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Seacliff Art Workshop
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They
Drank KavaIn
the
Yaqona
is a solution of the powered root of a variety of the Pepper plant (piper
methsticum) dissolved in cold water and strained through a piece of the shredded
bark of the Vau tree, or more recently through cheese cloth.
In
recent years the Yaqona roots are pounded in a type of large pestle and mortar,
or ground to powder by machine. Yaqona powder ready for mixing can be bought in
the market or at most small shops, and is now also exported.
A
taste for Yaqona has to be acquired, and many beginners liken it to muddy water.
To the initiated, however, it is a refreshing drink with no alcoholic effect.
Only a slight numbing of the tongue and lips after several bowls can be felt,
and it has a relaxing effect.
Yaqona
is also used a great deal in ceremonial practice and, in particular, for
welcoming important guests.
TITLE
They Drank Kava
AUTHOR Moshé Liba
PUBLISHED 2004
CATEGORY Poetry
FORMAT Paperback
EXTENT A5, 44
pages
ISBN
1-86942-041-1
PRICE
NZ $5
It all started
because, so they said
they were fed-up.
They had enough
of newcomers, new citizens
getting equal rights
on their archipelago
in the
They had enough, so they said
of new citizens living in this land
climbing the ladder
of political power up,
up to the top.
They had enough, so they said
of indigenous rights being trampled
leaving them to feel as foreigners
in their own land.
They had enough, so they said
of the ways of democracy,
the intrigues, the plots
the combinations of politics
the complicated, sometimes treacherous
ways of running a country
far away from the ways
of the
from the
They were fed-up
they had enough,
so they sat down
to a Yaqona ceremony and
they drank Kava.
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