Gonna Drink, Get Drunk a History and Ethnography of Alcohol in Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Gonna Drink, Get Drunk A History and Ethnography of Alcohol in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Vaughn Koops Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2002 Key Centre for Women’s Health in Society Department of Public Health The University of Melbourne DECLARATION This is to certify that (i) the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD (ii) due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, (iii) the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. …………………………………………………………………………. ii ABSTRACT This thesis describes the place of alcohol in the lives of people from Rarotonga, Cook Islands. It incorporates historical and ethnographic analyses to provide the broad context of drinking by people aged from their teens to late thirties. The historical component of this study describes specific accounts of alcohol consumption, and situates these with regard to changes that occurred in Rarotonga from the early 19th century. Prior to contact with Papa’a (Europeans), people of Rarotonga neither produced nor consumed alcoholic beverages. Thus, the use of alcohol was a phenomenon intimately bound up with global exploration, proselytisation and trade. I trace historical changes in the distribution of power, resources, religious practice, and social discourse, and show how alcohol practice, distribution, and trade was linked to these changes from missionary contact onward. This history informs the ethnography of contemporary drinking practices. Individual and group practices and understandings of alcohol are described. I also describe the contribution of state policy, commercial interests, government institutions, and religious organisations to the place of alcohol in Rarotonga. Alcohol is a transformative substance that changes the comportment of drinkers. But its effect is ambiguous, and recognised as such. ‘Drunken’ behaviours are often explained as originating in concerns and desires that pertain in sobriety. Thus, the status of alcohol consumption as an explanation for specific behaviours is equivocal, and contested. Drinking is a means by which relationships between friends, kin and strangers are initiated and/or maintained. The particular significance of alcohol to the maintenance of (drinking) relationships is not only due to social constructions of meanings and practices associated with drinking; pharmacological effects of alcohol increase the social salience of drinking. Drinking both alters bodies and alters relationships between drinkers. In this sense, it embodies social meanings and understandings of drinking practice. Finally, I suggest that in Rarotonga, the association of drinking with emotional experience and behaviour is also, in part, attributable to the ‘embodied’ experience of alcohol. The form of emotional experience, and the form of embodied experience of alcohol, are similar. These are associated with one another through analogy (and so by the social construction of each) by embodied experience. iii PREFACE This thesis is based on 12 months of fieldwork conducted between April 2000 and March 2001 in Rarotonga, one of fifteen islands of the Cook Islands group. The Cook Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean, east of Tonga and Samoa, and west of French Polynesia. Rarotonga, which lies to the south of the group, is the largest of the islands. It is just 32 kilometres in circumference and has the largest population of all the islands, with about 8,000 people resident in 2000/2001. It is the administrative centre of the Cook Islands, where the government sits when in session, and through which most trade in the islands flows. Figure I: The Cook Islands. The Origin of the Argument The location for this research, and its focus, arose in a somewhat haphazard manner, so it is difficult in retrospect to reconstruct the ‘genealogy’ of the impetus for this thesis. In 1998 I had completed a Masters degree in Social Anthropology at Auckland University, was teaching part time at the University, and employed as a research assistant. Although encouraged by colleagues and mentors to begin PhD studies, I was unable to find a topic that interested me sufficiently to embark on extended research. It was, in fact, a colleague and friend of mine, a Cook Islander, who iv suggested that I consider conducting research in the Cook Islands. He was completing his PhD thesis at the time, and mentioned to me (prophetically, it turned out, over beers at the University Pub) that he had come across very few anthropological studies on the health of Cook Islands people. He told me, “Vaughn, you should do your PhD in the Cook Islands.” So I did. ‘Health’ seemed too broad a topic, even for PhD research. More discussion followed, with