Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa has advised Samoa’s head of state that it is necessary to dissolve Parliament so the country can move to an election.

This follows the bill for the budget not getting enough support for a first reading on yesterday, and Fiame announcing she would therefore seek an early election.

Tuimaleali’ifano Va’aleto’a Sualauvi II has accepted Fiame’s advice and a formal notice will be duly gazetted to confirm the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly.

• READ MORE: Other Samoan reports

Parliament will go into caretaker mode, and the Cabinet will have the general direction and control of the existing government until the first session of the Legislative Assembly following dissolution.

Fiame, who has led a minority government since being ousted from her former FAST party in January, finally conceded defeat on the floor of Parliament yesterday morning after her government’s 2025 Budget was voted down.

MPs from both the opposition Human Rights Protection Party and Fiame’s former FAST party joined forces to defeat the budget with the final vote coming in 34 against, 16 in support and two abstentions.

Defeated motions
Tuesday was the Samoan Parliament’s first sitting since back-to-back no-confidence motions were moved — unsuccessfully — against prime minister Fiame.

In January, Fiame removed her FAST Party chairman La’auli Leuatea Schmidt and several FAST ministers from her Cabinet.

In turn, La’auli ejected her from the FAST Party, leaving her leading a minority government.

Her former party had been pushing for an early election, including via legal action.

The election is set to be held within three months.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

For almost six decades photographer John Miller (Ngāpuhi) has been a protest photographer in Aotearoa New Zealand.

From his first photographs of an anti-Vietnam War protest on Auckland’s Albert Street as a high school student in 1967, to Hīkoi mō te Tiriti last week, Miller has focused much of his work on the faces of dissent.

He spoke of his experiences over the years in an interview broadcast today on RNZ’s Culture 101 programme with presenter Susana Lei’ataua.

• LISTEN: Photographer John Miller talks to RNZ’s Culture 101
• Other Hīkoi mō te Tiriti reports

Miller joined Hīkoi mō te Tiriti at Waitangi Park in Pōneke Wellington last Tuesday, November 19, ahead of its final walk to Parliament’s grounds.

“It was quite an incredible occasion, so many people,”  74-year-old Miller says.

“Many more than 1975 and 2004. Also social media has a much more influential part to play in these sorts of events these days, and also drone technology . . .

“I had to avoid one on the corner of Manners and Willis Streets flying around us as the Hīkoi was passing by.

“We ended up running up Wakefield Street which is parallel to Courtenay Place to get ahead of the march and we joined the march at the Taranaki Street Manners Street intersection and we managed to get in front of it.”

Comparing Hīkoi mō te Tiriti with his experience of the 1975 Māori Land March led by Dame Whina Cooper, Miller noted there were a lot more people involved.

“During the 1975 Hīkoi the only flag that was in that march was the actual white land march flag — the Pou Whenua — no other flags at all. And there were no placards, no, nothing like that.”

There were more flags and placards in the Foreshore and Seabed March in 2004.

“Of course, this time it was a veritable absolute forest of Tino Rangatira flags and the 1835 flag and many other flags,” Miller says.

“Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe flags were there, even Palestinian flags of course, so it was a much more colourful occasion.”

Miller tried to replicate photos he took in 1975 and 2004: “However this particular time I actually was under a technical disadvantage because one of my lenses stopped working and I had to shoot this whole event in Wellington using just a wide angle lens so that forced me to change my approach.”

Miller and his daughter, Rere, were with the Hīkoi in front of the Beehive.

“I had no idea that there were so many people sort of outside who couldn’t get in and I only realised afterwards when we saw the drone footage.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

An exhibition from Tara Arts International has been brought to The University of the South Pacific as part of the Pacific International Media Conference next week.

In the first exhibition of its kind, Connecting Diaspora: Pacific Prana provides an alternative narrative to the dominant story of the Indian diaspora to the Pacific.

The epic altar “Pacific Prana” has been assembled in the gallery of USP’s Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies by installation artist Tiffany Singh in collaboration with journalistic film artist Mandrika Rupa and dancer and film artist Mandi Rupa Reid.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific International Media Conference reports

A colourful exhibit of Indian classical dance costumes are on display in a deconstructed arrangement, to illustrate the evolution of Bharatanatyam for connecting the diaspora.

Presented as a gift to the global diaspora, this is a collaborative, artistic, immersive, installation experience, of altar, flora, ritual, mineral, scent and sound.

It combines documentary film journalism providing political and social commentary, also expressed through ancient dance mudra performance.

