On New Year’s Eve 1982, a few minutes before midnight, a group of young men and women waded waist deep into a river pool. They joined hands and sang a hymn. They pulled paper blindfolds over their eyes on which were written some aspect of cultural blindness each one had become aware of during the previous week. At midnight they submerged themselves under the water and, on reemerging into the New Year, released their blindfolds downstream.
Then each one placed a lighted candle on an overhanging branch or on a rock jutting out of the river. Together the washing, release of blindfolds and lighted candles symbolized and celebrated this group’s experience during a week in which they shed cultural prejudices and gained a new awareness of the brotherhood of all humans.
These committed Indo-Fijian Christians had come to Vudibasoga, a new parish center for indigenous Fijian Catholics, incorporating over a dozen surrounding villages. Six groups, of three participants with a group leader, were taken to one of the nearby Catholic villages for three days of living, eating and sleeping in a Fijian environment.
They received a formal traditional Fijian welcome. They ate with the villagers in a central shelter. The food was different for the Indo-Fijians but they enjoyed it. The villagers took their guests to their plantations to explain and demonstrate their methods of farming. Some groups went hunting wild pigs with their hosts and many of the ladies tried their hands at Fijian craft work. The villagers put on a display of their traditional games of veitiqa (throwing a spear-like reed) and caqe moli (kicking a large orange).
The Indo-Fijian participants were very impressed by the unity and cooperative organization in the daily tasks of the village. They were amazed at the hospitality and generosity of their hosts and were enthralled by the fun and entertainment. The farewell speeches on the last morning were very touching. Many people wept unashamedly.
The Indo-Fijian course participants spent a further two days reflecting on their experience and clarifying what they had learned from it. All said that many fears and prejudices were gone forever. They had been cured of their blindness. They felt ready to celebrate a New Year in a new way.
