By LICE MOVONO, Fiji Islands
She grew up a commoner all over Europe when her father left the Fiji Islands to join the British Army in the early 1960’s.
Adi Mere Tuvou Ratunatabua was only 6 months old when she left Fiji. It was early 1984 at the age of 22 that she came back home. This was a move that shocked her family and friends but was in response to a call that not even she could understand, but suffice it to say, left her with no options.
Mere, as she is known most of those who know her is of a chiefly lineage on both her maternal and paternal side. She looks the picture of a traditional Fijian lady, at least until she starts to speak. At once you realize her story is an interesting one which needs to be told.
“I grew up a British Army child in England and Germany and being Fijian was but a tag to me,” Ms Ratunatabua said.
“My father was one of the earliest of the 212 Fijian men who left to join the British Army. My family is still all in the UK.”
She is the principal cultural development officer in the Department of Culture and Heritage, an aspect of her life which is either the beginning or the culmination of what she came to Fiji for.
“It was 1984, I had just finished college and my father had just completed his 22 years in the army so I had a free ticket to return to Fiji and I just had the pull to return,” Ms Ratunatabua said.
Ms. Ratunatabua left England and headed for Fiji with plans for a two week holiday. She jokes that to this day, her friends in the UK still ask her when she will be d return from her fun in the sun.
But for this mother of one, despite knowing next to nothing about her culture and heritage and not speaking a word of Fijian, the need to return to Fiji was one she could not ignore
“I grew up Mere and only came to know when returned that I was Adi Mere. I did not know about my chiefly side until I came to Fiji and was taught about who I was,” Ms Ratunatabua said.
“I grew up in a country filled with white faces and anyone with brown skin to me was just like me. The reality is that we are not the same, we each have a cultural identity which we should know and be proud of.”
Mere was born in Vunamoli in the western highlands on the border of Nadi and Nadroga to parents of chiefly rank. Mere came back to Fiji with a Diploma in Scientific Illustration and Graphic Design from the UK and plans to be useful to her country of birth.
“I had no idea what to expect, I just thought I would be more useful in Fiji,” Ms Ratunatabua said.
“My father never thought that any of us would ever come back but it was a decision that I had made and my parents did not try to convince me to stay.”
With her studies completed, Mere was the effectively the most qualified person in her field in the country, although she did not know it at the time, and she was able to land a job very easily at the Fiji Institute of Technology.
“I did not have any real recognition of my cultural identity or of my chiefly status,” Ms Ratunatabua said.
“I went through a cultural enlightenment, instead of a cultural shock of learning all of the stuff that I would have grown up knowing had I remained in Fiji.”
“I was shocked into learning about all these things all at once.”
Understandably so, there were many embarrassing moments when Mere would commit rather funny faux pas such as asking for western utensils at a traditional Fijian feast or waving wildly at relatives at what was supposed to be a somber gathering.
Whilst at the Fiji Institute of Technology, Mere visited, studied and worked in Japan, Holland and New Zealand and her expertise in Graphic design took a new focus as she became intrigued with the various ways that oral history and traditional and cultural practices have been recorded in pacific island countries.
“When I was studied for a Bachelor of Design in New Zealand, we had to do a unit in Maori cultural design and I became intrigued by the Maori way of recording and expressing culture and design,” Ms Ratunatabua said.
“I found them to be defensive and questioned why they were this way. From them I learnt the importance of education and history.”
This proved to be a turning point in her career because it was not long after returning from her studies that Mere was approached by members of her traditional network to join the then Ministry of Women and Culture to do work in the cultural heritage sector.
“It’s a challenge and its exciting but it is very important work,” Ms Ratunatabua said.
“It is very important that as we move into an age of development, that we bear in mind the importance of out cultural identity. If people don’t realize the importance of culture, they will grow up oblivious to their cultural identity.”
“You might think you are like everyone else.”
Mere is pushing for a cultural re-awakening and is calling on parents, particularly on those 3000 men and women who are now serving in the British Army, to value their culture and traditions.
She says there is a danger that those who are now in the army might breed a whole generation of the kind of Fijian that she could have become had she not answered the ‘pull’ to return home.
“Decolonisation has to happen in Fiji in all its forms and people need to have pride in their identity and their ancestral roots,” Ms Ratunatabua said.
“Without understanding or respecting other people’s identity and culture and where they come from, there can be a lot of misunderstanding.”
« return.