The 120-year history of the people of the diaspora is explored, beginning in India and crossing the waters to the South Pacific by way of Fiji, then on to Aotearoa New Zealand and other islands of the Pacific.

This is also the history of the ancestors of the three artists of Tara International who immigrated from India to the Pacific, and identifies their links to Fiji, expressed through ancient dance mudra performance.

The 120-year history of the people of the diaspora is explored, beginning in India and crossing the waters to the South Pacific by way of Fiji, then on to Aotearoa New Zealand and other islands of the Pacific.

Support partners are Asia Pacific Media Network and The University of the South Pacific.

A journal article on documentary making in the Indian diaspora by Mandrika Rupa is also being published in the 30th anniversary edition of Pacific Journalism Review to be launched at the Pacific Media Conference dinner on July 4.

Exhibition space for Tara Arts International has been provided at the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies at USP.

The exhibition opening is next Tuesday, and will open to the public the next day and remain open until Wednesday, August 28.

The gallery will be open from 10am to 4pm and is free.

Published in collaboration with the USP Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies.

“One body, one people, one ocean, one Pacific” was Samoa’s powerful statement during the parade of nations at the official opening of the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC).

It was a sentiment echoed loudly and proudly by all other parading nations.

Rapa Nui’s delegation exclaimed, “we are all brothers and sisters, we are a family!”

• READ MORE: Other FestPAC 2024 reports

This strong spirit of unity connected the Pacific delegates who had all travelled across vast oceans to attend the 10-day festival hosted in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

“Ho’oulu Lahui, Regenerating Oceania” is the underlying theme of the event.

Festival director Dr Aaron Sala said the phrase is an ancient Hawai’ian motto from the reigning Monarch of Hawai’i in the 1870s, instructing the community to rekindle their cultural practices and rebuild the nation.

He saw how the theme could be embraced by the entire Pacific region for the festival.

‘Power of that phrase’
“The power of that phrase speaks to every level of who we are.”

He saw the phrase come to life at the official opening ceremony over the weekend.

Almost 30 Pacific Island nations paraded at the Stan Sheriff Center, flags waving high, and hearts full of pride for their indigenous heritage.

Indigenous people of all ages filled the arena with song and dance, previewing what festival goers could expect over the next two weeks.

Dr Sala was impressed by the mix of elders and young ones in the delegations.

“The goal of the festival in its inception was to create connections between elders and youth and to ensure that youth are connected in their culture.

“The festival has affected generations of youth who are now speaking their native languages, who are carving again and weaving again.”

‘It’s so surreal’
Speaking as she watched the opening ceremony, the festival’s operations director Makanani Sala said: “it’s so surreal, looking around you see all these beautiful cultures from around the world, it’s so humbling to have them here and an honor for Hawai’i to be the hosts this year.”

The doors to the festival village at the Hawai’i Convention Centre opened the following day.

Inside, dozens of “fale” allocated to each nation were filled with the traditional arts and crafts of the Pacific.

It is a space for delegates and event attendees to explore and learn about the unique cultural practices preserved by each nation.

The main stage is filled with contemporary and traditional performances, fashion shows, oratory and visual showcases, and much more.

The FestPAC village space invites the community to journey through the entire Pacific, and participate in an exchange of traditional knowledge, thus doing their part in “Ho’oulu Lahui – Regenerating Oceania.”

The Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture runs until June 16.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

“West Papuans are being denied their basic human rights … Human beings have a right to freedom. Freedom to be treated fairly like a human being. Freedom to be respected. To have your own dignity and pride. This is being taken away from West Papuans.”

Richard Mogu is a Papua New Guinean musician and activist currently touring with fellow Papuans and West Papuans in the band, Rize of the Morning Star. For the last decade Rize has been spreading the message: “Sorong Samarai. One people, one soul, one destiny.”

In 2016 the song Sorong Samarai composed by Airileke Ingram featuring the duo Twin Tribe was released. The song itself leaves the listener feeling empowered and inspired to create change as the lyrics sing.

READ MORE: Moale James: Citizen journalism countering ‘deliberate’ media silence on West Papua

“Rise up freedom fighter. Rise up and take your stand again. Bird of paradise never die in vain. Melanesia you, me rise up again. For those who live in darkness, consider the light afar. Dawn of a new day come. With the rise of the morning star … Sorong Samarai. One people. One soul. One destiny.”

The video shows powerful footage of men, women and children proudly raising the Morning Star flag, painting it across their bodies in protest against the Indonesian government. This act is a chargeable offence in West Papua, with people having been persecuted for this simple act of freedom, to be able to fly the Morning Star Flag.

