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Kava cultures are the religious and cultural traditions of western Oceania which consume kava. There are similarities in the use of kava between the different cultures and islands, but each one also has its own traditions.
In Australia, the supply of kava is regulated through the National Code of Kava Management. [1] Travellers to Australia are allowed to bring up to 4 kg of kava in their baggage, provided they are at least 18 years old, and the kava is in root or dried form. Commercial import of larger quantities is allowed, under licence for medical or scientific purposes. These restrictions were introduced in 2007 after concern about abuse of kava in indigenous communities. Initially, the import limit was 2 kg per person; it was raised to 4 kg in December 2019, and a pilot program allowing for commercial importation was implemented on 1 December 2021. [2] [3]
The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration has recommended no more than 250 mg of kavalactones be taken in a 24‑hour period. [4]
Kava possession is limited to 2 kg per adult in the Northern Territory. [5] [6] While it was banned in Western Australia previously in the 2000s, the Western Australian Health Department announced lifting of its ban in February 2017, bringing Western Australia "into line with other States" where it has always remained legal, albeit closely regulated. [7]
In the Cook Islands, the reduplicated forms of kawakawa or kavakava are also applied to the unrelated members of the genus Pittosporum
In Fiji, kava (also called "grog" or "yaqona") is drunk at all times of day in both public and private settings. The consumption of the drink is a form of welcome and figures in important socio-political events. Both sexes drink kava.
On Futuna kava drinking is used to install a new chief.
In Hawaii, at least 13 varieties of ʻawa (kava) have been used for medicinal, religious, political, cultural and social purposes by all social classes, and by both men and women. Although there are 13 distinct cultivars from Hawaii, there are a number of other cultivars found throughout the islands brought in from other locations in Oceania.
When used traditionally, kava is regulated as a food under the Food Standards Code. Kava may also be used as an herbal remedy, where it is currently regulated by the Dietary Supplements Regulations. Only traditionally consumed forms and parts of the kava plant (i.e., pure roots of the kava plant, water extractions prepared from these roots) can legally be sold as food or dietary supplements in New Zealand. The aerial parts of the plant (growing up and out of the ground), unlike the roots, contain relatively small amounts of kavalactones; instead, they contain a mildly toxic alkaloid (pipermethysticine). [8]
While not normally consumed, the sale of aerial plant sections and non-water based extract (such as CO2, acetonic or ethanol extractions) is prohibited for the purpose of human consumption (but can be sold as an ingredient in cosmetics or other products not intended for human consumption). [9] [10]
In New Zealand, it was applied to the kawakawa ( Piper excelsum ) which is endemic to New Zealand and nearby Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island. It was exploited by the Māori based on previous knowledge of the kava, as the latter could not survive in the colder climates of New Zealand. The Māori name for the plant, kawakawa, is derived from the same etymon as kava, but reduplicated. It is a sacred tree among the Māori people. It is seen as a symbol of death, corresponding to the rangiora ( Brachyglottis repanda ) which is the symbol of life. However, kawakawa has no psychoactive properties. Its connection to kava is based purely on similarity in appearance. [11]
In Papua New Guinea, the locals in Madang province refer to their kava as waild koniak ("wild cognac" in English).
In Rotuma, kava has two contexts, ceremonial and informal.
The kava ceremony, when it functions as part of any ceremonial event, is a highly political affair, with individuals served according to rank. In pre-European times, the kava was chewed by virgin girls, (marked by caked limestone on their hair), before it was mixed with the water to make the drink.
In Samoa, kava, called ʻava, is drunk at all important gatherings and ceremonies. The kava is prepared by a group of people called ʻaumaga. It is brought to each participant by the tautuaʻava "kawa server" in the order prescribed by the tufaʻava "kawa distributor". Usually, the highest chief of the visiting party is served first, followed by the highest chief of the host party, and then service proceeds based on the rank of the rest of the participants.
Samoan kawa is served in a polished coconut half called an ipu tau ‘ava. [12] The overall ceremony is highly ritualized, with specific gestures and phrases to be used at various times. It is usually mixed by a high chief's daughter at any ceremony, but in a context where the chief's daughter is not present, then one of the ʻaumaga will have to mix it.
In Tonga, kava may be drunk nightly at kalapu (Tongan for "club"), which is also called a faikava ("to do kava"). In contemporary culture only men drink the kava, although women who serve it may be present. Traditionally kava was drunk by women, and was especially associated with the ancient Tongan gods such as Hikule'o. The female server is usually an unmarried, young woman called the "touʻa." In the past, this was a position reserved for women being courted by an unmarried male, and much respect was shown. These days, it is imperative that the touʻa not be related to anyone in the kalapu, and if someone is found to be a relative of the touʻa, he (not the touʻa) will leave the club for that night; otherwise the brother-sister taboo would make it impossible to talk openly, especially about courtship. Foreign girls, especially volunteer workers from overseas are often invited to be a touʻa for a night. If no female touʻa can be found, or it is such a small, very informal gathering, one of the men will do the job of serving the kava root; this is called fakatangata ("all-man").
