Nokonofo Kitea (We Keep on Living This Way): Myths and Music of Futuna, Vanuatu

by Janet Dixon Keller

Nokonofo Kitea, centered on stories and songs from the Polynesian outlier West Futuna, Vanuatu, aims to accomplish three goals: found a secular literature, celebrate and interpret the verbal arts, and connect ancestral discourses with the complex fabric of present-day lives.

In the narratives islanders past and present enunciate personal and social struggles, articulate power dynamics, and proclaim the cultural geography and cosmology that promote community. History emerges through their perspectives. Gender, marriage, residence, exchange, and alliance are interrogated; gluttony and conservation juxtaposed.

The disquiet associated with early evangelism is coded in metaphor. Homeland is ambiguously valued as secure yet confining while the horizon attracts yet endangers those who would travel. Offering a resource for renewed debate, the volume envisions a place for oral heritage in transforming present and future conditions associated with migration, urban development, nationalism, and globalization.

Every facet of the work is collaboratively shaped. Texts were selected and translations emerged in extended dialogues addressing literacy, audience diversity, and relevance. Narrative interpretations remain dialogic throughout the book, reflecting varying perspectives: melded, intermingled, or in conflict. Theoretical vantage points combine indigenous and Western positions. Local wisdom highlights the relations between surface utterances and underlying messages and emphasizes the potency of metaphor, enabling people to speak their minds while shielding their intentions. These ideas are linked in Western intellectual traditions to pursue relations between the said and the unsaid, center texts within imaginal and real contexts, and unravel figurative tropes.

324 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2007

Reviews

[Suzesmum · Rating 4 out of 5]

81📘🇻🇺VANUATU 🇻🇺Ok, let me say from the outset, this book is not what I expected 😳When I started this reading tour, I specifically wanted to read stories from the countries that were told by the people; stories of legend, folklore and important people, from countries big and small. Published in 2007, I was drawn to this book because it was from 1) Vanuatu (and not much is published ftom Vanuatu, 2) it’s solely focused on a remote island West Futuna which is described as a Polynesian Outlier, and 3) it’s co-authored by an indigenous writer from this remote, obscure people. It’s a collaboration between American anthropologist Janet Dixon Keller and Futunian Takaronga Kuautonga, and is an important text that documents in both English and Futunian language the dominant myths and songs from West Futuna - not to be confused with (East) Futuna of Wallis-Futuna fame. Ok, so why was I surprised? The main myth is about a child-eating monster, Majihjiki, who has a bizarre method of searching for runaway children. “One of his signature traits is the ability to turn into a compass. The monster doubles over, achieving a position that allows him to circle with his rear-end upward. As he slowly turns around, the monster opens his buttocks…and waits for his rectum to turn red and project outward like an arrow designating precisely the location of the escaping children.” (p. 101) I shit you not😳🤯🐉🍑🧭#🌏📚#readingworldtour2021 #readtheworld2 #worldliterature #readingworldliterature #reading #readingwomenchallenge #readersofinstagram #readmorebooks #bookstagram #booklover #book #booknerd #bibliophile #travel #travelogue #fiction #nonfiction #nonfictionreads #travelbooks #ayearofreadingaroundtheworld #vanuatu #westfutuna

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unsurprisingly I really am beginning to struggle finding fiction [in translation] from the Pacific Islands (issue is ours, not theirs) and I thought Nokonofo Kitea might be slightly bending the rules. It actually isn't I think - given that the songs have been so carefully translated and all the academic commentary that they are presented with really show that. I really enjoyed the songs; and also the choice of them for compilation, they are fun and interesting and I learned a lot. It's very cool to see the bilingual text. Not sure on my favourite story, perhaps Majihjiki ma Fafine Tonga because I like the idea of being able to catapult yourself to the clouds by mistake, and also because I very much enjoyed the note on it being unclear which women was blind.

Would love to hear some of the songs sung someday. But I do think reading them also has value.