colonialism | silkannthreades

The blogcation saga continues…..

From childhood days to the present……..where my friend and I re-visit old connections, in new contexts, at the Pacific Chapel, in the Transitional Cardboard Cathedral,

Pacific Chapel, Cardboard Cathedral.

and consider how our lives have changed,

: Kahikatea Memorial Sculpture

: Suffering is Universal

and our landscapes,

The Broken Cathedral

yet discover we remain young at heart and *best friends forever.

(*Cautionary note: the concept of ‘best friends forever’ was not one that was part of my colonial ‘growing up’. In our social circle, at school, at church, people came and went. Some came for 3 years, some for six months, some children only came ‘home’ for school holidays; there was no ‘forever’ in relationships. There was only now and a knowing that, eventually, everyone would leave. Yet, it is that lack of permanence in our community that, somehow, continues to hold us together, forever. )

Sunday Best

Update: It’s almost a month now since my childhood friend came to visit and we discussed, amongst many memories, our spiritual beginnings in the Anglican Church in Fiji. Our faith journeys have taken different paths since those early years, but I continue to find great solace and peace in Anglican church surroundings. For me, stepping in to certain Anglican churches is like a home-coming.

Still on the subject of my blogcation; first there were the Preparations and, then……..

My guest arrives….

We look back.

From 2014 to 1966

Mr Carter’s classes

The Two of Us at Malolo Street 1966

Mr Hodge’s Sunday School Class 1964. St Peter’s Anglican Church ,Father Butler’s residence, Drasa Avenue.

The Beginning : ‘When I was Three I was hardly me. When I was Four, I was not much more.’ A A Milne

Update: It has been a difficult week. It is tempting to look back to the past and think all was perfect. It was not. As a child I was dumbfounded, and unbelieving, when I realised that, at the age of five, I would be going to Lautoka European School and my best friend would not. Fortunately, those policies were changed within the next few years as Fiji headed towards Independence, and my friend and I were able to spend a short time together at the renamed school. It became Drasa Avenue School.

The events of my current week, and those contained in my post, seem to relate well to this quote

“Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.”

This is the prayer inscribed on the bronze memorial to Robert Louis Stevenson in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland. Robert Louis Stevenson was, amongst many other things, a witness to the colonial history of the Pacific Islands. Clanmother writes (and recites) about Robert Louis Stevenson’s connection to the Pacific here.