The Mailbag

Understanding

Polynesians

Under the heading “Understanding Polynesians” in the Editor’s Mailbag (PIM, May, p 29) one of your cor respondents takes Margaret Lee of the NZ Vocational Training Council to task for being “racist and discrimi natory”.

Your correspondent obviously did not understand the full implication of what the booklet Understanding Polynesians tried to do. I did not read the article in PIM and there fore cannot judge whether your cor respondent had justification for his rather lengthy, often confused and frequently off the track outburst about the article. However, I would like to set the record straight about what Understanding Polynesians was all about and its follow-ups Under standing Samoans (later Tongans, etc, are to be brought out in a similar booklet) by sending you a copy of jach, I am also enclosing a report of a >eminar which I attended on Under standing Samoans, at which this booklet was first published.

In NZ we have a truly multi-racial society. I will not argue with those who maintain that coloureds in NZ are treated as inferiors, given little opportunity for advancement and so on —the points of argument are too well-known and have been refuted oo often to need repeating here.

The fact of the matter is that :here is a very large amount of good will in NZ towards people of all aces, no matter what their origin.

Phis manifests itself in large num bers of people involving themselves n the welfare of people of races other than European.

From the government downwards oeople have, in recent years, become nore aware of their social responsi oilities towards those not so used to our way of life. The active steps aken to realistically face the many oroblems associated with non- Europeans in NZ industry are, in oart, found in the seminars organised )y the Vocational Training Council, he Employers Federation and the various societies looking after immi grants from the different parts of the Pacific.

The seminars are attended by in

terested people from mainly the in dustrial sector, personnel officers, supervisors, managers, foremen and others in daily contact with people who, because of their different back ground, are liable to what Alwyn Toffler calls culture-shock. The booklets attempt to summarise briefly what the seminars discuss and act as a basis only of understanding the dif ferent cultures that exist in our labour force. They are directed at people who are normally not very great readers, who have never in their life heard of Margaret Mead, or Homans, or any of the many sociologists and anthropologists who could have told them in depth what the cultural differences between Pacific Islands people are.

However, cultural differences do exist irrespective of the opinion of your correspondent from Honiara and they are real and important enough to cause problems when they appear in NZ industry.

With regard to Musu, I must admit, as a personnel officer I have never come across it myself, nor do I think that it is as prevalent as some might make it out to be. What is a fact is that many Island people leave after only a short time in our factory, mainly men. I suspect that musu may have played its part in this turnover since it involves the difficult early adjustment period in a new job.

The way to get around this prob lem is not to attack a small part of a big problem as your Honiara cor respondent has done, but by patiently educating both management and employees be they brown or white or any other colour by way of lectures, seminars, training within industry and publications such as Understanding Polynesians.

“Whanga”.

Wellington (NZ).

P.S.: I apologise for the use of a nom-de-plume, but my involvement in the employment situation of a large company makes this necessary. • The booklets referred to in Whanga’s letter are being sent to Mr Tema, who may be interested to learn that a special series is being prepared on Understanding Euro peans to help Polynesians to under stand the European way of life, language and customs.

Apolosi—'More

Than A Man'

I read the article by Vijendra Kumar (PIM, April, p 16) and felt the least I could do is to correct a few of the many inaccuracies con cerning Apolosi Ranawai whom he had made the central figure of the article.

Apolosi Ranawai, known by all as Apolosi not Ranawai, did not belong to Narewa, near Nadi. His father was of Nawaka Village, Nadi, and his mother belonged to Malevu Village, Naviti Island, Yasawa Group.

The movement Apolosi began was not unlike the “cargo cults” of other Melanesian groups. He hood winked the Fijians but only in the western districts which have a lot of differences from the rest of Fiji and whose people use a different group of languages. Apolosi deprived them of their savings, if any, and exploited them in every way to pro mote his phoney co-operative scheme.

His “gift of the gab” led his fol lowers to believe he had divine gifts.

Of Apolosi I have heard them say, “He was more than a man”.

For the protection of the Fijian people, Apolosi was given 10 years’ exile in Rotuma where he lived in luxury on the money collected for him and sent to him by his followers.

The government stopped this money and then it was channelled to him by a part-Rotuman in Fiji who sent it to his mother in Rotuma who passed it on to Apolosi with, of course, commission to both co operators.

Apolosi’s sexual prowess was some thing that is still marvelled at even to this day. He did not have just a dozen “wives” as Kumar referred to them. He usually had about a dozen young teenage girls sleeping with him at a time but the total number over the years would run into several hundreds. Fathers were honoured to have their daughters accepted into Apolosi’s current harem. Even in Rotuma he had at least a dozen concubines according to a friend of mine who was employed by Burns Philp’s branch in Rotuma and who used to visit Apolosi quite often.

At no time was Apolosi ever exiled to Yasawa, let alone a remote island there as Kumar stated. Yasawa was