The message of Sorong Samarai itself suggests that from the tip of West Papua, Sorong, to the Eastern point of Papua New Guinea, Samarai, the people of New Guinea are one, with the same destiny, to be free.

This song is a rally cry for all Papua New Guineas to unite and stand together for the freedom of all their people.

‘Echos’ of abuses

There are many who echo stories of these human rights abuses under the hand of the Indonesian government and militia.

“There is a war going on next door. People here [in Australia and Papua New Guinea] they don’t know about it…. My Father went to jail for 10 years for speaking out for West Papuans. He was charged with a death sentence… Activists and independent journalists are being taken [by Indonesian military]. They are killed and then thrown in rivers.”

These are the words of West Papuan refugee and dancer, Sam Roem. At 15 years-old Sam fled the genocide in his hometown of Merauke in Papua in a small dinghy with his older brother and 41 others.

After being lost at sea for a week with only food scraps to eat, their canoe came to rest on the shore of Cape York Australia. At thirty years old, you can now find him performing with Rize of the Morning Star sharing his art as a dancer and his story as a refugee.

“My parents were tortured by Indonesian military. I felt then and still feel now anger and pain. I want to do something in my home. But what can I do? I don’t want to be stupid and get myself killed.”

Nicclaude Domini (stage name, Ukam Maniczy) is twenty-two year old West Papuan musician and rapper. Nicclaude is currently wanted by Indonesian authorities for speaking out against the government’s abuse.

‘Forced to flee’

Despite calling many places in Indonesia home, people like Sam and Nicclaude have been forced to either flee or go into hiding due to the threat of persecution back in their home country. Research shows that today there are more than 11,000 West Papuans living in refugee camps or in exile overseas.

At times, for these men and many others the battle can seem helpless and hopeless as the years continue. Today, in 2019 despite the efforts of many West Papuans, activists, government officials and even the United Nations, the Indonesian government is still in control.

West Papuans are still trying to survive the genocide being committed by the Indonesian Government and associated militia. At this point in time, 528,000 West Papuans have lost their lives and their fight for freedom at the hands of brutal military and government abuse since Indonesian occupation in 1963.

Research has found that many West Papuans have been killed, raped, tortured, imprisoned and have witnessed the burning down of their villages and many other atrocities (Elmsie, 2010).

Journalist and chief editor of West Papua media, Nick Chesterfield has been working with Rize of the Morning Star and other independent journalists for the last thirteen years.

‘Issue of genocide’

“This is an issue of genocide,” he said.

“There are 250 language groups in West Papua alone. It is the most linguistically and culturally diverse place on earth. There is a complete human uniqueness that has been lost in this genocide. The loss of old knowledge and the loss of ancient land custodianship. When the primary human right of self-determination is suppressed that is a tragedy for everyone.”

West Papuans have been protesting more frequently and powerfully than ever before.

Since the anniversary of the 1962 New York Agreement in August there have been a number of rallies and protests by West Papuans. The response from Indonesian militia and the government has been severe.

Many civilians have been arrested, militia have opened fire on demonstrators, and cases of mutilations, killings and sexual assaults have increased. It reached a point where there was a complete internet blackout across West Papua, preventing any international media attention and support.

The fight for freedom and independence for West Papua is not over. It has not been an easy fight and there have been many sacrifices and consequences for those brave enough to protest. Although, there has been so much pain, West Papuans still hope for their freedom. The members of Rize of the Morning Star still have hope as they continue to spread their message.

Sorong Samarai. One people, one soul, one destiny.

• Moale James is a student at the University of Queensland undertaking her Bachelor in Journalism. Moale also proudly identifies as a mixed-race Papua New Guinean-Australian.

Young Pasifika performers and artists came together last week for Moana Loloto, a night of indigenous storytelling to explore four pressing issues the Pacific and its people are facing.

Held at the Mangere Arts Centre in South Auckland, young people of Te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa used dance, art and stories to discuss West Papua, the land occupations at Ihumātao and Mauna Kea and climate change, with a specific focus on Kiribati.

Tagata Pasifika spoke to some of the young “Pacific influencers” who were helping to bring these issues into the spotlight.

READ MORE: UN Security-General tells youth be ‘noisy as possible’ on climate change

Mission 2 Zero’s Emily Muli said Moana Loloto was a space to nurture stories and tell them the Pacific way.

“We just wanted to give space to people to talk about that in our ways so that’s through talanoa and creative arts.”

