Mollie's First Kamadupw (Traditional Party)

[PART ONE ... time constraints have caused me to write this post in episodes]

In Pohnpei people get together to celebrate for all sorts of reasons; "Food, friends, and fun" is the Pohnpeian way. But there are different kinds of gatherings here -- for example, a birthday fundraiser (a raffle to raise money for a birthday person) is not the same thing as a birthday party (typically, an evening in which the extended family goes to the house of the birthday person to eat cake, ice cream, and pizza ... much like the US!). And neither of these typical Pohnpeian functions compare with the big kamadupws -- traditional celebrations held for the Nahnmwarki (the "king" or highest chief of the clan system in the municipality). Kamadupws are held in the nahs, or feast-house, of a family or community, for the benefit of the Nanmwarki and all those who attend.

Although this traditional kamadupw had been described to me and I had already seen pieces of similar celebrations over the past month, I got my first full taste of a kamadupw on Saturday (October 17, for those of you keeping track). My take on it? Well, I very much enjoyed myself and thought it was really, really great, until I got a heaping helping of culture shock and didn't love it so much. Let me explain.

Kamadupws are all-day affairs all about presenting the best of things to the Nahnmwarki and then sharing the bounty with everyone else. Every attending family brings what they have to share (crops, prepared food, etc) and it gets split up, celebratorily. More or less, the higher your title, the better your spoils. But everyone eats well that day -- there's plenty to go around, and there's always tons of leftovers to take home. For our family's contribution on Saturday, my nohno (host mom) and I baked a couple of cakes in the kitchen of the high school, where she works every weekday. It was nice to see her workplace, and to use an oven ... not a typical appliance in a Pohnpeian house.

This particular kamadupw was held in a very festive nahs and yard of my nohno's sister on Temwen island -- a community just past where I live in which most of my nohno's extended family lives. When we got there -- fashionably late at 10:30 am, the Nahnmwarki was already present at his place of honor at the center of the nahs, and people were milling about outside and sitting along the sides of the nahs. (Every nahs is built with a 3-sided, elevated floor, with an honorable stage at the front, and an open wall at the back ... like a large gazeebo with the center and one wall cut out of it.) Women and children typically sit on the sides, people of honor sit on the stage, and young men congregate at the center of the nahs, where the sakau stones are.

When we got there, the ritual of sakau pounding was just beginning. [I have videos of the process, which will illuminate this, surely ... to be added later] Sakau is part of all Pohnpeian parties, and it is consumed both freshly made and bottled. The bottled sakau is more casual and tends to be the beverage/narcotic of choice at more general hang out nights, when people come together for bingo, a fundraiser, or on a neighbor's porch or nahs. Kamadupw sakau is the most ceremonial of all -- there is a set sequence of pounding, sometimes in unison and sometimes not, packing, wringing, and presenting the fist cup to the Nahnmwarki. To a foreign eye, sakau--a plant root--starts out looking root-like, becomes like thick, muddy water from ceaseless pounding and a bit of added water, and then gets packed into a long piece of fibrous bark like a huge, wet cigarette to then be rolled and wrung out until the plasma-y liquid fills a hollow coconut from which the participants drink and get a calming buzz. This process begins the proceedings, and basically continues throughout. I bet the Nahnmwarki can hold a lot of sakau!
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After a bit, a local group of children and teenagers presented a few dances to the Nahnmwarki. [I also have and will post videos of these] In a long row of couples in color-coordinated local skirts and typical western clothing, the dancers presented a salsa dance and a hip-swiveling pop ditty. The best part about the dancing, to me, was the age range -- all the way from near-adults down to a tiny couple in which the boy wasn't quite tall enough to twirl the girl without hitting her on the head.

After the dancing came the food. A huge mountain of food was amassed on the stage, and then taken out again on large pallets.

TO BE CONTINUED...
[I must abandon this tale in the happy middle; await the startling--but really quite understandable--conclusion for the next time I have internet!]