Helen McKay

Storytellers: Set the audience up as the Echo before you start

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One day, on a small island in the wide Pacific Ocean, a miracle happened.  

The islanders were a happy lot. For generations, the younger island women worked in the gardens and plantations, cultivating the vegetation that provided their families with an abundant supply of vegetables and a tropical salad of fruits, while the older women cared for the children.

The strong, younger men set out daily in small boats, to harvest the surrounding waters and reefs, teeming with an inexhaustible supply of fish, while the older men, gathered a feast of shellfish, from beaches around their shores, each day.

Life for these people was very good. Their bellies were full, they were healthy, their families content. 

But… one day, on the distant mainland, a volcano erupted with an enormous explosion. It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

Echo:  It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

For countless hours, the fearful islanders marvelled at the flames, explosions, the showers of rocks, and plumes of ash, smoke and lava, which belched forth, incessantly, from the mountain on the horizon, and drifted in their direction.

“What messages are the Gods sending us?” the people asked each other, as they looked at the pieces of pumice and scummy red ash that washed ashore and covered their beaches.

In reply, the volcano roared on. It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

Echo: It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

As the days passed, a change began to take place. A fine, greyish-white powder coated all the vegetation on the island. At first, it seemed harmless. Each afternoon, the tropical rains washed most of the powder off the leaves. However, soon the islanders noticed their plants were beginning to wilt and die. 

Starved, by the fine ash, coating the surface of their leaves, the plants couldn’t gain sufficient nourishment from precious air and sunlight. Gradually, the life-giving vegetation suffocated and died.

The first, of their valuable food sources was lost.

But on the mainland, the volcano thundered on, belching out smoke and lava, into the surrounding ocean. It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

Echo: It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

Huge drifts of reddish-grey, scummy ash and pumice washed up on the beaches. It clogged the island’s shores, suffocating great beds of shellfish that began to die.

Now, when people walked along the shoreline, the stench of dead shellfish was appalling! Soon the smell was so bad, the islanders could no longer bear to visit the beaches.  The shellfish; the second vital part of their diet, was destroyed.

Fish, inhabiting the island’s waters, fed on the shellfish beds, which, in turn, lived on minute marine life, now also affected. Schools of fish deserted the island’s waters, seeking unpolluted food sources, elsewhere.

To substitute for the loss of vegetables and shellfish in their diets, the fishermen began to seriously over-fish the surrounding waters. Soon, there was almost nothing left. Even though they paddled much further out from the shore, each day, catches of fish soon dwindled. As each day passed, the fishermen returned with fewer fish.

And still the volcano thundered on, belching out smoke and lava, into the surrounding ocean. It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

Echo: It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

Realising that they were now facing imminent disaster, with the loss of their most vital food sources, the island leaders quickly called a meeting, electing a deputation, to paddle to the mainland and inform the Government of their plight.

Government representatives received the island leaders kindly, listening with interest, at what the deputation had to report. They knew of the volcano’s eruption and everyone on the mainland had seen and felt the explosions. It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

Echo: It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

Sensing a potential catastrophe, government officials were swiftly sent to the island, to investigate the islanders’ plight. Special shipments of food were immediately sent, in an effort to save the islanders, from starvation and sickness.

Emergency medical teams arrived, to help care for people suffering illnesses, caused by the drifting clouds of volcanic ash. One day, a ship carrying a group of scientists and doctors, sent by the World Health Organisation, arrived. They all heard and saw the volcano on the mainland as they passed.

It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

Echo:  It went crash! It went boom!  It roared and it shrieked!

Among those on board the ship, was Bill, an Australian marine biologist, sent to help restore the lost fishing resources, around the island.

For days, after his arrival, Bill wandered the beaches and reefs, diving, monitoring catches of fish and taking samples of water and shellfish.

Fascinated by this blond, bronzed, demi-god, the villagers flocked around to watch, as he worked. They wondered, how the simple tasks he performed, could help solve the loss of their fish. Becoming bored by the daily monotony of the repetitive tasks, Bill carried out, the islanders, eventually, left him alone, with the exception of a couple of young, male assistants, who stayed to help him.   

One morning, after a month had passed, Bill called an urgent meeting of the island leaders, who eagerly flocked around, anxious to hear what he suggested was necessary, to restore the fishing grounds.

“I’ll need your permission to isolate some reefs.” He said, pointing at the map. “No-one can take fish from these areas.”

“You must be crazy!” the people cried out.

“How can our families survive, without our daily meal of fish?” demanded others

Bill pointed at specific locations on a map with a stick. “These areas are going to become breeding grounds for fish.”

“But we need to fish there!” They cried out. “Fish is the main part of our diet!”

Bill calmly replied, “If you don’t do this now, your fish will be gone forever.”

“Oh no!” The elders gasped in horror.

“But, it’s not too late. If the breeding stocks of fish, are given a chance to rebuild, among these reefs, soon there will be plenty for everyone!”

“I suggest you punish anyone, found fishing the isolation zones. It’s vital for the survival of your fisheries!” he exclaimed.

Shocked into silence, the islanders mutely accepted his request. After all – they thought of this scientist, almost as a God. He knew things, they couldn’t even imagine.

Bill turned to the older men. “To allow the shellfish beds to regenerate, I need you to rake up all the volcanic ash, debris and pumice, from along the shoreline, every morning.” 

Immediately, they followed his instructions, doing whatever tasks he gave them. Days, weeks and months, dragged by, as the islanders waited for the volcano to quieten. Living frugally, they just managed to survive, on the rations of supplementary food, provided by the mainland government.

Slowly, as the months passed, the volcano began to quieten. Now, the smoke and steam from the volcano’s crater, hissed and fizzed. It went: hiss, hiss, it went, fizz, fizz.

Echo:  It went hiss, hiss, it went, fizz, fizz.

As the volcano gradually became dormant, people started to notice that the island’s vegetation was beginning to regrow. New shoots poked through the soil, and once more, the women began to tend the gardens, nurturing the vegetables and fruits, they had previously lost.

About this time, the young fishermen, noticed an improvement in the size and quality of fish, they were catching.

Two years, after the volcano first erupted, the quantities of fish caught, by-passed all their previous catches. Now, fishing only two-thirds of the former area, they were bringing back larger catches than ever before! And the fish were bigger than the fisherman had seen for years!

“It’s a miracle!” The people said. “The fish are coming back! Bill has brought a miracle!”

Echo:   A miracle, a miracle! The fish are coming back! Bill has brought a miracle!

Bill remained on the island, only a short time, after his two years. Before leaving, he trained a group of men, to manage their fisheries, retaining the isolated reefs, as a breeding ground for the future.

The fishermen, no longer completely fished out the waters, surrounding their island home. From Bill, they’d learned how to plan for the future and were all much wiser.  

Saddened, by the loss of their special mentor, the island communities held a celebration in his honour and gave Bill a huge feast, before he finally set sail.

Special offerings were placed in shrines, to thank the Gods, for using the volcano, to bring them Bill… and the miracle of the fish.

Helen F. McKay ©2009