This section examines three major themes related to changes in kastom and rispek identified by participants as influencing these agricultural changes: theft,
‘laziness’ and a lack of planning for the future. These are value-related drivers of agricultural change. Overall, participants noted increasingly less commitment and interest in sustainable gardening practices among younger generations.
4.4.1.1 Theft (‘stil’)
Theft – or ‘stil’ – within the community is a priority concern. Increasing stil is one aspect of declining rispek. Participants emphasised that the current prominence
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of theft in the community marks a significant departure from kastom, denoting changes in social relations, values, codes of behaviour and governance. Theft was discussed most frequently in the context of food security and agriculture;
stealing food crops from each other’s gardens is the most prevalent form49. This increases vulnerability to food insecurity because it reduces the productivity and diversity of gardens.
Theft decreases the quantity of crops a household can consume per unit of land, meaning pressure on limited gardening land increases. John explained:
Before we had one garden but now I look, I say, one garden isn’t enough. There’s a reason for that. Now, food doesn’t just belong to me. When I go to harvest the garden, we have stil. If there wasn’t stealing, I’d have plenty of food. Now, to get the same amount of crops, we should make more gardens. Before – no stil. Because we had rispek.
Stil reduces the diversity of garden types and locations. Specifically, it reduces the prevalence of: established gardens remote from the villages, bush gardens, and ‘wild yam’ areas. Below in Section 4.4.2.2 I outline in detail, the changing spatial nature of land use for agriculture. Briefly, gardening is now far more concentrated on land at the point (close to the villages) than in the taem bifo50. Land once used for established gardens at Valua, and at sites in the ‘middle’ of
49 It was unclear from storian whether ‘stil’ always indicated errant behaviour. Some participants indicated that stil may mean family members taking crops that are planted on family land but that are not traditionally within their rights to take. Some participants indicated that stil was
‘non-aggressive’ – amicable, but a problem nonetheless. Because the land allocation system on Mota Lava is increasingly unclear, individuals might take crops that would not be theirs to take under the traditional rules of kastom and rispek.
50 Half way between the populated peninsula and Valua on both northern and southern coasts.
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the island is no longer intensively gardened. Bush gardens – low maintenance gardens located in the bush at higher elevations – are now seldom utilized.
A recent increase in stil is one of the reasons for this reduced diversity in garden location and type. Gardens located at Valua and in the ‘middle’ are a frequent target for stil. Given the travelling distance, these gardens are not visited as regularly as gardens at the point, making them easy targets. Bush gardens, also remote, are normally planted once or twice a year and then left to mature with little regular maintenance. They are also located in dense bush and are generally far apart. They are therefore also an easy target for stil. Participants explained that theft has increased to such a degree over the past couple of decades that many households and individuals no longer see much point in planting bush gardens. Bush gardens are particularly resilient to tropical cyclones and droughts and perform an important traditional vulnerability reduction function (see Section 5.5.2). The overall contribution of bush gardens to food security in the community has declined significantly. As discussed in Chapter Five, Cyclone Funa highlighted the problem of decreasing ‘wild yam’ stocks. Theft increased significantly following the cyclone as many households were unable to meet their own food consumption needs.
Participants frequently linked increases in theft to a lack of strong leadership institutions. A lack of ‘policing’ means that the consequences for stealing are few.
4.4.1.2 ‘Laez’ (‘Laziness’)
‘Laez’, or ‘Laziness’ was discussed by participants as a key value change among younger generations. Laez generally referred to reduced incentive or motivation to engage in subsistence livelihood activities (e.g. see Box 7). As was also found by Ford et al. (2007) among Inuit communities, although subsistence activities remain important to younger generations on Mota Lava, shifts in social norms mean that there is less interest and motivation. Consequently, subsistence systems are less robust, sustainable and resilient, particularly in the context of
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increasing environmental uncertainty. Declining rispek for a kastom work ethic – traditionally instilled by parents and leadership institutions – is a major contributing factor.
This is important in the context of vulnerability as it significantly impacts the robustness of agriculture and other aspects of disaster risk reduction. As Rose stated:
Before it was different, we had rispek and kastom was strong. Now people just walk about and don’t do enough work to prepare. That’s why today, we have problem with disaster.
The problem of laez is basically representative of changing values, marking a departure from a kastom work ethic (see Box 7).
In the taem bifo agriculture was structured largely around cushioning against future uncertainties and ensuring there was a fairly constant and diverse availability of crops. These kastom values have significantly declined throughout the community. Contemporarily, people generally spend less time working in the gardens than their parents and grandparents. The outcome is fewer gardens, fewer crops in gardens, less diversity in garden location and reductions in crop
“Yu mas plant evri dei” (“you must plant every day”) This was a foundational feature of kastom in the taem bifo:
kastom says that you must plant every day – a tree, a cabbage, a banana. One thing every day. If you don’t plant food in the ground on one day, if you waste one day, then some day that comes you will be short(Peter)
Working in the gardens dictated the daily schedule, taking precedence above most other activities. Most days, “You go to the garden at about 7 or 8 o’clock. You work until dark” (John)
This typifies the kastom work ethic and was necessary to fulfil subsistence, cultural and vulnerability reduction needs.