She said there has been a lot more engagement with issues like climate change over the past two years and this could be seen in the number of events that are being held.

Also speaking was Pelenise Alofa of the Kiribati Climate Action Network who told Tagata Pasifika that her work to help build resilience on Kiribati was made harder by a lack of political will in developed countries.

“My government and my people are trying their best, we try to adapt but we need more support from the developed countries to help us.”

• This video was republished through Pacific Media Centre’s partnership with Tagata Pasifika

A prominent Cook Islands lawyer intends to take a court challenge against the censor’s impending ban of the film Rocketman, reports the Cook Islands News.

Lawyer Heinz Matysik announced he would challenge the ban, if it proceeded.

“If the chief censor wants to roll this way, I will bring a full legal challenge and test the boundaries of our Constitution. I am serious,” he said.

READ MORE: Cook Islands to follow Samoa and ban Rocketman

Hundreds of people have already protested online, after Cook Islands News reported that chief censor Dennis Tangirere intended to ban Rocketman.

One LGBTQ community member on the island, Roger Dunfee, is mobilising his friends in California and around the world to overturn the ban.

Te Tiare Association president Regina Potini issued a pointed reminder that the Cook Islands Constitution provides for freedom of speech and expression.

“A prohibition of this film/work of art will impinge on this fundamental right guaranteed under the Cook Islands Constitution.”

Members of Te Tiare Assocation and the LGBTQ community have spoken out to express their concern, but also to show that the sentiments behind the ban are not representative of wider Cook Islands opinion.

Others, though, have taken to social media in grief or anger.

“Today I question my patriotic pride,” wrote Teherenui Koteka.

“The fact I belong to a community who in this day and age so outrightly marginalises the LGBTQ community, a community I am proud to be a part of, further illustrates why our country continuously fails to move forward in the modern day world stage.”

“This honestly makes me sad,” said Ally Donnerly. “If my country can’t accept a movie then how can they accept me?”

And Brenda said, “As a trans woman from Mangaia with a great career in aviation, I find it sad that we are not an evolving nation. More worried about your image in the Pacific than your people.”

The film, a biography of the English pop singer Elton John which depicts intimate gay sex scenes, had been showing at empire cinema for around seven days, but is believed to have been pulled from screening last Friday.

Tangirere spoke to Cook Islands News before the film was pulled, saying he was planning to ban Rocketman because it contained scenes of homosexuality.

The conservative Islamic nation of Egypt had already banned the film, and Samoa followed suit, saying the film did not “go well with the cultural and Christian beliefs of Samoa”.

News of the Cook Islands ban has made overseas headlines, and momentum against the ban is building rapidly.

“This is the wrong message that the Cook Islands wants to be sending the rest of the world” says Roger Dunfee, who postponed a flight to California to mobilise opposition to the ban.

Dunfee, who watched the movie last week, says the ban could have a “detrimental effect” on Cook Islands tourism.

“People are likely to just spend their money travelling somewhere else,” he says.

“There are kids now who see this as a complete disapproval of their lifestyle, of what they want to identify as, of who they really are,” he warns. “I know kids who have committed suicide because of these types of issues.”

The movie Rocketman is likely to be banned in the Cook Islands, despite having already been in the cinema for a week, reports the Cook Islands News.

The film, a biography of English pop singer Elton John, was banned in Samoa last week due to its graphic depiction of gay sex.

“We might go the same way,” chief censor Dennie Tangirere told the Cook Island News.

READ MORE: Inside Samoa’s Rocketman ban

The proposal has worried Cook Islands’ LGBTI community, as it did across the Pacific.

Samoa’s principal censor had told local media the film did not “go well with the cultural and Christian beliefs of Samoa”.

Tangirere acknowledged that other films had previously been censored in the Cook Islands on“religious grounds”.

“We have banned films here before for containing homosexual content,” he said.

Rocketman is billed as a musical fantasy about Elton John’s breakthrough years. It has received critical acclaim overseas.

It was released at the local empire cinema on June 6 and has screened about seven times since. The movie was not screened on Friday last week, with cinema management citing “technical issues”.

Cook Islands News understands the movie is unlikely to be screened again at the cinema, a family business run by Pa Napa.

When questioned as to why the film was already being screened at the cinema, Tangirere stated that he was usually provided with a list of films cinemas prior to their screening, but this did not happen last week.

So he was oblivious to the fact that Rocketman would be screened here.

“I usually watch the films before they are screened. However, Napa was late with the list last week,” Tangirere said.

