Humans Of The Islands - Koroi Hawkins
Koroi Hawkins
Award winning Pacific Journalist
Fijian / Solomon Islander
Biologically I am part Fijian part Solomon Islander but I was raised a Solomon Islander and identify as one. I have quite a few siblings from both my biological parents' marriages and my Dad Bob Hawkins' first marriage but I am an only child to my mum Effie Hawkins and have always felt like one. Over the years we have lived in several places including Honiara, the capital of Solomon Islands and Mackay in Australia but I was fortunate to spend quite a lot of my formative years in Munda, a small village/town in the Western Solomons. It was quite an exciting place for a child growing up. Between the ocean and the jungle there was always plenty to keep me occupied when I was not doing chores for mum or dad. If there is one thing I miss most about home I would say it is the ocean which was my closest friend growing up. (literally because at high tide the ocean sometimes laps at our front steps!)
Photo credit for top 2 images: Johnny Blades taken on the job in Jayapura in 2015
How many languages can you speak?
I can speak three languages - English (obviously) Solomon Islands Pidgin, hem kolsap olsem Engkish bata hem difren lelebet/It is almost like English but different, and my mother tongue Roviana named after the people and the Lagoon in which they live. Leana Hola means thank you very much, Uve is yes and Lokari means no. Keke, Karua, Ngeta, Made, Lima, Onomo, Zuapa, Vesu, Sia, Maneputa is counting one to ten.
What were the greatest challenges for you growing up?
I think identity was one, just because I did not look like everyone else in the Solomon Islands because I was part Fijian, but this later became an asset in my working life. Education was a huge struggle, and still is for all Solomon Islanders coming through the system, and finding my calling also took quite a lot of blood sweat and tears.
What do you love most about your culture(s)?
I think every culture has its strong and weak points and having lived within quite a few I know they are also often exploited by people for their own gain. But I think the universal message which resonates for me across all cultures that I have lived through or been taught by is just to respect others. If we are thinking about people other than ourselves we cannot go too far wrong.
RNZI's Johnny Blades and Koroi Hawkins interviewing the Governor of Papua Province Lukas Enembe.
What are you doing now?
Right now and hopefully for a long time to come I am a journalist with RNZ International, www.rnzi.com, based in Wellington New Zealand. We cover news and current affairs in the Pacific and broadcast back into the Pacific, which is really a dream come true for me and one that has taught me so much about my brothers and sisters around the region. And the move to New Zealand so far is the best thing that my partner Kori, without whom I would never be where I am today, and I could ever offer our children in terms of the education and opportunities available to them here.
What inspired you to get into media?
The media chose me. I was a science student planning to be a marine biologist or engineer of some kind but life has a funny way of shepherding you towards certain things and for me it was literally being stopped on the street in 2006 by my old boss and mentor Dorothy Wickham and being asked to try out for a newsreader’s position at a small local television outfit just starting out that became my school of Journalism for the next 8 odd years.
Koroi during his role as Chief of Staff of the newsroom at One Television in the Solomon Islands.
I have always been curious and an extrovert so I have grown to love journalism and have been to so many places, Norway and West Papua for example, and met so many people over the course of my career, from standing in a leaf hut sheltering from the rain with Prince William and Kate to speaking to a former militant in the outskirts of Honiara to confirm whether or not an acting police commissioner had attended militant meetings during my country’s bloody civil unrest and sailing on a cattle barge to the Shepherd Islands in Vanuatu and witnessing first hand the terrible destruction of cyclone Pam. I just hope at the end of it all I have been able to make a difference and am myself a better person for having done so.
Children in Jayapura - Papua. Photo taken by Koroi Hawkins during his coverage in West Papua
You are an award winning Journalist for your coverage of Cyclone Pam. Can you talk about what that experience was like for you?
It was a very sad and emotional assignment for me seeing my fellow Melanesians in such plight and I remember preparing for the one week assignment telling myself whatever hardships you experience the people you are talking to have gone through worse. Two weeks later I find myself reporting from the remote Shepherd Islands to which I got on a cattle barge you can read the full story here - But essentially was able to report from places where no other international media had reached and brought some very unique and powerful stories of the effect of government inefficiency on the lives of people in rural areas.
Crossing into Indonesia from Papua New Guinea 12th October 2015. Photo RNZI/Koroi Hawkins
How did it feel to win the award?
It was a very proud moment for me, having just joined RNZ International in August the year before, Cyclone Pam was in March 2015, and for my team who had worked their butts off to make sure the stuff I was reporting got out as soon as possible. Having said that I would much rather my reporting have resulted in assistance reaching the people and communities which I visited during my time in Vanuatu just after cyclone Pam.
What do you treasure most in your life?
My children Jorick, Janelle, Nathaniel and Monique. They are my heaviest burden, I know reading this Kori is saying “What burden?” as she does most…okay ….all of the heavy lifting around the house. But I am both excited and terrified to see what and who they become as adults. I kind of feel like my ultimate success or failure in life will be determined by their successes and failures. No pressure kids.
Koroi's children: Jorick, Janelle, Nathaniel and Monique
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
If I had my own way, with RNZ International reporting on the Pacific but if there is one thing I have learned so far in life it is that it is unpredictable. So I commit my future and that of my family into God’s hands and plan for the worst while hoping for the best. Leana hola, tataru nomana hola koa gamu doduru./ Thank you very much big love to you all.
Koroi in Vanuatu during coverage of Cyclone Pam. Photo credit: Kim Baker Wilson
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