Box 6 "Yu mas plant evri dei": the kastom daily work ethic
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quality, particularly among younger people51. Laez was frequently linked to the increasing consumption of imported food. In many ways there is contemporarily less need for the same level of labour as in the taem bifo, as (mainly) rice makes up the shortfalls. This comes with its own set of challenges, as outlined below.
Some participants attributed reduced labour inputs to increasing demands on time in the community, rather than ‘laziness’ per se. Many noted that contemporarily, households and individuals are expected to dedicate time to things that did not exist in the taem bifo such as church activities, economic activities, school, community work, and festivals. This leaves less time for subsistence activities. Campbell (1985: 119) identifies the establishment of the copra industry on Mota Lava (since the 1940s) to have had a significant impact on the allocation of time in agriculture. Copra production left less time available for subsistence gardening, thus driving changes in gardening systems. However, copra is now rarely processed on Mota Lava due to lack of shipping services since the 1980s. It may be that changes to gardening practices to accommodate reduced labour availability were established during the copra era and have persisted despite more labour time now being available. Participants frequently referred to current poor gardening practices as ‘habit’. There are many factors at play, however, and this is largely conjecture on my part.
Most participants believed increasing time commitments to be merely an excuse for laziness or changing work ethic. Many people – particularly younger people –
51 It is important to note that declining daily labour inputs to gardens is likely to also be influenced by changing crops. Contemporarily, people plant far less yam than in the past, instead substituting with the less labour intensive manioc, kumala, and non-traditional taro varieties.
One major reason is the expansion of coconut plantations into established garden land in the mid 20th century. This degraded the soil, meaning yam (requiring high soil fertility) was largely replaced with manioc (source: local participants; Campbell, 1985). Yam is particularly labour intensive and requires regular work meaning that today there may be less need to engage in the same levels of daily levels as in the past.
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“Wan pikinini, wan karen” (“one child, one garden”)
This phrase indicates a kastom ethic of proactively preparing for the future. It is foundational kastom value ensuring livelihood sustainability:
Our kastom teaching says: when you are a young person, you make a garden of your own before you are married. When you have one child, you must have more – two gardens. When you have three children, you must have four gardens. So this is kastom that we lived with (Samuel)
Traditionally, it is tabu for a young man to marry until he has established a garden of his own and built a house. With each new child born, another garden was established. Planning land use for prospective children begins long before the children themselves arrived.
“Wan pikinini, wan garden” is essentially a mechanism for ensuring self sufficiency in food security. These practices ensured continued food security – given environmental uncertainty – and ensured that each child could self sufficiently meet their own prospective family’s needs when the time came.
are seldom engaged with other time commitments. Many emphasised that many commitments existed in the taem bifo as well – it is just that the nature of the commitments have changed. Social change comes with changes to daily time allocations as the nature of daily life and livelihoods change.
4.4.1.3 ‘Fuja luk luk’ (‘Looking to the future’)
Many participants voiced concern about an increasing lack of planning for the future amongst younger generations. This closely tied into laez and decreased labour inputs, but refers to a longer time scale. Participants frequently cited a culture of ‘proactivity’ – in many aspects of life – as an important kastom value.
David explained that:
Before, they had a lot of knowledge about how to ensure the safe futures of the children. But now, people don’t think about their future. I don’t know why it’s happening, I think it’s because, today
Box 7 "Wan pikinini, wan karen": the kastom long-term work ethic
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the teaching is different to before. Today, no rispek. Talk belonging to my father and mother was that they planted for me, afterwards, I plant for my children. This is why today, cyclone comes, but plenty of people are not ready.
Many linked this issue to declining rispek for parents and their knowledge, and declining rispek for kastom itself. Lack of planning for the future was discussed mostly in the context of livelihoods and land use. Increasingly, families do not have enough gardens to support their subsistence requirement which means that they are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity in times of climate stress.
Many younger people and their families rely on their parents’ gardens to meet their subsistence needs.
The apparent erosion of the kastom value of planning for the future pervades many aspects of life and outcomes are not restricted to subsistence gardening.
Many participants also noted that many younger families did not plant natangura (sago palm, a material fundamental to traditional house building and a traditional famine food) of their own, instead relying on trees planted by their parents. Participants believed that if a severe cyclone (such as Cyclone Wendy in 1972, which destroyed all houses in the villages) occurred today, there would not be enough natangura to meet rebuilding needs. Participants of all ages identified this as a fairly recent problem; most middle-aged to older participants stated that they had followed kastom, but their children had not.
It is likely that, like much of kastom, the strong value of planning for the future was underpinned by the suqe social institution – there were particular kinship obligations to give boys a ‘head start’ in the graded system52, which required extensive proactive garden preparation.
52 There was an element of hereditary insofar as ‘big men’s’ sons had more resources with which to become ‘big men’ themselves.
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Many older participants were concerned about the future as the population will increase. The trend is towards too many families relying on too few gardens. If the current trend continues, the community will lose the capability for self-sufficiency in food security and instead rely too heavily upon imports (see Section 4. 5 below). James noted:
Because me, I have four boys. They make no gardens yet! I worry, if you have four boys you will have four women coming inside. You look – it’s not right. They don’t plant enough in their garden – no food now! When you’re married it’s too late now. Now you have to steal!
You have to pay for rice, but you can’t rely on that. Problem!
Again, there are obviously other factors influencing this change in values – one of which is population growth.