Sometime in the late 1970s, I was invited to stay overnight with a family in a village in the parish of Ba, Fiji. A member of the family had died 10 days previously. Early in the morning, around daybreak, I got up to join the family in a simple but beautiful ceremony. A small mix of Kava was prepared. After we each drank a bowl, prayers were said and then the shroud in which the body of the dead person had been wrapped was brought out of a box. The body had been buried a week earlier in the village cemetery which was walking distance from the village. This shroud was then folded and tied with a cord.
We then filed outside the one-roomed traditional thatch house built on top of an earthen foundation. A hole was dug in the side of the foundation, the shroud was buried and a memorial stone was placed over the spot, alongside all the other stones that were neatly arranged around the foundation of the house. Like all the others in the village, this house is symbolically built on the foundation of the memories of the loved ones. After that we had breakfast together and shared stories about the man who had died. I remember this ceremony on the feast of All Souls. Today we remember all loved ones, those who are the foundations of our lives as family members and as members of communities - whether these be workplaces, religious institutes, retirement villages, etc. I especially remember my mum and dad, members of my wider whanau, my brother Columbans, and people among whom I have lived and worked over the years in Fiji, Sydney and here in Wellington.
Columban Fr. Tom Rouse provided this reflection.