Witch-craft or gifted?
As the early sunrise breaks, birds joyfully singing with roosters loudly crowing staking their territory as hens hurriedly shuffled for breakfast….No single cloud to be seen, the sky so crystal clear as its translucent blue glaze enveloped the beauty of nature, surrounding the atmosphere making the greenish trees, flowers and fauna shine a little extra, it’s days like this you know is going to be one of those special days!
Villagers rumbling along with their day to day activities as I marvel the bustle and hustle of young and old going about their usual business on a fresh Saturday morning…..Happy of my early task, having returned from the plantation as I departed at 04:00 am in the morning to fetch crops and firewood for the weekend. I lay propped up resting by our small hybrid mango tree, sipping on a fresh hot lemon leaves tea when my Grandmother broke my daydreaming moment calling out my name with certain urgency in her tone….
My sweet lovely Grandmother, Adi Ana Qolouvaki Taubera, a lady of Chiefly status with both her parents being Chieftains from their own traditional background, a standing she humbly camouflages and only wants to be known as Nau. (Grandma)
This is my mothers Mum a Grand Lady I hold dearly in my heart, as it was Grandma who cradled and supported us after Dad sent us away packing, but that’s another story.
This is one thing I truly admire about my Nau and you will find out why? As I responded to her call, I paced myself knowing that this call could be either two things, she wants the kettle refilled or she has a more arduous task in hand? Yes, it was the latter.
She draws my attention with a stern elderly voice stating how important it is to listen very carefully with the instructions she was about to give.
“Noqu tagane, va’arorogo sara mai va’avina’a, au vina’ata mo ‘auta mai e lima a veimataqali ‘acu, ai matai mo ‘aria mai a toloni vuni Dabi, ‘ei nai ‘arua mo ‘aria talega mai a toloni vuni wi, ‘a tolu mo ‘aria mai a vuni vutu ni sawana, me ratou dui biubiu e na drauni via, qai ‘auta mai e va a drauni vuni vutu ni sawana me ‘ua ni qaseqase me drauna mamare ga a ‘enai ro’a vole’ata ga a domoni drauni vutu, ‘ei na ‘enai otioti ga me levu mai a drauni sasaqilu, sa rogoca vina’a? Va’atotolo sara baleta ni ‘edatou na va’avulagi ti’o e na sigalevu ni’ua”
The above was her instructions given in Fijian in the true Cakaudrove Dialect, a dialect predominantly used in the Northern province of Fiji. Basically, she tasked me to seek five different herbal remedies, three of which were scrapings of barks of different trees and two were leaves of a certain bush and the other were leaves of one of the three trees. With her final message saying that we were expecting visitors in the afternoon so I best hurry on! Now, I’m talking about the early 80’s here, no phones, no internet nor social media, it was the times of authentic living, doing things the real way and the only way!
I may have believed at one time as a toddler that messages were sent through jungle drums or smoke signals, even pigeons sent to deliver, but none of the above was available to Grandma? I was indeed curious as this was a routine that I and my brothers have been doing for quite some time, years to be exact. We initially thought that messengers were sent to Grandma or she was sent notes of visitations and arrivals, nope! We later found out that it was definitely not the case and what really eventuated will blow your mind!
Having been scraping, collecting and gathering the many different type of herbs for certain strangers and unannounced visitors for years, we grew up and wanted to know the truth, Mum would always say that Grandma had a special gift to heal the sick and it was a Gods given gift. As a converted Roman Catholic with both Mum and Grandma being strong devoted believers reluctantly tried to hide the truth and always reverted to faith. I still wanted to know and the older I became the more curious and fascinated I was ending with questioning Grandmas faith inquisitively, I asked Nau, that should this indeed be a gift from God, why then can she not share and tell us how she possessed these remarkable healing powers? My inquisition became apparent as to everyone Nau provided herbal medicines too, messages came back to say that they’ve been healed and send Nau blessings for her never ending aid to healing the sick. Not one time did I hear that her potions had failed!
As our family, my only sister, four brothers, Mum and Nau relaxed and stretched after our evening rosary one Sunday night, Nau decided to share with us her dilemma! She amazingly opened up with tears in her eyes, eventually shared what she branded as ‘her fears’. This is Nau’s story…….
