5253 The water and dance squads of the Guau Village, preparing to perform.
5260 Water splashing during a performance. The ladies in the center are playing a different rhythm and sound from the ladies on the outside. You can see their hand position is different as is the shape and volume of the water displaced.
5278 The Chief squeezing some kava into a coconut.
5305 The Kustom dancers, preparing to perform.
Nov 15 – Luganville, Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu - Continued. After returning to the ship for lunch, we departed on our next adventure, a visit to see the water music. We boarded the same type vans that we had in the morning and again headed north up the coast. This time we turned inland and climbed up the hill to the village of the Gaua People. They are originally from the Banks and Torres Islands in the northern part of Vanuatu. The ladies there developed a rhythmic form of drum beat using water. I was amazed at the variety of sounds they have learned to make using just their hands and water. They vary the angle at which they strike the water as well as the shape and motion of their hands. It’s amazing. I took some good video and when I get home, I’m going to put some on YouTube.
When we arrived at their village, we discovered that they have built a small pool in which to perform. The ladies marched in from the wings. Only ladies are allowed to perform water music. Actually, they entered from behind some vegetation that borders the pool at the sides and were introduced by the Emcee. Not surprisingly six of the nine performers were related to him. Only six ladies perform in the pool, the other three dance at poolside. All the ladies are skilled at the music so they take turns being in the pool. The only exception is the leader; she is always in the pool. They stand in waist deep water in two rows of three ladies each. The leader stands in the center of the back row. She acts like the dance leader in most Pacific island dance troupes. At the start of each song, she calls out the name and then gives the first motion. Like a drum major, at times when the pace changes or some break in the music occurs she’ll give additional commands.
The ladies are not dressed exactly identically but it’s close. They are all in bare shoulder dresses of red, yellow, green and black, the colors of the Gaua. The dancers are dressed identically. Everyone has a wreath of flowers in her hair and leis of green leaves around her neck. The water splashes very consistently and I’m sure that on occasion it’s hard to breathe and concentrate on the performance. Not all the ladies do the same motion because they blend several sounds into the rhythm, like different sized drums. They are not always on the same beat. Sometimes there are counterpoint beats and different sounds on differing rhythms. I’ve always been a fan of drumming and this was in the same family of performances, a lot like the tiko drumming we saw in Japan. Most of the crowd seemed to get into it. Of course, with this shipload there are always those who can’t stand or appreciate anything that’s not already known to them. I wonder why they travel. They performed at least eight separate rhythms for us, each very unique in some way. In one, I noticed that each pair in the rows, front and back, were on entirely different beats. Usually the two middle ladies provided the deeper tones. They looked like the strongest of the six and it takes some power to move that much water for extended periods.
When the music ended, I thought the tour was going to end there and we’d head back to the ship. I was very mistaken. From the elevated viewing platform at the end of the pool, they took us to a small clearing with benches at the perimeter on three sides. After we took seats there, the village chief took a position at the center of the clearing and began mixing some kava. Kava is a root that they mash, grind and then soak in water. After is soaks for a while they strain it using a mesh like growth from the palm tree. Actually, they dip the mesh into the kava and then squeeze it out into a coconut shell. The Emcee from the water show narrated the process, which I’ve seen many times before. He told us that there are three common species of kava in the South Pacific, each makes a bit of a different kava. He asked who had tried it before and I raised my hand. He asked where and I told him in Fiji and Samoa. He said that the kava in those two places in only about half as strong as the kava they use here. Well, of course that meant I had to try this one too.
The chief squeezed me a half coconut shell almost full and I said I just wanted to taste it so I’d take less. Apparently that’s not really the way they do it here. I got the whole thing. Understand, kava is not alcoholic or fermented in any way. It’s a sedative really, probably an alkaloid of one of the barbiturates. I know they give it to babies here if they are fussy or don’t sleep. The chief uses it when he arbitrates disputes. Each participant in the dispute has to drink a shell of kava before the discussions begin. I did drink the kava I was offered and it does not have much taste although this version is much more bitter than the ones I’ve tasted previously. The first thing you notice is that in a very short time your lips and tongue start to feel like they do after the dentist gives you a shot to deaden your jaw. It never really goes numb; it just develops into that tingly, lightly desensitized feeling.
After the kava, some of the village men performed the kastom dance. They perform this freelance, comic dance during certain rituals. They wear bundles of leaves on their backs that create a swishing sound and have bands of what looked like nut shells on their ankles that emitted a castanet like sound as they danced. On their heads, they wore large coconut shells with vines, straw and other unidentifiable things attached to look like hair. Their only accompaniment was one man playing a drum made from a short piece of bamboo. They seemed to have as much fun dancing as we did watching. They would shout, jump, strut, hop, yell and spin as they danced in a circle around the drummer and the man holding the drum.
After each dance, they would bend over and pretend to lean on their sticks and pant as if they were just worn out. After several dances, they started to sit next to some of the audience members and collapse on them, moaning from their exertions. That was all put on for humorous effect. After the dancing was over, they posed for comic pictures with us.
We left the little clearing and were guided to a small pavilion where some refreshments had been put out for us. They had some tropical fruits, coconut drinks and bananas on a small table. Some of the dancers got up on a small platform at one end of the little patio and picked up a ukulele, two guitars, a star shaped tambourine and the last man was playing a one string bass that operated just like a washtub bass you see in the Ozarks and around the South. It was an odd sight. They were still wearing their dance outfits, minus the leaf bundles and coconut hat hairpieces. The sight became odder still when they started to play. Somewhere in their past a Cajun must have visited them, is the only way I can describe what had happened. The music they played had a distinct Cajun rhythm and sound. Not the Louisiana waltz style, the plain old, pedal to the metal, Cajun two-step style. Diana and I moved to an open space at the entrance to the patio and started dancing. The guys in the band were grinning, ear-to-ear. I couldn’t figure out if they were just smiling at us or if they recognized the dance step. As we danced, Diana commented that she thought they were going to continue to play until we dropped but that didn’t happen. When they stopped playing we all applauded the performance and they were clapping too.
It was a fun visit and a great day. The people of this area of the South Pacific are great!
Tonight was a Big Screen movie night and it’s a movie I want no part of so I’m going to be able to catch up on my writing.
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