This festival brings people together through music, food and art and allows young creatives to showcase their work.

Emma Olphert was one of the featured artists who displayed her work at the All Goods Gallery in Avondale during the festival.

Olphert’s artworks depict musa leaves (banana leaves) in different colours.

Also studying creative technologies at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Olphert said she has digitally edited her paintings to evoke texture and add more depth to her images.

Also at the festival was artist Curly Elias Ismail. Originally from Zimbabwe, Ismail has been living in Auckland for five-years and said he paints women which he sees in his day to day life.

“Women are not treated equally in many cultures and I believe they should be given equal rights. I like to share that same message through my paintings,” he added.

Young creative Neishun Lopati shared the wisdoms of her nana with everyone at the event through her collection titled ‘From my nana to you’.

The collection displayed her artwork which she has made into postcards. Printed on them are her favourite quotes said to her by her nana.

“One can write a small message on that postcard and give it to their loved ones.”

Celebrating diversity

Organised by Deahne Lakatani and her partner Malcom Lakatani, from the Creative Souls Project, it was the first year this festival was held.

‘Various music sessions were held, there was a craft session where the elders taught 10-year-olds how to weave and various cooking sessions of Pacific dishes were enjoyed by people from various communities,’ Deahne Lakatani said.

“We live in a diverse society and we are celebrating that through this festival,” she said.

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Journalism education is challenged by issues in all regions of the world and the South Pacific is no different. At the 4th World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC), held at the Auckland University of Technology this week, four educators from different countries in the Pacific put forward their issues and challenges.

To set the tone for the session, panel chair Professor David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre, showed a “citizen media” video clip of police opening fire on students at the University of Papua New Guinea last month, wounding at least 23.

PNG: Traumatised
Emily Matasororo, journalism and public relations strand leader at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) gave some insights into the incident.

She said the majority of students in UPNG come from rural backgrounds and are trying to get into tertiary education to support their families, tribes and communities in search of a better life.

“I was there among the students when the police opened fire and I was really traumatised by that,” Matasororo said.

The students had burnt newspapers in front of the campus gate because they thought the media was taking sides and promoting the government’s agenda.

Matasororo said one of the student leaders told her that they had seen newspaper reports and found them “shallow and biased”.

“For me that was a very strong statement coming from a student leader,” Matasororo said.

Fiji: Home grown media
Dr Shailendra Singh, head of journalism at the University of South Pacific (USP), highlighted the lack of journalism training in the region, saying the situation was “critical”.

He said the Pacific faced major threats like climate change, overfishing and corruption on a grand scale.

“There is lack of support throughout the region for journalism education and for tertiary teaching in journalism,” Dr Singh said.

Dr Singh expressed his concern over the many expatriates that are teaching journalism in the Pacific.

“[It’s important to have] home grown media educators who understand the terrain and also have a stake in it.”

Giving advice to journalism lecturers, he said: “Educators should take up research topics for the sake of their own intellectual and professional development and enhance teaching through their research.

“USP is encouraging a lot of research, including with cash incentives and opportunities to attend conferences if you publish material.

“Cross-discipline research with people of other universities can also work wonders,” he said.

Samoa: Bridge the gap
Misa Vicky Lepou, head of journalism at the National University of Samoa (NUS), said answers were needed to “bridge the gap” between the media industry and journalism education.

“Another important requirement is building trust between the media and the community. I wonder if the community respects media as a honourable profession?” she asked the audience.

According to Misa, Samoan media outlets need a lot of training in ethics.

Vanuatu: Work in progress
Charlie David Mandavah, course coordinator of journalism at the Vanuatu Institute of Technology (VIT), said although the success rate of the course was high, the school lacked qualified trainers.

“There is a success rate of 60 percent of students finding jobs in the media industry.

But we haven’t been able to find qualified trainers or journalists to take up the role of teaching and the evolution of the course remains a work in progress.”

Other issues Mandavah highlighted was the “fraught” relationship between the media and the government in Vanuatu, computer illiteracy which leaves students unprepared for the real world, and the “subdued” role of females, meaning they often lacked confidence to ask the hard questions.

Research journal editors and publishers are often faced with a range of challenges when producing publications outside the Northern Hemisphere elite. At the 4th World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) being held at the Auckland University of Technology, editors from the Asia-Pacific region shared perspectives of their “perils and pitfalls” of publishing.

