The Pig

Recently, I made a small kastom offering to community leaders on the island. Following their tradition, I provided a pig and kava to local chief's and other "big man." I made this kastom offering because A.) I was hungry for roasted pork and B.) to explain my latest fundraising efforts and gain the support of area leaders.

I wanted it to be perfectly clear that profit from the upcoming DVD would go towards community needs (such as solar lighting and sports equipment) and not my own pocket. The kastom offering gave me the opportunity to gather together and inform locals from all the major villages on Aneityum. I only worried about the perception of islanders I do not know well, as some people could leap to the wrong conclusion.

The offering went very well. According to kastom now, the full island must support the project now that the leaders have accepted the pig and kava. We formed a committee to decide how to use any proceeds from DVD sales.

There are not many pigs on Aneityum. To acquire one, I called up Arthur, the volunteer in Middle Bush, Tanna (the one who was kastom circumcised) and left a hurried voicemail message, since his island's mobile phone service is extremely finicky and nearly requires climbing the phone company's tower and holding hoisting one's phone above your head to even receive one bar of reception. I was in total doubt that Arthur even received my message when a cargo ship arrived one day and a man delivered a squealing, hog-tied parcel at my doorstep.

I threw the pig in a small pen at my host family's house and they fed him left over table scraps for a week before we performed the kastom offering. It was roasted slowly over super-heated stones, bundled in leaves and mixed with Fiji taro.

Arthur said he did not wish to receive money in exchange for the expensive pig. He had a favor to ask me in return. He wanted a turtle from Aneityum, which is a highly prized gourmet delicacy in Middle Bush, Tanna. He was planning a ceremony himself and needed the turtle as an offering for his village. Thus I paid for boat fuel and local man to go "hook" a massive turtle on the reef.

When locals hear this story they laugh in surprise at Arthur and I. For thousands of years, tribes from the coastal areas have exchanged their local goods with tribes from the highlands. Arthur and I continued this kastom practice to the amusement of all.