Coco Talanoa — Coco News / Page 45

Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) has announced the appointment of Tavita Nielsen-Mamea as the Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence for 2020.
 
Tavita, a Dunedin-raised writer of Samoan and Tuvaluan descent, hailing from the villages of Safotu, Safune, Apia, and Nukufetau, will use the residency to work on a new theatre project.
 
Tavita’s first play Au Ko Tuvalu played at the 2019 Wellington Fringe Festival, where it was awarded Outstanding Ensemble and Tavita the Most Promising Emerging Artist. It has subsequently had successful runs at the Court Theatre and Kia Mau Festival, and also had an Auckland season at TAPAC from 23–26 October.

 
Au Ko Tuvalu takes the audience to Tuvalu, the homeland of the world's first climate change refugees, on its final day of evacuations. It follows a family watching their history, culture, and beloved homeland swept away in front of their eyes. The play has been critically acclaimed for its political relevance, fresh and compelling voice, and ‘heartwarming, heartwrenching’ emotional eloquence.…more

Celebrating our CoconetTV Birthday!  Here's how we been #KeepingItCoco for the last 6 years! 

Married couple Ben and Yvonne are Samoan & Tongan respectively & vlog about life together as well as cultural differences from Ben being American raised and Yvonne being New Zealand raised.

In this Vlog, Yvonne tests her husband to see how much of the Tongan language and culture he's picked up on so far.

Congratulations to the seven Pasifika artists honoured tonight for their innovation and excellence in Pacific Arts and their contribution to the rich diversity of Aotearoa's multi-cultural nation.

The seven award recipients this year represent a range of artforms and are cultural and artistic experts in their fields – from traditional Kiribati master weavers to a contemporary tatau artist, who is the first female to receive traditional tutelage in the art of tatau.

Leading influencer and advocate for the disability arts community, Fonoti Pati Umaga QSM, is the first ever Pacific Toa Artist Award recipient. This inaugural award is a new category added to the awards under Creative New Zealand’s Pacific Arts.

.

The awards were presented tonight at the Banquet Hall in Parliament to the following recipients: 

PATI UMAGA QSM 

- Pacific Toa Artist Award recognises the contribution of a Pasifika artist with the lived experience of disability to the standing, and standard, of Pacific arts nationally or globally.…more

The Cougar Boys Torrell Tafa shares a week of his life as a Long Haul Flight Attendant based out of New Zealand.

Would you become a flighty after seeing this?

Auckland hospitality and cookery school Ignite Colleges has joined forces with a group of Auckland high schools to raise money for Kiwi kids with cancer.

Students from Year 10 up to Year 13 from Mt Albert Grammar School, Papakura High School, Lynfield College, Tangaroa College, Aorere College and De La Salle College cooked up a storm at Ignite Colleges in Manukau, creating a mouth-watering feast for 85 guests, and raising more than $8000 for the Child Cancer Foundation.

Recently South Auckland exploded with the ideas, innovations and sheer bombasity of over 300 young Pasifika women connecting in one space. The SISTERS UNITED fono attracted over 13 school groups and 100 other young women from around Auckland and as far away as Tauranga to take part in workshops that ranged from ‘How to Be A Boss lady’ to Social Media, Self Love and Women Care sessions around hygiene.

The kaupapa of the day was to offer a safe space for questions that they may be too shy to ask in other environments, coming out of school workshops that Sisers United have taken.…more

Pacific Settlement Support Services, a first of its kind service in New Zealand, was set up 3 months ago by 3 Samoan women, Zeprina Fale, Laura Keil-Hall and Mandy Si'itia through a collaboration between their organisations. Zeprina and Mandy through Bluespur Charitable Trust and Laura through LKH Consulting. Laura also owns and runs The Pacific Business Hub.…more

Families and friends outside of Samoa can now receive umu baked ‘ulu (breadruit) in the frozen form, to be microwaved and ready to eat! 

Tuimaseve Kuinimeri Finau and her Food Science team in Samoa are collaborating again with Su’as Traditional Growers & Farmers to ship frozen, umu baked ‘ulu to Australia as an additional new product via sea freight, the more economical route for exporting frozen crops. Products have been prepared since the beginning of the fruiting season, packed and labelled.

Fresh and even baked breadfruit through personal consignment from Samoa has been banned by New Zealand for more than five years.  In May this year the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa collaborated with Event Polynesia Ltd (marketing) and Oasis Resources Ltd (importer) two companies based in Auckland New Zealand, allowing 243 packs of traditionally umu baked, frozen Maopo and Puou to be air freighted over.…more

Each year, more than 70 billion coconuts are consumed and their hairy shells become waste.

Dutch start up company Cocopallet decided to make pallets out of them that are stronger, cheaper and much more sustainable than the wooden alternative.

They have developed a technique to press 100% bio-based export compliant pallets for Asian exporters.

Currently, these exporters use 1.7 billion wooden pallets per year, causing 170 million trees to be harvested. CocoPallet saves millions of trees, heavily reducing our carbon footprint while paying farmers for their waste and saving costs for customers.

Check out more of the uses for Coconuts here: