Arti dan Makna "The Melanesian Way"

Oleh Yikwanak Kole,

"The Melanesian Way" mengacu pada praktik budaya, tradisi dan nilai-nilai yang telah diturunkan melalui generasi di pulau Pasifik Melanesia. Cara hidup ini sangat berakar dalam adat dan kepercayaan dari berbagai budaya Melanesia, termasuk orang Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Kepulauan Solomon, dan Caledonia Baru.

Salah satu aspek utama dari "The Melanesian Way" adalah pentingnya masyarakat dan interkoneksi. Dalam masyarakat Melanesia, individu diharapkan mengutamakan kelompok atas keinginan atau kebutuhan mereka sendiri. Rasa mengumakan kebersamaan ini tercermin dalam keputusan cara dibuat dalam komunitas, dengan konsensus dan harmoni diprioritaskan atas pendapat individu.

Sebagai contoh, dalam banyak budaya Melanesia, keputusan dilakukan melalui proses konsultasi dan diskusi yang melibatkan semua anggota masyarakat. Hal ini memastikan bahwa semua orang memiliki suara dalam proses pengambilan keputusan dan keputusan itu tercapai secara kolektif, daripada tersirat oleh sosok otoritas tunggal.

Aspek penting lain dari "The Melanesian Way" adalah nilai yang ditempatkan sehubungan dengan orang tua dan pengetahuan tradisional. Orang tua di masyarakat Melanesia sangat dihormati untuk kebijaksanaan dan pengalaman mereka, dan bimbingan mereka sering dicari dalam hal penting. Praktik tradisional, ritual, dan adat juga meningkat dan diwariskan  ke  generasi sebagai cara menjaga warisan budaya dan identitas.

Globalisasi memiliki dampak signifikan pada praktik tradisional Melanesia dan cara hidup. Sebagai pengaruh Barat dan modernisasi telah menyebar di seluruh wilayah, ada tantangan untuk pelestarian adat dan nilai tradisional. Beberapa komunitas Melanesia telah menghadapi tekanan untuk beradaptasi dengan cara hidup Barat, menyebabkan hilangnya identitas budaya dan tradisi.

Meskipun tantangan ini, ada juga kesempatan untuk budaya Melanesia  beradaptasi dan berkembang dalam menanggapi globalisasi. Banyak komunitas menemukan cara untuk mengintegrasikan praktik tradisional dengan teknologi modern dan ide-ide, menciptakan campuran unik antara lama dan baru. Dengan memerangi keanekaragaman dan kekayaan budaya Melanesia, kita dapat belajar menghargai dan menghormati cara hidup yang unik yang Cara Melanesia yang kita warisi saat ini.

Only Fooled Humans think that being rich means having a lot of money!

We Melanesians should feel and be proud that we are rich in all aspects and every area of life. This is why our the only great Melanesian Philosopher so far, Bernard Narokobi says, the Melanesian Way is: 

Welcome Birth, Live Well, Love Well, Have Something Good for Every Person and Die a Happy Death. 

(I added :Welcome Birth" to Norokobi's statement.)

That is wealth! That is prosperity! That is rich!

What comes when we are born and what goes when we pass on are the ones to determine our being into this world.

Being rich means having a lot of money is a concept just started a few hundred years ago, let's say 300 years ago. Thousands, and even hundreds of thousands or million years before, "being rich" never meant to having a lot of money. Or event he word "rich" never existed in the minds and hearts of the peoples.

According to scientists, "Gap between rich and poor began 7,000 years ago, say scientists" It became a reality in life when people started "harvest crops instead of their hands and the class system was born." It triggered humans producing more than they can afford to consume.

Landowners started having more power over ordinary citizens. Class system in communities began to emerge. Those with land became the rulers and those without it became laborers.  

Human relations changed, from reciprocal and egalitarian, into structural (top-down) and peripheral (inner-outer).

"Them" and "Us" based on ownership of land, and later own labour, division of labour, and so on, came into play. "Them" rich and "us" poor, or them poor and us rich came into human awareness and thinking.

We are now thinking this is God-created natural instinct to feel being rich and poor just based on how much money I earn or own or get access to. This is artificial reality, as artificial as the one we see on the Internet. However, we feel that this is real. Only, yes Only the time we die, we do realize that all the rich and material wealth have no meaning at all. Again, we only realize when we are ready to pass on in a few seconds.

Therefore, it is wise men and women only who realize this matter of fact far before their seconds towards death. It is only the wise peoples who will understand the meaning of life as being truthful, realistic, present, simply and accepting whatever comes and goes.

Our Melanesian humans, our forefathers and our own fathers were the human beings on this planet Earth until this century, who have actually lived in what is called "Paradise", that is, living in "this present time only", no past, no future, but just now, just here, and just right.