The kava is served in rounds. Typically the touʻa will first stir the kava in the kumete, then pour some in the ipu (coconut cups) which are then passed from hand to hand to those sitting farthest away. They drink, and the empty cups are returned again from hand to hand. Everybody remains seated, cross-legged, although one is allowed to stretch the legs from time to time. Meanwhile, the touʻa has filled other cups for those next from the farthest away, and so the drinking goes forth until those nearest to the kumete have had their drink too. Then the men talk again (about politics, sports, tradition & culture, jokes, or anything else) or they will sing a traditional love song, often accompanied by guitar. Some now-famous string bands have had their origin at a faikava. Finally, the next drinking round starts.
In some of the outer islands of Tonga, kava is drunk almost every night, but on the main island of Tongatapu, it is usually drunk only on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Kava drinking frequently lasts as long as eight or nine hours. With the introduction of television, rugby is usually watched by the kava drinkers, and the songs are sung in the commercial breaks. On Saturday nights, a short pause for prayer is made at midnight as the day moves to Sunday, and then hymns replace the love songs. These hymns are mostly traditional English melodies with new words in Tongan.
All important occasions are also marked by a more formal ritual of drinking kava, including weddings, funerals, graduation from university, and royal occasions. A formal kava ceremony is a component of the accession rites for a King of Tonga, who must participate in the pongipongi to make his rule official.
Formal kava parties follow completely different rules. A male chief is now the touʻa, and the kava is very solemnly prepared by pounding the roots to powder (instead of buying bags of pre-pounded kava powder). Once the kava is of the right strength, as deduced from its colour, the master of ceremonies will call out the nickname of the first recipient using an archaic formula (kava kuo heka). The touʻa will fill the cup and the cup is then brought, often by a young lady, to the intended chief, and brought back afterwards. Then the next name is called, and so forth.
In ʻUvea (Wallis Island) during informal kava parties, the cups are passed by young boys who are appointed to run around, bringing the cups to the next person. When they get the kava, they pass it to the next person on the side or to the person who has not had one, and the young ones go and get the water to mix with the kava.
In Vanuatu, kava is traditionally drunk at night in a place called a nakamal. Nakamals are village club houses and in many areas are open only to men. Kava is normally drunk from an empty coconut shell.
In urban areas of Vanuatu there are large numbers of kava bars, which are open to men and in some cases, women. The availability of kava is signalled by a lantern at the entrance, and many kava bars are identified by the colour of their light. In these bars, kava is generally served in plastic or glass bowls instead of coconut shells.
In all these venues the emphasis is more on recreational purposes and socializing than on the spiritual or medicinal qualities of kava consumption.
In northern and central Vanuatu, kava roots are traditionally ground using hand-held stone grinders, while in southern Vanuatu the traditional method of preparation involves chewing the roots, then spitting the resulting paste into a container. Current methods involve preparation in rams (in which kava is pounded in a section of pipe), meat-mincers, and mechanical grinders. After grinding the kava is mixed with water and sieved before serving.
The residue from kava preparation, known as makas (a Bislama term derived from megasse "sugar cane residue"), may be re-used to prepare additional batches of the drink, although these are much weaker than the original batch.[ citation needed ]
On Survivor: Vanuatu, contestant Chad Crittenden briefly fell ill after drinking a rather potent kava during a native ceremony he attended as a reward.
Kava is legal in the United States and is often served in specialty kava bars. [13] Patrons at kava bars vary from those who use it recreationally (similar to alcohol or legal recreational marijuana in states with licensed retailers) and those who believe in its healing effects, though these have not been proven or tested by the FDA. Kava is sometimes served in the United States alongside the more controversial kratom, [14] a leaf with effects similar to opiates when served as a tea or brew. The first kava bar in the United States, Nakava, was opened in Boca Raton, Florida in 2000.
Kava or kava kava is a crop of the Pacific Islands. The name kava is from Tongan and Marquesan, meaning 'bitter'; other names for kava include ʻawa (Hawaiʻi), ʻava (Samoa), yaqona or yagona (Fiji), sakau (Pohnpei), seka (Kosrae), and malok or malogu. Kava is consumed for its sedating effects throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures of Polynesia, including Hawaii and Vanuatu, Melanesia, some parts of Micronesia, such as Pohnpei and Kosrae, and the Philippines.
Tapu is a Polynesian traditional concept denoting something holy or sacred, with "spiritual restriction" or "implied prohibition"; it involves rules and prohibitions. The English word taboo derives from this later meaning and dates from Captain James Cook's visit to Tonga in 1777.
The traditional culture of Samoa is a communal way of life based on Fa'a Samoa, the unique socio-political culture. In Samoan culture, most activities are done together. The traditional living quarters, or fale (houses), contain no walls and up to 20 people may sleep on the ground in the same fale. During the day, the fale is used for chatting and relaxing. One's family is viewed as an integral part of a person's life. The aiga or extended family lives and works together. Elders in the family are greatly respected and hold the highest status, and this may be seen at a traditional Sunday umu.
Samoans or Samoan people are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in Polynesia, who speak the Samoan language. The group's home islands are politically and geographically divided between the Independent State of Samoa and American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States of America. Though divided by national border, the culture and language are the same.
