Ki ora

by Jione Havea

In several native languages in Oceania, the term “ora” I translates as “life.” Ora appears in several of our local greetings: kia ora (Māori), ia ora na (Ma’ohi), ‘i-ora-na (Rapa Nui), kia ora na (Kuki). These greetings express the wish for ora (ola is the alternative spelling in Samoan and Tuvaluan) to be upon the ones that one greets and welcomes.

As with other native languages, several of the native words in Oceania have multiple meanings. This is the case with ora as well, and two of its connotations are significant for this reflection.

First, in popular usage, ora refers to “life.” The one who has ora is alive, and breathing is the most obvious evidence that someone has ora. To be alive requires that one breathes.

The link between ora and breathing is presupposed in the Genesis garden story (Gen 2–3). God formed a model or figure out of the dust from the ground, then God breathed ora into it. In the Māori bible, manawa ora (Samoan, mānava ola) is the “breath of life” that God gifted to the molded figure. The outcome was that the figure gained life. The figure or model became a human person because of the ora. In this biblical narrative, ora is a gift from God. When a person stops breathing, ora leaves the body and the body dies. Without ora, a body returns to dust and to ash. This end is natural for all bodies, as Qoheleth puts it – there is a time for everything under the sun, including “a time to be born, and a time to die” (Eccl 3:2a). Dying is natural.

Like ora, one could argue that death is a gift as well. No human body lives forever, except in some legends and in some movies. In my humble opinion, it would be quite painful to live into eternity. The human body naturally gets weak and fragile with the passing of time, and to trap ora in a vulnerable body would not be a happy situation. In this regard, death is a gift that releases ora from the fragility of existence.

However, when a body is forced to stop breathing, God’s gift of ora is robbed from that body. The irruption of the Black Lives Matter (#BLM) movement in the USA in the middle of 2020, accompanied by solidarity and anti-racist movements in other parts of the world, was sparked by the murder of George Floyd, an African American man who pleaded “I can’t breathe” more than twenty times1 to his captors. But to no avail. When Mr. Floyd was forced to stop breathing on 25 May, by being pinned down under the knee of a White American police officer, ora was forced out of his body. The gift of God was robbed from Mr. Floyd, and from many other Black bodies before and after his death.

Ora is at stake, but in a different way, in the End of Life Choice Act2 that was endorsed at the 2020 General Election of Aotearoa New Zealand. This Act (the first of this kind in Oceania) will become effective from 7 Nov 2021, and it will give people who are terminally ill, and who experience unbearable suffering, the legal right to ask for medical assistance to end their lives.

There are remaining details and concerns to be worked out with regard to how the requests are assessed, and their implications, but i wish to stress here that the End of Life Choice Act affirms the right to ask rather than the right to end one’s life. This Act should not be confused with attempting or committing suicide, which is prevalent in Oceania and literature are available3 on the impacts of this struggle upon the Māori and Pasifika communities.

The End of Life Choice Act is especially challenging for Māori and Pasifika natives because ora is more than just breathing. Ora is also related to health and wellbeing, and i turn to this connotation next.

health

Second, ora also refers to “health.” The local greetings noted above accordingly express the wish that the ones being greeted and welcomed have health.

Breathing is required for one to be alive, and health (understood to mean sound and meaningful life) is a necessary condition for ora. While the one who is not in good health may continue to breathe and live, she or he does not experience ora to its fullness. Put in religious terms, the one who lives an unhealthy lifestyle abuses the ora that God gifted her or him.

The one who lives ora to its fullness is complete. One of the biblical labels for this state of being is “holiness” – which translates the term qadosh in the Hebrew language of the bible. The root word for qadosh is used in the invitation to “be holy because I [the LORD] am holy” (Lev 11:44). There are two popular ways in which this invitation is understood: On the first hand, the invitation is understood to mean that one needs “to be separate” – the one who is qadosh/holy is to be “set apart” for the Kingdom of God (which is expected

to be outside the world of the living). This understanding has unfortunately led to separatist and supremacist ways of thinking. For instance, some qadosh/holy people assume that they are destined for heaven and they are therefore superior to (better than) the other peoples of the world.

On the second hand, the invitation is understood to mean that one needs “to be whole” – the qadosh/holy one is expected to live a wholistic and balanced life on earth (as one would in heaven). This however is easier said than done. One might be able to reach “wholeness” on some occasions, but it is impossible to maintain that state (compare with moksha and mukti in Asian religions, the state of emancipation from samsāra) throughout one’s lifetime.

The fullness of ora includes both understandings. To “be set apart” is helpful in that one is thereby encouraged to be careful, but it is not helpful when one as a consequence is trapped in separatist and supremacist ideas and practices. Seeking to “be whole” is also helpful, not as an escape from the wanderings of life but as an opportunity to embrace the circles of living. In the circles of life, everyone has a place and a role to play in the ora of the land (so in the Lion King).

ki ora

I use ki to indicate direction – this reflection invites moving to and for ora (life, health). This invitation is critical at this point in time, at the end of 2020, and i extend it with sincere humility because i do not experience ora in its fullness. I have had a few passing moments but i am not always healthy, so pardon this invitation by someone who talks more than walks ora.

While many crises continually challenge ki ora in Oceania, i mention two here (without ranking these against other crises like poverty, racism, sexism, classism, et cetera) to close this reflection.

First, the COVID pandemic: The year 2020 will go down in history as an unhealthy year. There have been other pandemics, but COVID has a public impact and global spread that reaches most (is)lands. All people are susceptible to the Covid-19 virus, with the elderly and sickly being more vulnerable, and across the board the Blacks, Browns and Time will tell the final tally of victims and the economic cost of this pandemic, but human ora has been assaulted in 2020. Moreover, this pandemic will linger for several years into the future. Viruses do not disappear; they mutate and wait for the next (super)spreader to take them into more homes and across more limits and borders.

COVID ushered in the “new normal” and we have had to learn on the run how to work, study, keep home, care for family, do church and theology, and keep societies and nations hobbling without the normal services and resources. From many who struggled in the old normal, ora has been robbed and even snuffed out. In these troubling days, the invitation ki ora (to and for life and health) requires that we walk humbly with one another.

Second, climate change: the ora of creation continues to be under threat in 2020. Many, but not all, powerful nations have set targets to clean up their acts and messes by 2050. In this case also, time will tell what the ora of our inhabited world will become by 2050. In the meantime, in the coming days of ecological gasping and spewing, the ki ora invitation seeks individuals and communities to flourish ora (life and health) in all corners and aspects of life.

Obviously, ora is not the privilege of humans only. Ora is a gift to all creatures on earth, in the sea, in the air and under the ground. Earth, sea, air and the underground are the homes in which ora lingers and multiply, flee or extinguish. The key challenge for us in our pandemic and climate affected times is to learn to nurture ora for other creatures in our shared homes.

Ki ora!