BYUH History teachers, librarians travel South Pacific for professional development
SUVA, Fiji — It takes a village to teach a class — particularly at BYU-Hawaii.
Understanding village life in the Pacific is essential to being an effective teacher. This philosophy is one of the multi-faceted objectives driving 13 BYU-Hawaii faculty and librarians who are currently traveling through Fiji and New Zealand on a World Communities professional development tour.
The College of Arts and Sciences supports the two-semester General Education (GE) History requirement, also known as World Communities, by offering the instructors and librarians a crucial preparation for improved teaching and knowledge of BYU-Hawaii's target areas. While the group will meet several professional development objectives, including cultural immersion and outreach, they will also join two leading Polynesian Cultural Center administrators, John Muaina and Les Steward, as well as BYU-Hawaii Dean of Admissions, Arapata Meha, and Assistant Dean, Asai Gilman, at firesides and reunions to recruit new students and network with alumni.
The group arrived in Nadi, Fiji on Sunday evening, August 5, and immediately kicked off their cultural immersion and outreach by driving to a particularly beautiful Hindu temple called Sri Siva Subramaniya Surami. Indians, or Indo-Fijians, constitute as much of the population as do Fijians and it's common to find Hindu and Sikh temples here, along with Muslim mosques, among various Christian church buildings.
On the way to the temple, some group members were caught off guard by the sprawling fields of sugar cane scattered throughout Nadi. Sugar is critical to Fiji's economy and is the largest source of employment in the country; but to see the men in the vast fields cutting the cane and loading bundles onto the train to be taken to the mill pricks at your conscience, particularly after teaching about the brutal conditions surrounding the history of sugar plantations and indentured labor in History 202.
"To think of the impact sugar has had on the social structure of this place is overwhelming," said BYU-Hawaii music professor Darren Duerden.
On Monday, August 6, the group hiked 40 minutes to survey a key excavation site at the sand dunes in Sigatoka, located halfway between Nadi and Suva, where archeologists uncovered large amounts of distinctive and intricately designed pottery known as Lapita. The Lapita people are significant because they were not only Fiji's first colonizers, but established early ancestral populations in Polynesia. "The Lapita people always appear on my History 201 study guide," said history professor James Tueller, "and now here I am. It's extremely meaningful."
Jennifer Lane, professor of religion who also teaches History 201, was fascinated. "Between walking on the sand dunes where the Lapita pottery was found and seeing examples of the early pottery in the Fiji Museum, I feel like this trip has helped some of the early history of Polynesia come alive for me," she said. "You see these things in a book, but they're just pictures; to actually see the pottery and the places it was found makes it more real."
Upon arrival in Suva later that evening, Tueller put the van in park and said with a sigh, "Driving on the left side of the road on the Suva highways . . . now that's cultural immersion."
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. There is food — roti, samosa, curry and yummy breads. There is tradition — rugby, kerekere (unconditional giving based on communal living) and sevusevu (presentation of gifts such as kava and a tabua or whale's tooth).
More importantly, there are the people. Walking shoulder-to-shoulder down Cummings Street in Suva or talking story eye-to-eye with the people in Fiji is like taking a deep inhalation. There is nothing pretentious or disarming about them. Even the birds chirp with a certain sense of serenity. You might expect this kind of calm, cool and collected demeanor in the country, but in a large capital city like Suva, home to over 100,000 people? Where is the angst? Isn't there a coup underway?
These lovely people have taken us in stride, without over-zealous curiosity or guarded mistrust. "I went running one morning," said librarian Becky Rathgeber, "and I swear at least 20 people said good morning or bula to me."
David Beus, comparative literature professor, remarked after a stroll along Victoria Parade in downtown Suva, "I must bring my wife and kids back here to spend some time."
I second that motion. If I were to quote myself, which I sometimes do to get a story done, I would say, "It feeeeeeels safe and snug. Not to mention, it's insanely beautiful."
And just in case anyone is wondering . . . yes, the water does swirl counter-clockwise down-under.
— Photos by Debra Frampton: (Top, left: BYUH Librarian Becky Rathgeber at a Hindu temple; (lower right) Professor James Tueller at the Sigatoka sand dunes
