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(Photo:
Unitec) |
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NEW ZEALAND: Unitec to host Maori and Pacific
forum
Auckland’s Super City elections may well be
underway but how the new council set-up will
affect Pacific and Maori peoples still remains
unclear.
Which is precisely why Unitec has decided to
host an open forum to discuss what the two
ethnics groups can do to have their “voice”
heard in the new Super City.
The Unitec Forum for the Future: Auckland Super
City - The Pacific Voice open forum will be held
at Unitec’s Mt Albert campus on 5 October while
the Unitec for the Future: Te Whakataurite
Maaori: The Maori Voice forum to be held a week
later on 12 October.
The aim of each forum is to raise awareness
around the new governance structure and inform
the two ethnic groups of what they can do to
ensure their concerns and issues are heard under
the new Super City structure.
While the elections are coming to an end,
organisers believe there is still much that
Pacific and Maori peoples do not understand
about the Super City and are encouraging the
community to come along to the forum to find out
more.
The Pacific Voice forum will be facilitated by
political commentator and consultant, Efeso
Collins, while the expert panel will consist of
former Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Mark
Gosche, community leader Alfred Ngaro and Dr
Fotu Fisi’iahi who is Unitec’s Postgraduate
Academic Support lecturer.
The Maori Voice forum a week later will focus on
how to optimise outcomes for Maori under the new
structure. The forum will be facilitated by Te
Karere news editor Shane Taurima, and the
panellists are John Freeland, Pae Arahi Matua
and Manager Maori Strategy and Relations
Auckland City, businessman Heta Hudson, and
television presenter and Unitec Director of
Maori Development, Scotty Morrison.
Unitec’s own Pae Arahi, Hare Paniora will also
join the Maori panel along with former Alliance
Party member, Sandra Lee.
The “live” audience will be able to participate
in the discussions and ask panellists questions.
And like the previous forums, those who are
unable to attend the event will be able to
twitter their views and questions to the
panellists.
Director for the Pacific Centre for Learning,
Teaching and Research, Linda Aumua says the
forum offers Pacific and Maori an opportunity to
ask expert panelists questions they have had
since the new structure was announced.
“Many people are still in the dark as to what
the new Super City will do to help them and what
they can do to ensure their voices are being
heard,” says Aumua.
“While the forum will have little bearing on the
outcome of the elections, there is still so much
people need to know about how the Super City
will work so this a great opportunity for them
to come along and share their concerns.
“These forums are not about a last minute push
to vote but are about what these two groups can
do at the next stage of the Auckland Super
City.”
The forums are again spearheaded by the Faculty
of Creative Industries and Business through its
Department of Management and Marketing with
support from the Department of Performing and
Screen Arts.
Associate Professor and Head of Unitec’s
Department of Management and Marketing, Robert
Davis says the forum offers a great opportunity
for the audience to engage in a lively debate
about the challenges we face in making Auckland
the Super City.
“We will tackle issues and concerns that the
Maori and Pacific Island voice has so far been
ignored and sidelined which is not reflective of
the Government’s position on this,” he says.
Both forums will be held at the Unitec Theatre,
Building 6, Entry 1, Carrington Rd, Mt Albert
from 5pm to 7pm.
For more information on the upcoming forums,
visit: www.forumforthefuture.unitec.ac.nz
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(Photo:
Torsten Blackwood / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images) |
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SAMOA: South Pacific tsunami anniversary; family
who Lost 14, rebuilding their lives
Source:
CBS Broadcasting
September 29th marks the one year anniversary of
a deadly tsunami in the South Pacific. Nearly
2-hundred people were killed after an 8.1
magnitude quake sent ocean water stories high
onshore in Samoa and Tonga obliterating almost
everything in its path.
You don't have to look hard to find signs of the
tsunami in several villages on the south coast
of Samoa's Upolu Island. In the ravaged village
of Lalomanu, there are shells of buildings,
collapsed roofs, with weeds growing from the
rubble.
"We used to live on the other side of the road,"
Tsunami Survivor Tai Taufua said while pointing
to what's now a dirt parking lot.
Her family home and the family business, a beach
resort called the Taufua Beach Fales were
leveled September 29th, 2009 within minutes of
the powerful earthquake.
The sand she was standing on kept her from
feeling its power. She realized something was
wrong when her son noticed something strange
happening to the ocean.
"There's hardly any water in the sea," he told
her. "I couldn't wait any longer," Tai said. "I
had to be on the beach to get all the guests
away from the beach."
The ocean water retreated several hundred yards
out into the reef, before it came raging back
ashore. Of the more than 100 guests staying at
the resort, seven died.
She showed me photos of fourteen family members
who also lost their lives, including toddlers, a
granddaughter, two sisters and her elderly
father who she was injured trying to save.
"Of course, there was no time at all to help
each other," the soft spoken Tai said.
She spent a month in the hospital asking, why
God allowed her to survive.
