The role that touch has played in my life is to create a deep understanding of my own personal and cultural rhythms, which have been a core method of maintaining cultural continuity within my life. My core rhythms have been extremely difficult to change because they are so intricately tied in with a wider appreciation of a network of time and movement (rhythm).
More so anecdotally, than academically, the notion of ‘Fiji time’, or ‘Bula time’33
33In the context of conducting qualitiative research in Fiji, Glenn Laverack and Kevin Brown make the
following observation:
, is quite famous. The meaning of this teasing line which can be employed both affectionately and disparaging, depending on the context in which it is employed, refers to a much deeper phenomenon than that typically observed by Non-Fijian people. Contrary to a superficial
“Fiji time means that priorities are different in different cultural contexts. The social ceremonies and customs of Fiji are of great importance and can take precedence over “just getting things done” (Leonard & Leonard, 1991). A casual pace is taken as a normal part of rural Fijian life, and plans can be changed at short notice. During the fieldwork the participants arrived around mid- morning after traveling to the community or after completing their domestic duties. The research was preceded by the ceremony of sevusevu, which took between 30 and 45 minutes, and this was then followed by tea and snacks. Starting the research at midday resulted in the cool of the morning’s being lost, and sometimes the work had to be conducted under rushed circumstances. To strengthen the research design in a cross-cultural context, it should be flexible to accommodate an uncertain and variable time frame. (Laverack & Brown, 2003, p. 340)
interpretation, it is not laziness or some kind of inability to understand the priorities of others, but it is a completely different ordering of priorities, one which is built around the rhythms of relationships and the time required to dwell on other’s rhythms, their differences and similarities, to contemplate what this means for one’s own rhythms, and then to work slowly, to adjust oneself, and encourage adjustment in another, with the least amount of conflict possible. What is most important is the development and nurturing of social understanding, harmony, depth and quality of relationships, not so much the tasks to be completed, or the goals to be achieved at the expense of
relationships.
The direct and unmediated connection that is the nature of touch has, in my experiences as a student, shaped the inseparability between my relationship with a teacher (my confidence and sense of where I am in that relationship), and my relationship to the ideas and concepts being presented to me. The difference in rhythms, learning pace and teaching pace has been noted as source of conflict or connection, reflected in some of the student comments quoted by Hawk et al (2001) in their study of effective relationships with Pacific students, where patience and perseverance were very important:
Some teachers make you feel stink when you say you don’t know how to do it. They say ‘you should have listened’ or ‘you wouldn’t have to ask if you had been concentrating’. Then we don’t ask again and we don’t know what to do. Sir will go over it again slow enough for me to get it. He doesn’t growl us. (Secondary
student)
If we were stuck or something he wouldn’t move on until we could really
understand what he was talking about…and he checked our understanding. Like he’d say ‘who doesn’t get it?…then raise your hands. If there was say three people
he would get everyone to do exercises…and with those three he would come around and make them understand. (Tertiary students) (Hawk, et al., 2001, p. 11) This inseparability, of relationships from learning, is not well provided for in the current mainstream education system. The imposition of external rhythms, timetabling, clock watching, bell ringing, internal and external deadline enforcing and so on, presents little opportunity for teachers and Pacific Peoples to connect their rhythms. The emphasis on externalized control reinforces the strong emphasis placed on individualised learning, and separation and distance between people is structured into every aspect of the mainstream system. From the fear of being seen to inappropriately touch a student, whether that be a pat on the arm, or a hug, to the typical architecture of mainstream schools, our system is designed to divide.
The typical architecture of mainstream schools for example, is of separate blocks, long corridors of closed classroom doors, rows of desks, and the social architecture is one of various sorting systems that schools use to siphon off people according to externally imposed perceptions of skills (or absence of). Physical and socio-spatial arrangements in mainstream university campuses in New Zealand echo the belief that knowledge and meaning that is genuine and reliable is as far removed from the humanity - the heart, soul and emotionality - of experience as possible. The lack of a physical “heart” that typify the university buildings in New Zealand encourages a hiding of vulnerability, exposure and fragility, a lack of reciprocity, a one way flow of power, of hidden agendas and parochial, protectionist, professional cultures. “I am a human being experiencing fear, laughter, sweat, and perhaps most significantly, uncertainty and ambivalence,”
autoethnographer Michael Humphreys (2005, p. 851) described. “How often…do we reveal our own emotional fragility? Wearing masks of certainty and clear direction, we [the academics] intimidate those around us, especially those new to the academic game.”
These sorts of distant and emotionally cold ideals are difficult for those of Pacific cultural identity to feel any affinity with, let alone any desire for as these sorts of ideals
encompass the denial of warmth and love, empathy and care. It is little surprise then that this contributes to the reticence of Pacific Peoples to enter the grounds of a Western academic world from which they feel emotionally and physically alienated.