CathNews New Zealand

The family of Kula, the parrot, has flown around the Fiji coastland and bush for as long as anyone can remember. The ancestors of Mongoose travelled from India with people who came to work on the sugar plantations.

Kula and Mongoose are friends. Some folk are surprised because Kula and Mongoose are very different. But why shouldn’t they be friends?   They have grown up together. They talk to one another. They have different gifts and they help one another in the green valley where they both live.

Kula makes Mongoose laugh. Kula is bright and colourful and can fly and tell Mongoose what she sees. Mongoose is alert and quick as he slips quietly through the bush and through the fields. He has an ear to the ground. Mongoose never touches Kula’s eggs. He protects them. He warns off any likely predators.

One day in her flights Kula notices some puzzling activities in a nearby town. She returns to tell Mongoose some very strange stories.   In the town there is much more buying and rushing around. The shops are decorated with shiny paper and lights. Some people are drinking from cans and brown bottles. Others are singing loudly in the little wooden church.   In the valley Ana is busy with a sasa cleaning her little home. Old Jone seems be carrying more dalo from the plantation than usual.

What is this all about? The two friends decide to try to find out. They decide to ask the bullock who is thought to be very wise. His broad shoulders have carried more burdens than the heavy plough yoked to his neck in the cane fields. He listens carefully to the friends. “It must be Christmas,” he says at last. “But what is Christmas?” the friends reply.   The bullock shakes his heavy head from side to side in the effort of trying to remember. He speaks slowly. “When I was just a calf, it was told me that a loving Child once lay sleeping in the place where bullocks were eating. If you find the Child you will find the meaning of Christmas. Go and look for the Child!” Continue reading

• Sue Halapua in Vaughan Park
• Image: Heavensdoor/Fiji

Sue Halapua is an Anglican priest who has lived for many years in Fiji.