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“Paradise in Flames” cried the CNN news flash on that early Sunday morning of
1994 in Orlando, Florida. My wife and I were getting ready to go to church that
morning when a church friend called us on the telephone and told us to turn the
TV to CNN news. To our dismay and shocked surprise the news showed the Tahiti
International airport and several parts of the city of Papeete in flames. The
French National Police and local angry Tahitians were fighting with tear gas,
rocks, and steel chains. This battle resulted in several hundred persons being
injured and millions of dollars in damages. This state of affairs was the result
of the resumption of the French Nuclear Testing program in the territory of
French Polynesia. Fortunately that program has now come to an end, restoring
peace and harmony between the people of French Polynesia and the government of
France. The process of reconciliation and healing is continuing. Peace and
justice, for me, are ongoing processes. There seems to be a new awareness in the
current generation in Tahiti in relation to peace and justice, not only at the
local village level, but at the global village level as well. During the
church’s 1999 Public Easter Concert in Tahiti, hosting over 1,000 people, a
Sanito (i.e. RLDS) performer from the congregation and village island of Hai,
came forward and dedicated his song to the people of Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda, and
to all victims of war and injustice. A young Sanito girl, age eleven, from the
congregation of Taahuaia and the island village of Tubuai, composed a song
dedicated to all abused children and victims of war. Several local churches and
associations from around French Polynesia collected funds to be sent to victims
of war and injustice.
Does peace exist in the Polynesia village worldview?
I learned that in the ancient pre-Christian Tahitian society the word peace is
hau. Hau is related to governmental administration of the entire Tahitian
societal and communal life, religious as well as secular.
Polynesian history says that following the defeat and devastation of war upon
a community, a prayer by a Polynesian priest is offered on the Marae, a
Polynesian open sanctuary. The prayer would say, “Fano ei hau, ei hau rahi .
. . ei hau hohonu, ei hau maitai roa (extend forth peace . . . great peace .
. . let it be deep peace, long peace and excellent peace . . . that the land may
flourish again. Send forth the heralds to proclaim peace. Let there be peace . .
. long unbroken peace. Let peace be in the dwellings of the people).
”In the Polynesian worldview of the pre-Christianera, the word “alliance,” a
form of convenant resulting from a peace negotiation, meant Faatau’a . .
. to make a friend . . . a friendship animated by the presence of peace. It is
the government of Hau Pahu Nui, the government of the great drum of friendship.
This form of peace is called: oha-koha among the Maori people, aloha
among the Hawaiian people, and aroha among the Tahitian people. This form
of peace is central to the Polynesian ethos. It was aroha that brought
peace and harmony between the people of French Polynesia and the government of
France, in spite of the years of colonization and the highly controversial
nuclear testing program of the French government in the islands.
It is in this form of the Polynesian hau-peace, aroha, that
“sharing, giving, loving, healing, reconciliation, compassion, justice, freedom,
equality, forgiveness, and caring” is to be understood. It is a relational
peace, a communal peace, and a peace that connects people to one another in the
form of friendship. It is this form of peace, of aroha that the
Polynesian people of this generation need to heed, to learn and practice in
their homes, their daily lives, their professional careers, their social lives,
and their various religious lives.
The imperatives of the next millennium call us to become a global village
of aroha.
Hau aroha that rules the government and the church is to be of service to
the community.
Hau aroha is to be lived out not only in concept but also in action
for the welfare of the community.
Hau aroha is a peace of inclusiveness and kinship.
Hau aroha is the theology of community, the Zion of aroha.
Hau aroha is humility in politics and in personal achievements, not
for personal glorification but for the welfare of the community.
Hau peace is aroha, it is oha, it is koha, it is
aloha, and it is shalom. The government of the Hau Pahu Nui
is one of shalom, the beloved zionic global village of aroha, and
of friendship. Aroha is action like that experienced by the 350 youth and
leaders from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, New
Caledonia, and French Polynesia who met in Tahiti last year. It is a place where
everyone is welcomed, received, and integrated into the kinship of the larger
family and village as a friend. It is the kind of global village of aroha
that I would want for my children and my grandchildren in thisn ew millennium.
(From an address given at the Temple September 23, 1999)
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