Pentecost Island is one of the 83 islands that make up the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.
The Tongan archipelago has been inhabited for perhaps 3,000 years, since settlement in late Lapita times. The culture of its inhabitants has surely changed greatly over this long time period. Before the arrival of European explorers in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Tongans were in frequent contact with their nearest Oceanic neighbors, Fiji and Samoa. In the 19th century, with the arrival of Western traders and missionaries, Tongan culture changed dramatically. Some old beliefs and habits were thrown away and others adopted. Some accommodations made in the 19th century and early 20th century are now being challenged by changing Western civilization. Hence Tongan culture is far from a unified or monolithic affair, and Tongans themselves may differ strongly as to what it is "Tongan" to do, or not do. Contemporary Tongans often have strong ties to overseas lands. They may have been migrant workers in New Zealand, or have lived and traveled in New Zealand, Australia, or the United States. Many Tongans now live overseas, in a Tongan diaspora, and send home remittances to family members who prefer to remain in Tonga. Tongans themselves often have to operate in two different contexts, which they often call anga fakatonga, the traditional Tongan way, and anga fakapālangi, the Western way. A culturally adept Tongan learns both sets of rules and when to switch between them.
Piper excelsum of the pepper family (Piperaceae) and commonly known as kawakawa, is a small tree of which the subspecies P. excelsum subsp. excelsum is endemic to New Zealand; the subspecies P. e. subsp. psittacorum is found on Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and the Kermadec Islands.
Shefa is one of the six provinces of Vanuatu, located in the center of the country and including the islands of Epi and Efate and the Shepherd Islands. The province's name is derived from the initial letters of SHepherd and EFAte. It has a population of 78,723 people and an area of 1,455 km2. Its capital is Port Vila, which is also the capital of the nation.
A nakamal is a traditional meeting place in Vanuatu. It is used for gatherings, ceremonies and the drinking of kava.
Ni-Vanuatu is a large group of closely related Melanesian ethnic groups native to the island country of Vanuatu. As such, Ni-Vanuatu are a mixed ethnolinguistic group with a shared ethnogenesis that speak a multitude of languages.
A teahouse or tearoom is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel, especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment that only serves cream teas. Although the function of a tearoom may vary according to the circumstance or country, teahouses often serve as centers of social interaction, like coffeehouses.
Christianity is the largest religion in Vanuatu. Vanuatu is an archipelago made up of 13 larger islands, and approximately 70 smaller surrounding islands, each home to multitudes of diverse cultural and religious communities.
The cuisine of Vanuatu incorporates fish, root vegetables such as taro and yams, fruits, and vegetables. Most island families grow food in their gardens, and food shortages are rare. Papayas, pineapples, mangoes, plantains, and sweet potatoes are abundant through much of the year. Coconut milk and cream are used to flavour many dishes. Most food is cooked using hot stones or through boiling and steaming; little food is fried. Since Vanuatu is one of the few South Pacific regions influenced by the outside world, Vanuatu's food has a multicultural nature.
Lava Cola is a cola drink produced in Vanuatu by Vanuatu Beverage Ltd.
The ʻava ceremony is one of the most important customs of the Samoa Islands. It is a solemn ritual in which a ceremonial beverage is shared to mark important occasions in Samoan society. The Samoan word ʻava is a cognate of the Polynesian word kava associated with the kava cultures in Oceania. Both terms are understood in Samoa.
Tongan kava ceremonies play an integral part of Tongan society and governance. They range in formality, from informal “faikava” or kava “parties” to the highly stratified, ancient, and ritualized Taumafa Kava, or Royal Kava Ceremony. Tongan kava ceremonies continue to permeate Tongan society both in Tonga and diaspora. Their cultural importance includes strengthening cultural values and principles, while solidifying traditional ideals of duty and reciprocity, reaffirming societal structures, and entrenching the practice of pukepuke fonua, or tightly holding on to the land, a Tongan cultural ideal to maintain, preserve, and live traditional Tongan culture.
The cuisines of Oceania include those found on Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea, and also cuisines from many other islands or island groups throughout Oceania.
Oceanian culture encompasses the collective and diverse customs and traditions of art, architecture, music, literature, lifestyle, philosophy, politics and religion that have been practiced and maintained by the many ethnic groups of the geographical region of Oceania since prehistory. Cultures of Oceania reflect not only that of the region's indigenous peoples, but also the cultures brought by European colonisation and the United States, particularly through mass culture such as cinema and TV. Oceania is commonly divided into four geographic sub-regions, characterized by shared cultural, religious, linguistic, and ethnic traits: Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Most Oceanian countries are multi-party representative parliamentary democracies, and tourism is a large source of income for the Pacific Islands nations.
One of the major human migration events was the maritime settlement of the islands of the Indo-Pacific by the Austronesian peoples, believed to have started from at least 5,500 to 4,000 BP. These migrations were accompanied by a set of domesticated, semi-domesticated, and commensal plants and animals transported via outrigger ships and catamarans that enabled early Austronesians to thrive in the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia, Near Oceania (Melanesia), Remote Oceania, Madagascar, and the Comoros Islands.
