I always had the notion that indigenous knowledge corroborated modern business theories. The more I read into work psychology, the easier it was to pull experiences and examples from my own culture. Curious to find out more, I asked Simione Sevudredre – iTaukei knowledge keeper – whether he would be a willing companion in this explorative journey. He agreed. I then asked him about ceremonies or practices that encouraged relationship building and he immediately pointed to the naming tradition of the people of Nabobuco in the province of Naitasiri.
The Vakatokayaca is a solemn ceremony that stems from an ancient relationship with a child’s kinship, natural, spiritual and social environment. There were various ways naming ceremonies were observed in pre-western Fiji but their principles were the same. In Nabobuco, the ceremony is a collective event where the parents, extended family and traditional elders are in attendance. On the appointed day, elders pluck leaves from their totem tree – the bua or frangipani tree – and shred them in a freshwater pool filled with living prawns – their totem animal. The newborn baby is then lifted off its sleeping mat and its tiny feet are dipped into the pool. This is a symbolic gesture that connects the baby with its totemic tree and animal. After that, the baby is placed back on its mat and partly wrapped, and with elders holding both ends of the mat above the ground, the bestowed name is called out loud. The dipping of the baby’s feet introduces it to its totems who are seen as its symbolic and spiritual elders.
The onus is on the baby’s relatives to ensure that the values of their totem animal and tree are passed on from infanthood into later childhood.
Simione Sevudredre
The belief is that at the time of the naming ceremony, the baby’s physical eyes and mind are still shut but its spiritual eyes, mind and ears have already been defined. Hence the dipping of the feet into the pool of prawns and shredded frangipani leaves is seen spiritually and that the forging of this relationship between a baby and its ancient totems inculcates the macro identities of the community into the child via rituals at the personal, emotional and spiritual levels. With proper nurturing and guidance, the child will grow to become a protector and custodian of the social and physical environment of its totem tree and animal. Not only then is this a ceremony, it is also a strategy to inculcate social cohesion from the micro personal level to the macro community. It fosters identity, dignity and responsibility bringing about balance and connection with all that is seen and unseen, the past, present and future.
Now where would we find a comparable event, in modern business, that utilizes the same concepts as that found in the vakatokayaca ceremony? Simple. The “Onboarding” process for new employees. The “first impressions” programme. Orientation. Indoctrination. This is such a critical event for the employee and the organization that determines the duration of the relationship between the two. Think of the employee as the newborn baby, the organization as the elders, and the onboarding process as the naming ceremony. Now do you see the similarities?
By using the rituals and beliefs from the naming ceremony as examples, I hope to highlight vital psychological concepts that should be understood and reinforced during the onboarding process to create lasting and meaningful relationships with its employees.
Lore – the Role of Stories.
How did the people of Nabobuco come to consider the bua tree and freshwater prawns as their ancestral totem? The stories of these relationships would most certainly be of importance to the community and would be passed down as oral history. The lore would highlight the importance of these totems, the values that the community has since adhered to, as well as highlight the role of the individual as protector of the totems. It would be an anthropological history of the people of Nabobuco. Similarly, company lore is the oral history of the organization. Lore would be stories of Steve and Wozniak building Apple 1 in a garage or the story of how Nintendo began as a playing card manufacturer.
Why is lore so important? It makes us feel a sense of kinship with the community/ organization. We are drawn to becoming a champion for the community when we feel like we have a personal relationship. Once we understand the history of the organization, we understand our role in it. If we feel like we are the company, we are more likely to put in the time and energy to see it succeed.
“Dipping the Feet” and Assimilation.
Much like how the vakatokayaca ceremony fosters a balance between the identity of the individual and that of the family, the goal of the orientation process is to indoctrinate the new employee with the values and goals of the organization. The dipping of the feet into the pool filled with the community’s totem tree and animal, is said to enforce the connection between the baby and its ancestors. An organization’s version of “dipping the feet” is when it expounds on its mission, vision, and its values.
This “dipping of the feet”, as a strategy, follows the Organizational Socialization Theory which states that people learn about the knowledge, skills, attitudes, expectations, and behaviors of an organization. Organizational socialization theory explains how individuals transition from being outsiders to becoming insiders, through assimilating with the values of the organization.
The strategies that feature in the vakatokayaca ceremony and onboarding process, are done to marry the values of the individual with that of the community/organization. The stronger the assimilation is between the individual and the community, the higher the satisfaction of being a part of that group.
The role of the elders.
When we review the vakatokayaca ceremony, we get a sense of the important role that the elders hold during and after the event. The elders prepare the essential components – the leaves of the bua tree, prawns, mats, etc – for the ceremony, before preparing the chants and rituals. During the ceremony, they ensure that the protocols are strictly adhered to, but their duties do not end when the ceremony does. They become teachers, instructing the child on the values and beliefs of the community until such time that the child comes of age. In all, the elders take on a number of roles – knowledge protectors ensuring that the rituals are done correctly, active participants in the ceremony, and finally knowledge sharers teaching the child the ways of the community.
In the orientation process, the role of the elder falls on the company leaders – frontline managers, middle managers, and the top brass. First, they must ensure that the onboarding process has the necessary components to make it successful. Their role before the process even begins is to verify that the process will produce employees that understand what the business does and what it stands for. Once the process begins, they must become active participants alongside the new employees. They need to be there in the midst of things. By being there, right with the employees, managers will be able to proactively identify issues/ concerns that may arise during the process and counteract in a timely manner. Lastly, they must become guides for the employee once the process is complete. Become mentors, instructors, guides as these employees find their way through the organization.
It continues to amaze me how a ritual based on indigenous knowledge, highlights important components of a process that were established through scientific means. Despite the thousands of years and the different knowledge systems between these two events, they point to similar truths when it comes to introducing individuals to a new community – be it a baby or a new employee. The importance of stories in relationship building, the need for strategies that nurture assimilation between the individual and the group, and the roles of the elders are just a few of the components that the ceremony and process have in common.
Looking for ways to improve your Orientation process? I believe that you can definitely learn a lot by studying indigenous knowledge systems. It may very well hold truths that we are still trying to find out through research and experimentation.
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Alfred Tora 
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