Coco Talanoa — Pacific Blog / Page 20

Families in Niue and the Cook Islands will have much to celebrate soon as the new cable network will finally make a dent in the huge overseas roaming charges and local data. 

One of the highlight outcomes of the PLF2017 was to get the Manatua Cable (an inter island submarine cable) contract for the construction and maintenance agreed to by the consortium, which will be put out to tender this month.  A successful bid is to be announced within the next few months. 

Honourable Mark Brown, Minister of Finance & Economic Management in the Cook Islands says the Manatua Cable is a cable project with four countries; Samoa, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Niue and connects the four islands together with fiber optic submarine cable.  It will transform the connectivity particularly for the Cook Islands & Niue who have previously had to rely on satellite.

"The cable is a good example of how countries working together are able to get a better product at a cheaper price by sharing the cost of the cable across the four countries.…more

Auckland filmmaker Juliette Veber began her just-launched website documentary project Conversations with Teen Mums with the aim of challenging the stereotypes of young mums. 

The project began in 2013, when Veber noticed a New York City advertising campaign shaming teen mums. It included slogans like, ‘Because of you mommy, I’m less likely to get a college degree’.

Veber recalls, ‘I found it offensive. I wondered what it would be like to be a pregnant teen or a young mum reading a campaign filled with negative stereotypes and lacking in any kind of hope or encouragement’.

Over four years Veber documented the lives of 16 young mums, sharing their stories, perspectives and experiences in photos, text and film on the website.

‘I looked for subjects who aimed to get off the benefit and into work. Young mums with hopes and dreams, who wanted to offer their children opportunities and choices in life.’

‘The project is not about glamorising teen pregnancy.…more

By Kristin McCarthy 

The land of Milk and Honey... And Debt.

As a Pacific person, or as any person I suppose, the first way I learnt to manage my money was from how my parents managed their money.  My parents migrated to NZ from Samoa in the mid 80’s and had rarely or never managed actual physical money before that so it's safe to say that they weren’t very good at it.  Any offer of immediate money aka cash loans they would take, not understanding the repercussions aka repayments and interest.

In the Islands wealth was displayed in offering food, mats and acts of service.  So being offered the idea of “free money” or a small plastic card that magically gave you money in NZ was what they thought people meant when they said come to “NZ, the land of milk and honey.”

I hear people say “Islanders are bad with money aye.”  We’re not bad at managing money, we just don’t really know how to and we have much wider family and community commitments than your average palagi.…more

By Floris Niu

Leaving the corporate world of NZ for my village Cacao farm in Samoa is a journey into nature, customary land, village life, organic Cacao growing plus re-discovering & re-inventing my island diet…

I had been stuck in a corporate job in NZ, making good money, for almost 2 decades yet my life was going nowhere. I worked so hard and for long hours that my body broke. Yes, your body can break and it warns you about this break-down through sudden and unexplained illness.

Sometimes life tricks you into thinking that everything is going so well…you’re becoming a success and achieving all the goals you thought were important in your life.

Then BOOM! In a split second, you end up in emergency surgery fighting for your life. You end up having serious conversations with God about giving you another chance because you had so many plans…and much more to live for.

I’m almost certain that I am not the first person to bargain with God during a “near-death-experience” episode.…more

‘Raise a Paddle’ is a short documentary that follows a small group of Pacific Climate Warriors as they embark on a journey to the Canadian tar sands. It tells the story of how an oil pipeline expansion all the way in Canada, can affect our small Island home here in beautiful Samoa. President Justin Trudeau’s recently approved pipelines will not only destroy sacred land for Indigenous Peoples in Canada, they will also contribute to the worsening effects of climate change in the Pacific.

Last week, Samoa was privileged to have a group of the Pacific Climate Warriors in town to present a community screening of ‘Raise a Paddle’ and shed light on this important issue. The event was open to the public and it encouraged ALL to attend and engage in discussion around climate change.

Amongst the visiting Warriors was Fenton Lutunatabua (350.org Pacific Campaigner) who gave us a little insight into ‘who they are’ and ‘what they do’. “The Pacific Climate Warriors are a network of climate activists that are active in 15 of the Pacific Island Nations.…more

The boat was a necessary part of our lives in Savaii. We spent many days back and forth on those damned boats, smelling of diesel fumes and rocking to every inch of wind that caressed the waves. I hated the boat, but what I did love, was staring in the deep blue ocean, appreciating the horizon as I waited for the shape of my island to get bigger and bigger as the boat approached.

I never viewed the ocean as a separate entity – it always seemed, essentially a part of who we were, are and always will be. An island after all, is an island because of the ocean that surrounds it and laps on its fringes. The memories and thoughts of my children catching crabs by the sea, slapping the waves as they hit the shore and tasting the seaweed between their chubby little fingers, seem far removed from the discussions taking place at The Ocean Conference in the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations.…more

Ten years ago I was doing a warm down at a Les Mills class in Christchurch which required everyone to do a haka-type move to a track by Te Vaka.  Just before the haka move the white instructor assumed a pre-haka squat, looked out over the class, took a deep breath then yelled out “Ooga booga” at the top of her lungs before proceeding to slap her thighs, haka-style.

I looked around the class to see who else was appalled by the instructor’s unbridled employment of such a deeply inappropriate and highly racist term: but no one else so much as batted an eyelid.  And then I remembered.

I was in Christchurch.

I’d never heard the phrase oooga booga uttered un-ironically until that point. But a couple of years later I walked into a Tiki bar in Los Angeles just in time to hear a group of punters chanting “ooga booga, oooga booga’ before they skulled their cocktails.…more

"I remember the feeling of fear and heat, all at once, as the mat was tied firmly to my waist. It was thick, heavy and white all around me, but there were also red shades.

My job was simple; perform with finesse and do not faint. That was indeed my first time wearing an ie sina to dance".  

- Va'asiliifiti Tuisafua Moelagi Jackson

The above scene is something I have pictured so many times in my mind, because there are not many images of my mother as a teenager. Her stories, proudly corroborated by my late grandmother Faleasiu and some who were there were we had to go by.

My fascination with their stories of dance and the accompanying teuga; headpieces, elaborated twisted and woven necklaces, mats and pandanus creations that layer the dancer’s body intrigued me.  But it led me down many disappointing paths when I discovered that the material culture of their time are largely confined to black and white images, Museum collections and faint memories.…more

The Kuki Airani Mama’s who were left high and dry in Europe, had to sell one of their treasured Tivaevae to buy food to feed the group on their 3 week ordeal.

People have come together to rally behind the Mama’s who travelled to Europe only to be left in the lurch by an organiser who they say had “promised them so much, and yet failed to deliver on almost every aspect.”

After a shock announcement midway through their journey to Europe that costs for their accommodation and food wouldn’t be covered as promised, the Mamas say they were forced to put together their small pool of funds to come up with a budget solution.

Part of this solution was one of the mama’s selling her personal tivaevae which was to be used for display during one of the organised workshops in order to help with food expenses for her friends, most of whom are in retirement and living off their meagre pensions.…more