Starting Points

Contemplating writing the first article of my blog, I have a moment to think about what things I would like to write about and why I would like to write them.

Many thoughts float before me, carried by waves of memory and experience as I find myself revisiting emotions and sensations, joy and regret from moments along the path that I have walked to lead me here, so far from my first home.

I'm drifting on the "magirai" with the tide towards a black sandy beach at the feet of Kabiu, Mount Mother. Rabaul, Papua New Guinea.

We are drawing designs in the sand and singing for the sea to send us more waves because some of us are making "roro" - the foam which we extract from the sand using sea water. 

Ta ngala ngala na bobol

Di maria ma ra kula

Pata teke teke na boroi tana

We are singing for big waves, decorated in festive glitter, and totally free, by all means of any pig shit. 

The "roro" is part of our bride wealth, the "toro toro" or coconut cream topping for the imaginary feast we are preparing for a bride and groom who are embarking to set sail into the ocean. Soon we are wading into the sea with our gifts. We walk until the sea is up to our necks, a little beyond the place where the waves break, and we wait for a calm period so we may set afloat, our vulnerable creations upon the ocean. Whereas earlier on we wanted the waves to help us make the "roro", now we are gently beating the waves with our open hands to calm the sea so that the flotilla of our bride and groom may reach the deep blue sea unmolested.

But starting points are not only an issue for people like me who wish to write and publish their first blog posts. Starting points are profound moments in the life of all humans and we do find it necessary to mark our most significant starting points in elaborate ritual.

We have numerous rituals that give significance to a countless number of recognised starting points in everyday human aspiration and existence. Points of arrival and points of departure, of the beginning of life and the end of life. The first light of dawn, the first day of our lives, our first love, the first day of a marriage, our first babies, the first steps of our children, the first day of spring, the first fruit of our trees. We even have rituals to greet the first sliver of the new moon, the time of planting and the season's first harvest.

But in spite of this human fascination with our beginnings and the origin of things - the big bang theory, the origin of the universe and the origin of life, there is one beginning in our human consciousness, which we have never fully embraced and have never truly enjoyed. The beginning of peace. Of lasting peace.

We have celebrated the end of some wars with victory parades but if we were to really look at the rituals of victory, the parades and war memorials, we do not see the beginning of peace. Rather, we see our humanity trapped in its warlike nature and we see the parading of mankind's most horrible tools and technology. We see a worshipping of the tools we use for the ending of human life. 

One of many figures which Tolai children drew in the wet sand. The designs are part of a game called 'Where did I begin?' in which people had to guess where the drawing was begun. Such a game is typical with the Tolai cultural concern with origins. From the book "Tolai Myths of Origin" - Edited by H. Jansen, M.Mennis and B. Skinner.