Professor David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre and editor of Pacific Journalism Review and Pacific Journalism Monographs, highlighted the challenges and successes of publishing the only journal in the world that produces in-depth research about journalism and media in the Asia-Pacific.

Dr Robie said the journal was established in 1994 at the University of Papua New Guinea to bring attention to urgent Pacific issues.

“It was started to publish Pacific issues and situations that were otherwise ignored.”

Press freedom was a major issue in that time, but according to Dr Robie, PJR played a major role in making the issue aware among the masses.

No easy feat
But it has been no easy feat, admitted Dr Robie, saying the production of the “global South” journal had moved three times, finally being established in New Zealand.

After leaving Papua New Guinea, it was then moved to Fiji in 1998 because he had been appointed as head of the University of South Pacific in Suva which also had better resources to support the journal.

In 2000, “maverick businessman” George Speight staged Fiji’s third coup.

Because of this the media environment in Fiji was threatened and PJR moved to New Zealand. The first edition was published in 2003, at AUT and later at AUT’s Pacific Media Centre when it was established in 2007.

Dr Robie explained that journals like the PJR were at the “nexus” between industry and the research.

Support needed
Professor Linda Claire Steiner, of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism and the editor of Journalism & Communication Monographs (JCM), said more support was needed from “budding journalists”.

“There is no particular value in doing a lot of research if you don’t share it with people. Research is meant to be shared and if you want to make a contribution, the way to do that is to get it published somewhere,” Dr Steiner said.

She also commented on the difficulty of producing in-depth articles that often reach limited audiences.

“All of that important research you have done to be seen by other researchers, who might use it, cite it and assign it to their students, goes in vain,” she said.

• The Pacific Journalism Review launched its latest journal edition titled ‘Endangered Journalists’ this week at the WJEC. The edition includes a special focus on media missions in West Papua and includes contributions from significant journalists such as Johnny Blades, Ricardo Morris, Jason MacLeod, Alexandra Wake, Lee Duffield and many others.

The first event of the 4th World Journalism Education Congress conference 2016 got under way at the JERAA and Pacific preconference last night with an inspirational korero from Oceania Interrupted about “Free West Papua”.

Sharing the issue of “freedom” for West Papua, which has remained under conflict for more than 50 years, the all-women Pacific cultural activist group facilitated by Leilani Salesa of Samoa gave a challenge for community groups and citizen media.

Speaking to media educators and journalists from Australia and the Pacific at Auckland University of Technology, the group outlined the “kaupapa” of the stunning actions they have been taking to make people aware of the atrocities faced by indigenous people of the region.

Oceania Interrupted began on December 1, 2013, to raise awareness about the Morning Star flag-raising issue – the traditional flag of liberation is banned in Indonesia — among the people of New Zealand and across the Pacific.

Salesa said Oceania Interrupted was seen as having a key role in bringing West Papua to the Pacific community and many of their actions were achievements because they got support at grassroots level.

Oceania Interrupted plans to take up other actions in future.

Leilani’s brother, Toeolesulusulu Associate Professor Damon Salesa, director of the NZ Institute of Pacific Research, will open the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and the Pacific at AUT today.

The WJEC participants will be welcomed at a powhiri this evening.

Te Rito Peyroux of the Cook Islands described how art and solidarity campaigns were communicating to ordinary people.

Downplayed in mainstream
The group criticised how the New Zealand government had downplayed the issue with mainstream media because of trade ties with the Indonesian government.

They also spoke about a petition that has been launched in New Zealand in support of the Papuans.

“Empowering collective action is important and all of us play a part in this freedom for West Papua,” said Salesa.

“Sharing the message for us is the key part of what we do within our own communities.

“West Papuans are Pacific people and are our brothers and sisters. We try to use art forms to share the message and we stand in solidarity for the people.

Kalisiana Buliruarua, of Fiji, said: “A lot of us have committed a big part of our lives to this cause because we believe that one day the people of West Papua would become free.

“It takes the efforts of all of us to do this but we are all dedicated towards this,”she said.

Anua Henry recited a poem about the issue.

The Oceania Interrupted group then joined the media educators and journalists at AUT’s Pacific Media Centre for a traditional Fiji lovo, or Filipino lechon welcome meal.

Husain Malvi is an international communication student from Unitec. He, Kendall Hutt, Ami Dhabuwala and TJ Aumua of AUT are covering WJEC16 for Asia Pacific Report.

• Oceania Interrupted
• West Papua petition launched