PACIFIC PARADOX
Ex-Samoa star Dan Leo on cultural conflict and why Israel Folau said what he said...
AT the end of May, hundreds of Pacific Island rugby players and their families will make the pilgrimage to Lourdes for an historic three-day summit. It’s a fitting location. Christianity is deeply embedded in the culture of the Pacific Islands and the trip is very much a rite of passage.
It will be a time for celebration and education. There will be workshops, group discussions, art exhibitions and music. Henry Tuilagi – older brother of England midfielder Manu Tuilagi and a powerhouse No8 during his own playing days – is supplying the food through his Pacific Islands catering business.
A ‘memorial match’ has been organised between a Pacific Rugby Legends XV and a Lourdes XV in remembrance of players who have passed away during their time in France – a list which includes Jerry Collins, Seru Rabeni, Samuela Naulu, Sione Lauaki, Samu Lisala, Feao Latu and Milika Wakanivuga.
Spearheaded by Dan Leo – a former Test lock for Samoa and CEO of Pacific Rugby Players Welfare, a professional network that supports its 600 members throughout Europe – it will be a celebration of all that is great and good about Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and Wallis Futuna, four small islands in the South Pacific that have contributed so much to the global game. In light of recent events, the use of social media will be top of the agenda.
The actions of Israel Folau and Billy Vunipola in recent weeks created a firestorm across the rugby sphere and society as a whole. The fiasco has fuelled debate over freedom of speech, inclusivity and tolerance in wider society.
‘That sort of ties into the whole reason why we’re going down to Lourdes really,’ says Leo, who won 39 caps for Samoa before retiring in 2015.
‘Religion is a huge factor in our community. It has been since our discovery a couple of hundred years ago, but even before that we were very spiritual people.
‘It’s been interesting, the whole Folau situation. It just flagged to us that we really need to be discussing these issues in our communities, but also not just in our communities.
It’s raised a lot of questions around the importance of a “like”. Is that condoning something? I just saw Bundee Aki saying, “I liked something that I didn’t read”, which is something we all can be guilty of, you know?
‘In the Pacific, 99 per cent of us are Christian and the way we proclaim our faith is through love and those are the messages that we want to be reinforcing and sharing.
‘Some of the more conservative mentalities have been shaped over hundreds of years and, unfortunately, it’s going to take a while for us to come out of them. There’s going to be mistakes made along the way.
‘We need that same tolerance for our community as those mistakes are made, as people ask for the other sections of the community. Hopefully they can be afforded.’
Folau is facing a code of conduct hearing on May 4 and the likelihood is that the full-back will have his contract terminated by Rugby Australia. It was all sparked by an Instagram post where Folau stated that ‘hell awaits’ gay people who do not repent their perceived sin.
Vunipola then came out in support of Folau’s views before receiving a ‘formal warning’ from the RFU and his club, Saracens. Both players are proud of their Tongan ancestry. Faith and the role of the church played massive parts in their upbringing. But social media is certainly not the best forum to discuss such sensitive issues.
‘I think most people would agree with that, but it’s just about learning lessons the hard way, which is unfortunate,’ Leo says.
‘It will be a big topic when we come together in Lourdes. Just saying as professional sports people, we are held to a higher account than other people.
‘Lots more people are looking at your posts than others. We need to be careful about what we’re posting. You can’t just randomly like pages or share things that you haven’t read yourself.
‘If you have done and you still feel strongly about it and that’s your beliefs, then you still need to question yourself as to whether that’s hurtful to other people.’
Leo, who had playing stints with Wasps, Perpignan and London Irish, has been a tireless crusader for Pacific Islands rugby. He laments the fact that so few Tier 1 countries come to visit the islands – it’s been 16 years since Ireland played a Test on Tongan or Samoan soil.
He feels that if more people experienced the culture, they would have a deeper understanding of the complex history of the islands.
In Samoa, for example, the country recognises the role of the fa’afafine, a third gender. Dating back to the early 20th Century, the term means ‘in the way of a woman’. The aforementioned Tuilagis have a trans sister, a brother who identifies as a woman. Her name is Julie.
These traditions were deeply rooted before British missionaries arrived in the early 1800s and brought Christian doctrine to the Pacific Islands. It has created a paradox in their society.
‘The irony of the whole situation is that our communities are some of the most tolerant, particularly of sexual deviation or orientation because we have the fa’afafine. They have been part of our culture
‘PACIFIC ISLANDS HAVE ONE OF THE HIGHEST YOUTH SUICIDE RATES IN THE WORLD’
for a long time and are still some of the most respected people in our communities. They’re accepted at churches,’ Leo explains.
‘They hold positions of leadership all across the country and that was the irony afterwards. We’ve got a sort of paradox within the islands of orthodox and traditional Christianity, but then on the flip side, we are very accepting of the transgender communities within our cultures.
‘So, what we say on social media and who we actually are can sometimes be different. People wouldn’t know that because most people haven’t been to the Pacific Islands.
‘I know Billy Vunipola, he’s probably got fa’afafine cousins, so does Israel Folau. They don’t hate them. They are loved just like the rest of their brothers and sisters, but it’s almost like you’re programmed in, there’s this saturation of religion to be one way and to present sometimes differently.
‘That’s one of the reasons why we’ve got one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world on the Pacific Islands because there’s this constant battle between what you think you should be doing, what you want to be doing, and what you actually are doing.’
The fallout from the Folau furore has been seismic. The global rugby community has prided itself on inclusivity. The views of Folau and Vunipola were seen as a dangerous threat to those values, and rightly so. But Leo feels that understanding the upbringings of the players in question would explain a lot of their actions in recent weeks.
‘The interesting part is it has raised so many questions. I don’t think the time was right a couple of weeks ago to speak about this stuff because people were rightly angry and offended and looking for others to throw on the fire.
‘But these are mindsets that have been ingrained forcefully and through violence. I know my father went to a Catholic school in Samoa. If you didn’t abide by the Ten Commandments, you were beaten with the big stick in the corner.
‘Unfortunately, when you’re raised like that it can become a vicious circle. It takes a while to break down.
‘That’s the same as our Pacific Island cultures overseas as well. I was raised in New Zealand within the Pacific Island church there.
‘The church is the focal point of gatherings and information sharing in our communities. Our early beliefs are shaped there.
‘People say Folau was born in Australia, he’s Australian. But if you’re raised in a Pacific Island community in Sydney, where 99 per cent of your peers are Pacific Islanders, and you’ve been raised in that church with those mentalities, you might as well be in the islands.’ In Ireland, the operations of the Church and State are slowly being disentangled. It is the opposite in the Pacific Islands. There is an opportunity for discussion and understandings about these issues.
Folau and Vunipola have learned the hard way.
There has been plenty of anger and lecturing, but now is the time to start listening. ‘We’re not talking about players that have committed any crimes here. They’ve been naive but they haven’t been criminal in their acts,’ Leo adds.
‘Look at the conversation in context. I wouldn’t even say there’s been any hateful posts, but, yeah, it opens up a lot of questions.
‘We need to educate our players. We’ve had discussions with the RFU as well, as to how we can be part of that process in educating players around the country and questioning what are the values of these organisations.
‘What are the practical places to stay away from so players can avoid getting into trouble? What does constitute a breach of that organisation’s values and contractual values? They’re all grey areas that need to be clarified because there’s a lot of people in our communities that don’t think these guys have done anything wrong.’
There will be much to discuss in Lourdes next month.