The islands of the Cook Islands Group are very scattered with more than a hundred miles separating them from the capital, Raratonga. Our island, Mangaia, is the closest at 110 miles – it takes an hour by plane or an overnight journey by sea to reach there. Mangaia is the southernmost of the Group and just over 12,000 acres in size. When I lived there it had approximately 1800 people though now these numbers are much fewer and my village school roll has dropped from over 350 to about 140. The reason for this is the need for families to seek the means of livelihood elsewhere.
When I visited there some years ago I saw many changes but when I was young, the pace of life was slower and the needs of the people much less. Christmas was a time to look forward to – it was a time when every woman and girl would get a new dress! The women would also have a new hat. In each village the dresses would all be the same – the same pattern and the same colour, but there could be differences between villages. Then when we all came together in church, it would be most colourful and attractive.
Preparation for the Christmas period would start six to eight weeks ahead and in each village a group of six to nine people would get together to compose five new imene tuki (hymns). I remember my father going off to these occasions each night and sometimes for all day. The words of the hymns were always taken from the Bible and the composing group had to first select appropriate verses and then make up suitable music in parts for the rest of the village to sing. The five hymns were to be sung, one at each of the major services over the Christmas and New Year period. Christmas marked the start of a festival that lasted nearly two weeks.
The first hymn had to be sung on Christmas Day and have a theme suitable for that occasion. The second hymn was for New Year’s Day and the other three were for the early morning, mid-morning and afternoon services on the first Sunday in the New Year. This Sunday marked the beginning of a week of prayer, at the conclusion of which was a village feast. When the composing group had finished their work, they would come to our village meeting house and ring the bell. We would all know what that bell meant and would go along to the hymn practice. It would last for about an hour and we would learn the parts and sing it through two or three times. Then we would go home and come back again the next day. This would go on until Christmas Day.
The Christmas Day service started at 10.00am while the normal Sunday time was 9.30am. At 9.30am on Christmas Day we had our final choir practice so that everyone would be sure of the starting note. Then we would go to church.
I have heard that our island, Mangaia, was once the headquarters of the London Missionary Society in the Islands and the church was no doubt built under their influence. It was about a hundred years old and huge. It could hold over five hundred people and three villages came together for the Christmas service. The walls were built of coral held together with a cement of lime and painted over with burnt coral lime as a sort of white wash. They were perpendicular on the inside but stepped on the outside in a buttressing effect. Where the windows were, the walls were nearly three feet thick. They were high enough to permit a balcony inside and it was here that the Sunday School sat with their teachers during the Christmas service. Above all this the roof soared to nearly 200 feet! Twelve tree trunks supported the roof as pillars.
After church we all went home for a family service. No one was allowed to move around the village during this time and some of the larger families could be heard singing just as in church. Then it was time to open the umu (oven) and place the food out on mats. It was a time for sharing and we would go to our neighbours and friends and give them something from our umu and they would share something from theirs. I remember it was also a time when my grandmother had a very special treat for us in the form of bread or cabin bread, a tin of butter and a tin of jam. It was something we only had at Christmas.
The second feast came on the Saturday just before the end of the week of prayer. It was a big feast and every house provided so many kits of taro and a pig and all this was brought to the meeting house. Portions of this feast were given to everyone – the king (we had our own royal family), the village governor, the doctor, nurses, teachers, policeman, wireless operator, and all who helped us in any way. All six villages on the island used to observe this feast.
When I went back to visit my island I found that although some things had changed, most had not. The church was still in use but the balcony was unsafe. Money was being raised for its repair. But the building still stood much as it had done over the years with its white walls showing plainly through the surrounding grove of ironwood trees, and the coral slab path worn smooth by the thousands of feet that have used it.