Kava revival concept starts interesting debate online (original) (raw)

Kava and ethno-cultural Identity in Oceania

The Palgrave handbook of ethnicity (Chapter 134-1), 2019

Garibaldi and Turner (2004) explain the role that particular plants play in facilitating the shared ancestry, practices, and social experience of an ethnicity. This can include spiritual connections, cultural expression and practice, ceremony, exchange, linguistic reflection, socialization, and medicinal and/or dietary systems. They term these plants “cultural keystone species” and icons of identity, plants that if removed would cause some disruptions to the cultural practices and identity of an ethnic group. Undoubtedly, kava (Piper methysticum) is the cultural keystone species for many Oceanic and Pacific peoples, a “differentiating element of common culture” (Zagefka, 2016) informing their ethno- cultural identity. That influence is also extending to new non-Pacific Island user groups who have embraced elements of kava ethno-cultural identity in what has been termed diasporic identity formation in reverse. This chapter will discuss kava with specific reference to ethnic positionality in Fiji while recognizing the tensions from inside and outside the region that support and threaten the continuance of the kava drinking tradition.

The Past Before Us: A Brief History of Tongan Kava

The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 2020

This article examines deep and contemporary history through analysis of the Tongan kava origin story, a kava chant, the rise of the kalapu ‘kava club’ in the twentieth century and the growing expansion of contemporary kava. It is argued that a key function of past and present kava practices is a ritual liminality of noa ‘neutralisation of protective restrictions’ that results from mediating mana ‘potency, honour’ and tapu ‘protective restrictions, set apart’. This is supported through ethnohistorical literature, song lyrics and ethnographic data. While the expressions, purpose, material and uses of kava evolve and change throughout time and space, from the titular ceremonies to the social rituals, they are connected through contextually specific mediations that establish noa. The kava origin story indicates a performance of mediations between ancient power relations, while the kava chant describes material culture alongside the establishment of the ritualised chiefly kava ceremony. Kalapu and the expanding contemporary kava practices today maintain connections to past practices while adapting to current circumstances such as global Tongan mobility and cultural diversity.

Tongan Kava: Performance, Adaptation, and Identity in Diaspora

Tecun, Arcia (Hernandez, Daniel). 2017. Tongan Kava: Performance, Adaptation, and Identity in Diaspora. Performance of the Real E-journal, 1 (1): 52-64. Retrieve from: http://www.otago.ac.nz/performance-of-the-real/proceedings/index.html, 2017

Faikava Tonga represents the most common and diverse Kava drinking gatherings among Tongans in the Kingdom, and in diaspora. Literature on Tongan Kava will be reviewed to establish some background and spectrum of use. Drawing from auto-ethnographic and ethnographic research based on a multi-cited research sample, an update of adaptations to common Kava practices will be made. Helu's (1993) explanations of Kava use after the day's work, for courtship, or religious purposes will be compared with current practices in this research sample. It is argued that faikava today maintains those diverse elements and purposes, but is more often consolidated into a single group or event where they can take place simultaneously. These adaptations are practical and creative ways for urban diasporic populations to make, and keep connections to their Indigenous identities, through transported fonua (land) in the form of Kava. Faikava is a site of cultural reinforcement in diaspora. Kava gatherings facilitate performances of identity, mediation between socio-political relations, and the perpetuation of cultural values.

Māori and kava: New drug fashion or re-engagement with 'kawa'?

Pacific Dynamics: Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 3(1), 72-85., 2019

The Pacific "cultural keystone species" (Garibaldi & Turner, 2004, pp.1,5) kava is uniquely linked with notions of mana (spiritual power) and used to infuse efficacy into celebrations and life events. The drink, made from this potent icon of identity, brings on feelings of relaxation without marked euphoria, aiding clear-minded talanoa (discussion) to facilitate important and/or contentious dialogue. The sharing and drinking of kava as part of host/guest formalities is used in bringing about mutuality and unity (Aporosa, 2019). It is estimated there are more than 20,000 kava users in Aotearoa/New Zealand on an average Friday or Saturday night, with increasing interest and uptake of this indigenous drink by Māori. Crowley (1994) reports that the Māori word 'kawa', literally meaning 'marae protocol', has its linguistic foundations in 'kava' and the practices associated with this cultural keystone species. This paper explores that linguistic union to ask whether increased kava use by Māori has greater significance than simply a new interaction with a foreign drug substance. Further, due to the use of kava in facilitating talanoa (discussion), the possibility of kava playing a similar role for Māori is considered, one linked to ancestral Pacific connections aimed at assisting kōrero (talanoa), cultural connectedness and practice.

The new kava user: Diasporic identity formation in reverse

'Diaspora' studies have broadened their definition to now include hybridised identities situated in both the past and future. The formation of the Indo-Fijian ethnicity is an example of the evolution of a hybrid diasporic identity. This article briefly discusses Indo-Fijian diaspora in Fiji before shifting its focus to Aotearoa New Zealand. In this new setting, diaspora understanding will take a new direction that concentrates on the uptake of kava drinking and aspects of the kava culture by some Māori and Pālangi/Pākehā. In doing so, the article examines how these Māori and Pālangi/Pākehā, as the 'hosts', are expanding their cultural identity by embracing an icon of identity that came with a diasporic population – Pasifikans to Aotearoa – essentially creating diasporic identity formation in reverse.

Is There a Relationship between Ritual and Cliché?: Indigenous Fijian Criticism of Kava Drinking

Ethnos, 2019

This article poses the question of what analytical insight can be gained by comparing ritual and cliché, both of which involve evaluations of the significance of repetition. The case study is kava-drinking sessions in indigenous Fiji. Whether purposeful or casual, kava-drinking sessions always follow rules which give them significant form and regularity of the kind some anthropologists consider definitive of ritual practice. Yet many indigenous Fijians criticise present-day kava-drinking sessions for several reasons. One prominent line of criticism is that kava drinking is now a matter of too much repetition-too many people drinking too much too often-and losing the meaningful link to chiefly tradition as a result. Analysing criticism of ritual in terms of cliché clarifies situations in which the iconic force of repetition is treated as an index of excess.