Four generations of her family who were killed
that day are buried in a mass grave in front of
their newly built home, up on a hill overlooking
the same ocean that took their lives.
Tai doesn't want to shed anymore tears.
"I have to be strong for my family and my
children."
On this one year anniversary, the family doesn't
plan to mourn. Instead, they are coming together
for a family reunion.
"We need to celebrate it. We need to laugh, not
cry."
Over the past year, the Samoan Government still
hasn't posted evacuation routes. There's no
official tsunami warning system with sirens
warning people to get to higher ground, although
the New Zealand Government is starting the
process to create one.
Tai says they now know when the ground shakes,
they need to reach higher ground. That hasn't
scared away tourists who've returned to play in
the South Pacific, and take in the raw sites of
this mostly undeveloped nation.
She says government aid has been slow to reach
victims. Her family just received a check three
weeks ago.
Her family started rebuilding within weeks of
the tsunami using savings and money sent
directly from concerned former guests.
"We have bookings already for up here," Tai says
with a grin on her face while standing outside
some fales (bungalows) under construction.
The rebuilding of her business and outpouring of
support are what's helping give her strength,
one year later.
"It's better to occupy the time all the time. I
just don't want to waste my head with anything
else. I just want to focus on how to survive and
move on."
Photo Caption: Red Cross members look for
bodies amongst the rubble at the ruins of the
Lalomanu resort on the south coast of Samoa on
September 30, 2009.
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(Photos:
Australia-Pacific Technical College) |
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AUSTRALIA: Muriel uses skills to help children's
education
Source:
Australia-Pacific Technical College
Muriel Gerari of Papua New Guinea, a graduate of
the APTC Tourism course, Vanuatu Campus,
recently travelled to Sydney and Melbourne with
the Adopt an Angel education scholarship
program. The Adopt an Angel program helps
provide education scholarships for local PNG
children, and is part of the Kokoda Track
Foundation, set up to assist Papua New Guineans,
and their descendents, who helped Australian
soldiers in WWII.
Muriel assisted the PNG Tourism Promotion
Authority arrange for a group to travel to
Sydney for the Kokoda Track Foundation Annual
General Meeting, and then on to a game dedicated
to the Angel program by the Melbourne-based
Hawthorn (Hawks) Australian Football League
team. The group from PNG consisted of one of the
children from the Adopt an Angel scholarship
program and a cultural dance group who performed
for the crowd at the game.
Muriel said that she was privileged to be part
of this event and she would like to thank the
staff of APTC for giving her their time during
her studies in Tourism Operations, which has
given her the skills to be involved in such
occasions as the Kokoda fundraising game in
Melbourne.
Photo Captions:
Photo 1 - Muriel Gerari.
Photo 2 - Muriel (centre, front) with the
group from PNG, and the Hawkes team warming up
in
the background.
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(Photo:
Hoakalei Cultural Foundation) |
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HAWAII: ‘Auntie Arline’ recognized for lifetime
achievements
Source:
The Hawaii Independent
These days, our keiki have quite the selection
of role models to choose from as info about the
biggest stars and the hottest athletes stream in
constantly through the latest technology. But in
Ewa Beach, one kupuna is doing her part in
making a lasting impression on her students
without all the glitz and glam.
Last week on September 14, Arline Waianaha
Kuuleialoha Brede Eaton, also known as “Aunty
Arline,” was the recipient of the Kalani Alii
Award to honor her lifetime achievements and
devotion to the Hawaiian culture and in passing
on her knowledge and wisdom to Hawaii’s youth.
The Hoakalei Cultural Foundation Board President
was one four recipients of the award presented
by four royal societies. The societies included
the Royal Order of Kamehameha I, the Ahahui
Kaahumanu, the Hale O No Alii O Hawaii, and the
Daughters and Sons of the Hawaiian Warriors—Mamakakaua.
Eaton grew up one of only two children to be
raised not just in Iroquois Point, but also in
the Ewa area in the early 20th century. As a
full-blooded Hawaiian now in her mid-80s, she is
a Hawaiian studies teacher for Iroquois Point
Elementary School as part of the Kupuna Program
for the DOE, where she has worked since 1986.
Aunty Arline spent 40-years working for Hawaiian
Tel and raising her family before becoming a
teacher. She is also very active in the
community as a protocol officer of the Royal
Order of Kamehameha I, and a member of the
Ewa-Puuloa Hawaiian Civic Club, Hale O Na Alii O
Hawaii, Hoomakaikai Explorations Kamehameha
Schools, Na Waiwai O Leeward, Ka Lei Papahi O
Kakuhihewa, and the Business and Professional
Women’s Organization.
“Aunty Arline has been identified as the most
knowledgeable Kupuna on the Ewa plain, passing
on moolelo, or stories, of the Ewa moku from
traditional Hawaiian times to the present,” said
Alicia Maluafiti, treasurer of the Hoakalei
Cultural Foundation, in a statement.
