Old Kieta tradition still holds sway

CULTURE

By ZARA KANU LEBO
THE ‘Kieta way’ to a Central Bougainvillean would refer automatically to the traditional way of carrying out social obligations.
In Kieta, customary obligations or kastam wok in Tok-Pisin is no laughing matter. Let’s stress this a bit more in the Tok Pisin as ino pilai pilai samting!
Custom work is not something to be taken lightly, we should agree for almost every part of Papua New Guinea (PNG) we all have our own unique culture and traditions.
This is compulsory as what goes around comes around, as passed from one generation to the next culture is paramount. You have to somehow fork out your contributions going by count on each head or family. How you do it or get and contribute, it has to be done. People living in Port Moresby or other centers can even make several trips home in a year for this purpose alone. That is how serious custom work is.
Recently I interviewed Lillian Naveu Pere on her very recent trip home to Arawa, in the Kieta district of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Lillian is from Toverau also in Kieta district.
Lillian lives and works in Port Moresby but knows her responsibilities and roles she has to play when it comes to custom duties. This would apply to all her other family members and extended relatives living in outside centres and on Bougainville island. The feast that was attended is a tradition passed down generations and is called Kirokai toto okotakera’ which means, we bring the baby up now to be released outside.
The child named Sharmaine comes from clans on the mother Lorna Teona’s side called Kuraavang Kaamuang and the father George William’s side called the Baarapang.
The custom is such that when a first child is born, it is not allowed to be brought out of the house and is only washed and fed inside, until the feast is ready.
For the child here, she was released from the house when she turned six months old in January.
The process involves preparing foods and pigs and beer for the relatives who would be out in full force to celebrate this feast.
The first step involves the child’s mother’s ‘big aunty’ who would hand over to her first born daughter, so it’s the aunt that will bring the child out of the house.
The other aunts and uncles will follow the procession with traditional singing and dancing.
Outside a walkway is decorated where the baby is carried through and placed on a bed and that moment or part of the feast is called tuurapa, meaning the child can move around and she is placed on a table set up for her with traditional items.
Right after that another part of the feast called tamasisi which means that the aunts and uncles will rub the child’s face with tama-tama which is a traditionally prepared dish with either banana, taro or cassava and that is used for the feast and traditional ceremonies.
Meanwhile there is so much singing and dancing. The dancing involves drinking and just having fun the whole time. It is a time for celebrations.
The ending of the feast involves, from both sides, a distribution of food items to other people, especially the elderly, and aunts and uncles of the baby. Women or mothers then start to organise and prepare the food called dutasisi.
This is a blessing from both sides and can also be seen as a way of strengthening the child and giving blessings to both family as well. In Bougainville, being a matrilineal society, even if you are not prepared, when the child’s aunts come and start singing, the parents have to find food and money to make a feast for the aunts singing.
You have to lay down the food or even cash in front of the child’s aunts as a sign of respect and they can do whatever they want to do.
For them when they are singing and dancing for the child, more or less that is the blessing they are passing down, not only to the child but the parents as well.