraged and promoted.
Early marriages without preparation increasingly
lower the quality of leadership. There is an absence of maturity of parenthood
for correcting and disciplining the children.
Questions on how women should be more creative and
fully participate in economic development in private sectors should be
considered and responsibly supported and promoted. One such question is:
Can we have our own business association which is more oriented towards
empowering the rural areas where the majority of our population live?
Equal opportunity for leadership development such
as scholarship for in-service and advanced studies must be given to women.
The sacredness of God's image in women-female must
be respected so that women do not become mere objectives for economic advertisements,
commercials, and billboards.
Male-dominated attitude over females should be overcome
by educational awareness towards partnership and equal participation of
women and men in church and society.
9. Being Female in Melanesia Today
From what have been aforesaid, I can only make some
points as a summary and conclusion of my contribution to our workshop.
To give you a local perspective on what the women
in our local church (the United Church Women's Fellowship -- UCWF - in
Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands) believe to be the purpose for their
existence as an organisation. Following is a list of UCWF aims:
At the global perspective, the World Council
of Churches has been conducting a study through visits, consultations,
workshops, conferences and dialogues around the world during the last decade
which ends this year on the theme: 'Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity
with Women.' The Decade which is based on the many findings, identified
five areas of emphasis:
I think the above five areas of emphasis from
the Christian Women and Christian men (most of whom are laymen) have given
us some focus for this workshop to elaborate, reflect from and relate to
own diverse contextual situation and locality in Melanesia and Australia.
[Last updated 23 Feb 99]
Copyright © Polini Boseto 1999
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