The Royal Family like Queen Elizabeth & her 3 sons Prince Charles, Andrew & Edward and even her daughter Princess Anne have had kava in Fiji. Plus majority of Australia government heads and other countries leaders past and present around the world have tasted kava one way or another.
Kava is consumed throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures of Polynesia, including Hawaii, Vanuatu, Melanesia and some parts of Micronesia.
The most important aspect of yaqona/kava drinking is psychological. Sitting around a bowl in the village, exchanging talanoa (conversation, chat) and listening to the guitars hammer away is a very pleasant experience. Most importantly, the act of sharing a bowl creates an invisible bond between the participants. The visitor feels a warmth and acceptance among complete strangers that is normally associated with family or close friends. It is no accident that in Fiji many business deals and social contracts are consummated around a yaqona/kava bowl.
Yaqona/Kava is a Fijian link to the past, a tradition so inextricably woven into the fabric of culture that life without it is unimaginable. Fijians would scarcely be Fijians without their national beverage. It is consumed ritually when welcoming visitors, sending village members on journeys, christening boats, laying the foundations of homes, casting magical spells, making deals, settling arguments and, as is usually the case, chatting. It is also presented as a "sevusevu", a traditional gift offered by guests to the host, or as a token of respect to visitors of higher rank Kava in official ceremonies.
Yaqona/Kava drinking was an ancient custom when the first Europeans arrived, and its use today is still an accurate reflection of their observations. Basil Thomson, a 19th-century ethnologist, said:
The chief’s yaqona/kava circle supplied the want of newspapers; the news and gossip of the day were related and discussed; the chief’s advisers seized upon the convivial moment to make known their view; matters of policy were decided; the chief’s will, gathered from a few careless words spoken while drinking, was carried by mouth throughout his dominions.
Legend has it that yaqona/kava was derived from the Fijian god Degei (whose name means `from heaven to the soil and through the earth’), who asked his three sons where they wanted to live and what they wanted to do with their lives. They replied with where they wanted to dwell and what they thought their tasks should be. Degei was pleased but told his sons that although they had power and strength, they lacked the wisdom to make decisions. He gave them two sacred crops, yaqona and vuga (a type of tree) from which to draw wisdom. The sons in turn gave them to the people and to this day, goes the legend, the crops grow where the Fijian descendants live.
A non-alcoholic beverage, yaqona/kava has varying effects on the individual, ranging from a fuzzy-headedness to mild euphoria. The drink always acts as a diuretic and has been used as such by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
I as a Fijian and a Pacific islander living and drinking kava here in Australia for the last 20 years, have never had any problems with drinking kava. We want the Federal government to have to reassess this idea mooted by the Federal Indigenous Affairs minister and Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion to BAN kava all together in Australia.
As quoted by a respected Fijian businessman in Brisbane Australia”
Zane Yoshida says the federal government has got it wrong.
"The key word for this is education, if we can put together programs to educate people about alcohol abuse and drug abuse, why can't we do the same for kava." While the federal government wants to ban it at home, Australian overseas aid has funded kava production in Fiji as a health supplement for export.
Zane Yoshida's company Taki Mai has received tens of thousands of dollars of Australian international aid funds develop its product in Fiji.
"I've developed a kava supplement that I currently sell in the United States and Fiji through the natural food channels and this produce here is a kava supplement for taking the edge of, for relaxing, and as we progress with clinical trials here in Australia, we'd like to make structure function claims for relieving stress and anxiety."
Their product was launched by the Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama in 2014.
Kava is legal in the United States and the European Union last year drop its ban, saying it could not substantial health concerns. Pacific Islanders have used kava for at least two thousand years without apparent liver damage.
The question to ask the Hon Senator Northern Territory Nigel Scullion & Australian Federal Govt is the plant harmful or benign?
Or
Is the Northern Territory Govt blaming the Kava and not the alcohol/drugs consumption by our Aboriginal brothers aren't being policed or utilized properly since the 1980's?