many people, as I decided on a more limited field of research. By the time I became a PhD candidate at Melbourne University (the process by which I came to Melbourne is yet another circuitous story, unnecessary to recount), the topic I was considering was that of mental illness in the Cook Islands. Anecdotally, people with mental illnesses did exist in the Cook Islands, although very little was recorded about these people, either in academic or popular literature. According to one study (Murphy 1978), mental illness in the Cook Islands hardly occurred at all. As I conducted reviews of historical and contemporary literature on this topic during the first months of my candidature, I became increasingly concerned at this lack of written material. Newspapers in the Cook Islands, for example, never addressed mental illness, which implied that the topic was not one of considerable public interest. On the other hand, I was struck by how often alcohol and alcohol-related issues were addressed. Historical documents are replete with references to alcohol use by Cook Islanders, as are contemporary newspapers and (compared with mental illness) academic publications. The ‘problem’ of alcohol is a persistent discourse in all of these sources. Increasingly, I was swayed to change the course of my research and consider alcohol use, which was of considerable interest to the authors of historical accounts, academics, and Cook Islanders. When I contacted the Ministry of Health in the Cook Islands, they said they too were interested in alcohol use, and would very much like me to choose that for my research. A topic was born. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PhD candidature at the University of Melbourne, and the research I undertook for this degree, were supported by a Melbourne Research Scholarship from the University of Melbourne. I am very grateful to the University for providing me with this assistance. The Key Centre for Women’s Health provided travel expenses and ongoing support throughout my candidature, which was very much appreciated. In Rarotonga, many people contributed their time, opinions, and goodwill to this research. Most cannot be named, but all should know I am indebted to them for sharing their stories with the strange Papa’a who wanted to know what drinking was like. Among those who can be named are Pa Ariki, the Hon. Dr. Terepa’i Maoate (then Prime Minister), the Hon. Norman George (then Deputy Prime Minister), and the Hon. Sir Geoffrey Henry (then Leader of the Opposition). All shared their views with me, and I am grateful to them for providing me their valuable time and their considered opinions. Thank you also to the representatives of Rarotonga’s churches who described their stances toward and practices concerning alcohol use. Dr Teariki Tamarua, Edwina Tangaroa, and Repaio Puroku from the Department of Public Health, and Secretary of Health Tupu Araiti, were very helpful. Henry Wichman, Superintendent of the Cook Islands Prison Service, was especially welcoming and candid. Teokotai Joseph and the staff at Probation Services were friendly and insightful. Secretary of Education Ken Matheson, and the principals of Rarotonga’s high schools, generously put aside time for administration of the quantitative survey. Students at these schools were equally generous in their response, which is much appreciated. Staff and associates of the Cook Islands News were reassuring and supportive during my stay in Rarotonga, particularly Alex Sword, Jason Brown, and Florence Syme-Buchanan. Nick Henry of the Bond and Teariki of CITC Liquor generously provided me with a business perspective on alcohol in Rarotonga. Elena Tavioni and everyone from TAVs were wonderful people to meet, know, and occasionally eat with. Sarah and I were pleased and privileged to have spent time in your company. Paddy Walker was precious. Paddy, thankyou for slowing momentarily from your quest for world peace to bring us your special warmth. vi From across the oceans, the Bailey and Koops families were always supportive. Alan, Arend, Catherine, Dorothy, Gabriel, Georgia, Samantha, Wendy B and Wendy K provided the emails, phone calls, and gifts that sustained Sarah and me throughout this research. In Melbourne, some colleagues deserve special mention: fellow students Alex Gartrell, Celia McMichael, Katie Ramp-Vasey, Holly Buchanan-Aruwafu, Jamileh Abu-Duhou, Liz Hoban, Narelle Warren and Sari Andajani-Sutjahjo; and staff Anne Edmonds, Joni Law and Dr Martha Morrow – thank you. Professor Lenore Manderson was my supervisor for this thesis. I am tempted to wax lyrical, but my acknowledgement is simply put: Lenore was great. She has been a true mentor, improving quality of life and quality of candidature. Her encouragement and support exceeded,

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