Expressing Fijian Indigeneity

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Published

POEMS BY MARA MAHONEY
ARTWORKS BY RATU ROPATE RAKŪITA WAILUTU KAMA

Ropate Kama Funambulist 2
No Vanua (The Planet). / Mixed media, Water paint, ink and the tooth of a sperm whale (a family heirloom), March 2024. / Artwork by Ratu Ropate Rakūita Wailutu Kama.

If you want to destroy a people first you kill their gods
Infect them with diseases brought from your own lands
and when they die tell them it’s divine punishment
and that the survivors live only by your God’s grace.

Tell them Land is not their relative
but something to hold dominion over
so you can poison “it”
and not be called a murderer.

Turn their ancestors into demons.
so that their ears are hardened
when the spirits of their grandparents visit them in dreams
to warn them about you.