“I cannot remember when it started or how I got this gift or curse as what I now believe it to be! I vividly remember it happening a very long time ago. It was an early morning as we sat at home having breakfast and I couldn’t keep it to myself having had a weird dream the night before, I have had so many dreams but this one was totally unique and it felt more like a message rather than an actual dream! So I blurted out and shared to my family, they all stared at me with amusement as I unfolded my weird vision or dream as even I could’t tell what it was”.
“I dream’t of being taken to this surreal beautiful garden filled with enormous trees, no tree the same and a range of flowers and bushes of those I could recognize and those that I couldn’t, but can remember seeing them somewhere before. As I was enchanted in the forest of greenery, a small angelic voice guided me towards five different plants and the weirdest part was the voice specifically identified different portions of the shrubs which was unusual as I know of two plants that my mother uses for medicine. Suddenly light flashed in front of me and I saw myself handing the exact portion of herbs to an elderly women whom I don’t recognise at all, she was weak but showed strength and love in her eyes, she took the herbs, pounded and grinded them all together and gave the juices to another elderly man suddenly appearing lying beside her, then as sudden as the light flashed before, my dream took me to a village gathering and as I looked up I saw this exact elderly man sitting at the top of the gathering delivering a speech of thanks and appreciation of healing him? I woke up startled and not understanding why and how I had such a dream that felt real at the same time?”
“We were still at breakfast when suddenly a lady from our neighboring village came in crying asking for help, she stated that her elderly brother was suffering from a sickness no one knew as even the doctors could not diagnose! My Father for some bizarre reason immediately directed me to show this lady the herbs I had dreamed of and give it to her for her brother, my Dad said it was a gift from God sent to me as they knew that this lady will turn up at our house and seek help. Confused in my own way, I was never going to argue with my father, he was a man of power and whatever he says goes! I ventured out to the forest to seek the exact herbs I dream’t of and prepared it as I saw in my dream. The brother survived and it was a seen as a miracle healing, from that day onward when I do dream I only dream of herbs, plants and trees, and when I do so, I just know that a visitor will be expected that day, so whatever herb I see, I provided and till this day it has cured them all.”
Wow! I was stunned and in total awe, an eerie but truly fascinating story, even Mum was in tears together with my sister as we all ingested with pride hearing of Nau’s special Gods given gift, a gift of healing, a gift of love and care, to us Nau was indeed special she was uniquely special having been given something that can never be explained, an unsolved mystery of a special ability.
Nau was always the story teller and when she told us stories you fell as if you were in her stories, folks tales as they usually say, however they were folks tale of the will to survive and the way our mysterious world works within. Nau continues but by this time she was sniffling with tears rolling down her cheeks and as Mum tried to comfort her, she insisted and carried on…..
“I don’t want to do this anymore, I don’t believe this is Gods gift! I believe this to be part of witch-craft and I don’t want it anymore, I want it to go and I’m praying everyday to the Holy Family to rid these dreams as this I believe it is not holy, it feels to me as that I’m doing some witch-craft of sort, I hear people calling me names and I disapprove of these dreams, I just want to be happy and with my family without the burden of having to dream shrubs, I think I’ve been cursed!”
We were all startled at Nau’s sudden outburst, especially with her reasoning! I was the one who spoke up first comforting Nau as I placed my arms around her, in my own calmly teenage way, I said to Nau;
“Nau, people who do witch-craft, kill other people or make them sick, your doing the total opposite as your healing them, if you were cursed, you would be cursed to do evil and bad things but to the contrary, your healing the many and giving people hope and happiness as you cure them through your God gifted Dreams, please do not think this way, try and believe that you are a special chosen Lady from Heaven, you are chosen as a Healer.”
Despite our pleas and and no matter how we tried to convince her, she refused to hear any other reasoning. Nau eventually extinguished her gift by refusing to help others stating that she no longer dreams of herbs, people took her word and she remained faithful to her rosary and religion. I knew deep down that she still dreams of herbs but it was her strong religious belief that persuaded her otherwise.
I would probably add that her beautiful soul was blessed with grace and greatness as both her children (My Mum and my Uncle) passed on before her giving her a longer life which she remained a true devoted Roman Catholic to Heart. May all their Loving, Caring Souls rest Peacefully in Heavenly Kingdom of God.
Having read Nau’s story, what do you believe this was? How would you fathom the depths of this phenomenal gift or curse? Was this a gift or curse? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below, I’d love to hear your thoughts…….
living through life 