Fishermen

Sit Quiet For The

By Joseph Tema

rTHIS is a custom fishing story which might sound nonsensical to any reader but to its followers this tradition is true. I’m one who belieyes in the usefulness of this tradition. The followers of the tradition I am about to relate come trom Rennell and Bellona, two remote Polynesian islands outside the mam Solomon island chain to the south of Guadalcanal. Bellona and Rennell are approximately 10 miles ap l rt> . .. 1 raditionally men, women and their children who wished to go away for several days or weeks fishing, had to camp away from their main villages, usually on a coral or a sandy seacoa A s *l .

After settling down m the new fishmg camp the men would begin preparing their fishing equipment and outrigger canoes for the morrow when the daily fishing trips commenced. After waking up in the mornmg, the fishermen make their final preparations before setting off, and from this time until they disappear out of sight on their trip nobody, not even the children, is allowed to stand up. Only those men who are going fishing may stand.

It is also a big taboo for anyone in the camp to call out at the last minute to the fishing gang requesting permission to go with them if he has not been authorised by the gang’s boss. Anybody who breaks the rule by standing up or by calling out will J ol i tf'ey won’t catch any fish. Even if they fished a whole day they would not catch any fish.

The fishermen might see thousands of fish swimming in the shallow waters but no matter how they try and what fishing style they apply all will turn out negative because their “fishing luck” was “dragged back ashore” by those who broke the rule by calling out when the fishermen were leaving camp, or by standing while the fishing gang was leaving, Believe it or not even a child of two or three years could “drag back” fishing luck if he broke those tra ditional fishing laws, Those left behind must sit still until the canoes are out of sight then you can get on your feet and walk about. If these two important custom fishing laws are observed at each fishing trip, the fishermen can catch hundreds of fish in a short time without much effort. These custo mary fishing laws have nothing to do with the other Solomon Islands, either Melanesian or Polynesian, be cause they have their own traditional fishing laws.

Our traditional fishing laws were strictly observed and were effective in the past but now they’ve been poisoned by foreign modern fishing styles and are dying out. So fishing today on Rennell and Bellona is done with little regard for the traditional fishing laws. Nothing can be done to preserve them for the next generation so we watch this custom fade away forever, remaining only in our memories. I blame the strong pres sure of modern environmental changes these days, and the mixing of cultures, and so on. for the loss

This issue of MANA (which has a new design for the heading) includes poems by Rita Mamavi of New Guinea and Tili Peseta of Western Samoa, a short story by Joseph Tema of the Solomon Islands, and an article on songs about the problems of migrant workers, written with the help of Tahafa Pope Talagi of Niue and Teata Makirere of the Cook Islands. There is also an interview by Samoa's Ata Ma’ia’i with New Guinea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and author, Albert Maori Kiki.