My culture, religious belief, and spirituality

The essence of my being comes from three basic principles: my culture, religious belief, and spirituality.
My existence, how I think, feel, and behave is my culture. If you go deep into the roots of a particular culture you see that it is universal. Culture comes from a particular cult that existed at a certain time and has been built from there. It is not a tangible thing; it is wide and integrated in
the world itself. In the changing world we adapt to the change and grow onto another level of
experience. This affects our culture, it draws from those before and adapts to our lives today.
We can express our cultural values individually but as humans we share certain core values.
Individual cultural values are rooted in where you are born; where I was born is part of who I
am. Therefore my style of art is influenced by my cultural formation and makes me part of the
Fijian and Oceanic communities. I am a proud Fijian because I understand my culture.
My religious belief has two parts. The first is cultural religious belief practiced by my ancestors.
I learned about these rituals by living in my village. Certain elements exist today: sects of
people, chiefs, priests, and warriors. Sacrifice is fundamental to these cultural religious
practices, sacrifices based on nature; such as the offering of tabua, yaqona and herbs to the
elders of the father of a newborn child in an offering to the communities and ancestors to
bestow a blessing on that new born life. This cultural religion is breaking apart because people
are going to new religions brought over by the missionaries. When I was growing up I saw both
of these religions because I went to a Catholic school and was baptized as a Catholic. I
developed as a Catholic over the years accepting the sacraments. There are no boundaries
between my religious beliefs. Although these religions are seen as separate, I believe that there
is adherence between these two religions.
Spiritual journeys depend on an individual’s knowledge of the existence of the unseen. This
knowledge does not come on its own: ‘the master will come when the student is ready’. This is
how my spiritual journey has developed; the master always comes when he knows that I am
ready. I believe that every being has spirituality but we are born into one life and it depends on
the individual how they live that life. We should know where we come from and where we are
going. To me, spirituality is universal; it is part of you and me and the whole universe.
Spirituality is not limited to nature; it exists in all things. While much of spirituality remains
unseen, something that can be seen is the strength of family. It is the root of all humanity. For
me, I see my family first and then venture into the wider world.
These principles are part of a transformation of the world. My art is a testimony to these beliefs.
My art also speaks of gathering knowledge and enlightening your mind because that is who you
are as a being. How I think and feel is what I am going to paint because that is part of who I am.
My painting speaks to how and why I exist. Everything comes into existence for a reason and
my art form is part of a vision.
Through the paintings that I exhibit, I am revealing to my community and my audience that
there is unity amongst all humanity, no matter what culture, religion, or spirituality.
I believe that humans strive for perfection; however it is limited for us. This perfection can be
found in the unseen world. As an artist I strive for perfection, you will see that in my styles. My
basic principles spring from the essence of my being and I try to communicate to my audience
that it exists in them too. I believe that other people deeply rooted in their own culture, religion,
and spirituality will see and sense those ideas that I am expressing.