The Hoakalei Cultural Foundation was established
in 2006 to help sustain and protect the land and
history in the Ewa area. Led by Eaton, the board
president, the foundation pushes to provide
proper accessibility to the community of
archaeological sites within the Hoakalei Resort
and is continuously trying to partner up with
area schools to help educate the keiki.
“The Foundation recently completed production of
the oral history of the Ewa moku, recorded by
Aunty Arline, which will be used in our future
efforts to educate residents and visitors about
Hawaiian culture and traditions,” Maluafiti
said. She is an absolute treasure and well
deserving of this prestigious award.”
The annual awards banquet was hosted by The
Royal Order of Kamehameha I. Others who received
awards included Mahi Beamer, Doc Burrows, Ane
Kanahele, and Leiana Woodside. The Queen’s
Medical Center was awarded the Order of Kalani
Alii in recognition of its contributions to
Hawaiian Health.
Photo Caption: Kupuna Arline Wainaha
Kuuleialoha Brede Eaton, lovingly known as Aunty
Arline, was one of only two keiki to have grown
up in Puuloa in an area now known as Iroquois
Point, Ewa Beach. Raised by her grandparents,
Tutu Mama Malia and Tutu Papa Nahiala Kealoha,
she remembers swimming in the ponds and
traversing up and down the Ewa Plain during a
time when the area was mostly water.
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(Photos:
ISB Co. Ltd.) |
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TONGA: MV 'Otuanga'ofa sails for Tonga
Source:
Matangi Tonga
Tonga's new inter island ferry the MV 'Otuanga'ofa
left Japan on September 27 on its way to Tonga
where it is expected to arrive in Nuku'alofa on
October 15.
The Japanese Embassy in Nuku'alofa received
confirmation from the ISB Co. Ltd. in Tokyo,
that the ferry had left the ISB shipyard wharf
on September 27 after a departure ceremony.
Previously, on September 22 a signing ceremony
was held between Tonga's Minister of Transport
Hon. Nuku and Japanese officials, to mark the
official handing over of the new ferry to the
Tongan Government.
Captain Lupeti Vi was present to bring the boat
back to Tonga.
Photo Captions:
Photo 1 - Tonga's Minister of Transport
Hon. Nuku and Japanese officials at the handing
over of the new ferry.
Photo 2 - MV 'Otuanga'ofa sails from
Tokyo.
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(Photo:
United Nations Development Programme) |
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WORLDWIDE:
Pacific Island nations press for urgent climate
change financing action
Source:
United Nations Development Programme Press Release
Top officials from the Pacific Island nations
issued calls from the General Assembly podium
today for enhanced measures to be taken on
combating climate change, especially in speeding
up the availability of funds for poorer nations
to adapt to global warming.
At last December’s climate change conference in
Copenhagen, industrialized countries pledged $30
billion of fast-track funding for developing
countries through 2012, with that figure set to
climb to $100 billion annually by 2020.
But the “much-publicized ‘fast-track’ funding,”
Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele
Malielegaoi, told the Assembly’s high-level
debate today, “has become a ‘best kept secret.’”
He stressed that “information on how much of the
pledges have been honoured, disbursed and to
whom, has been scarce. When available, the
information is vague and seems bereft of
coordination.”
With the form, content and completion of a new
global treaty on climate change remaining
uncertain, Mr. Malielegaoi stressed that making
the promised funds available is a “moral
imperative.”
The next conference of parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
is set to be held in November in Cancun, Mexico.
“We cannot afford to leave Cancun empty-handed,”
the Samoan official stressed. “Concrete results
must be achieved not only to give our people
confidence that substantive responses are being
reached to protect against climate change and at
the same time strengthen our belief that our
United Nations can deliver a legally-binding
agreement.”
Also urging the provision of the promised
fast-track funding “without delay” was Fijian
Prime Minister, Commodore Josaia V. Bainimarama.
“The threat of climate change, particularly sea
level rise, continues to hang over us all,” he
told the Assembly today.
“While some of us are more vulnerable than
others, we must work in concert as a responsible
international family to mitigate the adverse
effects of this global phenomenon.
The need for global cooperation to solve the
issue of climate change was among the themes of
the address by Vice-President Mohamed Waheed of
the Maldives.
His country, he said, “believes that it is time
to let go of the mistrust and blame that has
plagued the UNFCCC process.”
Dr. Waheed welcomed India’s recent initiative to
voluntarily curb its emissions and its
commitment to promote green energy “without
waiting for others to follow suit.”
Climate change, he stressed, threatens the
country’s very existence, and the Maldives has
invested in water and sanitation projects, as
well as coastal defences. It is also creating
voluntary resettlement programmes to move people
to more viable islands within the country.
“It is unquestionable that our actions alone
cannot save us,” the Vice- President underlined.
“The global community must act.”
Photo Caption: Tuilaepa Sailele
Malielegaoi, Prime Minister of Samoa, addresses
General Assembly.
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