The looming ban has drawn criticism from the local LGBTI community, with the secretary of Te Tiare Association Valentino Wichman saying: “Rocketman is just another film which people should have the freedom to watch.

“Banning films based on certain grounds affects people in different ways. Actions like this brings up certain views and emotions which can be damaging.”

“The ban may bring unwanted attention to members of our community and may reignite certain attitudes which are better left somewhere else. The message to the community is that this ban does not mean that we (the LGBTI community) are less normal, or that we should feel angry and sad,” said Wichman.

“We are an integral part of this community and to a large extent are socially accepted members of our society.”

In both Samoa and the Cook Islands, sodomy is an illegal act.

“These archaic laws have never been used, however the fact that they are there and can be used is a worry for our community.”

Wichman promised to follow up with the censor office regarding the ban and encouraged people to still watch the film.

“You can still get a copy from overseas and watch it in your homes.”

Vanuatu student journalist Telstar Jimmy launched her first poetry book in Fiji last week and vows bigger plans ahead to to help boost publishing in her country.

Although it took her several years to achieve her passion, Jimmy was proud that everyone around her is enjoying the moment.

“I feel relieved that I was finally able to publish, and overjoyed that I can now be able to share my poems with others – not just in Vanuatu but in the Pacific, because friends from Solomon Islands, Fiji and Nauru have already started buying the book and giving me a lot of positive feedback on it,” she says.

Jimmy’s plan now is to find other poets in Vanuatu and promote their work in anthology collection that can give them recognition.

“I know many have the potential but they lacked the opportunity to shine and share their stories,” she says.

While on the verge of completing her Bachelor degree at the University of the South Pacific majoring in journalism and language and literature at the end of this year, the launch of her book marks a double highlight in her academic journey.

The title of the book is Journey of Truth with four chapters and 76 pages.

Oceanic views
The poems cover global issues, oceanic views of the Pacific, family values and love stories.

She says the title of the book reflects the many stories in the book depicting real life events and journeys of life.

When asked who inspired her develop her poetry and why she decided to write a book, Jimmy answers, “Grace Molisa [an acclaimed ni-Vanuatu politician, poet and campaigner for women’s equality in politics] was my big inspiration … but then she passed away so soon”.

She said one of the main reasons to publish the book is to create a resource for Vanuatu generations with the Oceania and Pacific context.

As a mother of three children and mentor for many young Vanuatu students at Laucala during her three years of study, Telstar Jimmy describes the poems as a voice for all the silenced women – especially in a male-dominated country like Vanuatu.

Many student journalists at USP have posted messages on social media to congratulate the Vanuatu journalist for her poetic talents.

“Writing was fun and easy but publishing was quiet hard,” she says, thanking her family for funding her publication in Fiji.

Never give up
Jimmy’s message to her peers is never give up in life, even if it takes many years to achieve their dream.

“Don’t neglect the potential that you have.”

She thanked her families, especially her parents, siblings, children and husband for their support.

“Not forgetting Tony Alvero and Jerome Robert for the artistic designs, my English teachers at Malapoa and literature lecturers at USP, colleagues and friends and most importantly the almighty God for the wisdom and blessings,” she says.

• Telstar Jimmy featured in a Pacific Media Centre climate change video last year by AUT student journalists Julie Cleaver and Kendall Hutt. Asia Pacific Report has a content sharing arrangement with Vanuatu Daily Post.

Tikanga-based mahi toi and mental wellbeing come together in an Auckland artist’s work with pounamu and bone.

Maha Tomo, of Ngai Tahu, Rangitane, Tainui, and Ngāti Kauwhata, fuses indigenous values, education, and art in his carving workshops designed with mental health and rangatahi at its forefront.

Tomo says his workshops, run in schools and communities in East, West and South Auckland, are his way of giving back after his own struggles as a young person with mental health and addiction.

“I always thought if I ever got through my challenges that I would pay it forward and show gratitude by sharing my knowledge with others.

“I’ll always remember those who helped me, and hopefully I can be the same beacon of light to others,” he says.

Tomo’s passion for carving came from a young age after his grandfather gave him a bone carving from the South Island. The idea of combining mental wellness and art came to him when he was studying a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Manukau Institute of Technology.

“When I wasn’t studying, I was working a lot with people going through major challenges in their lives.

Creating wellness
“That’s where the component of creating wellness in my workshops came from because I studied cross-cultural supervision and mental health and other addictions as well.”

Tomo promotes wellbeing in his workshops by integrating indigenous and modern knowledge and concepts. He teaches from a Māori perspective, incorporating values such as tikanga (process), whakawhanaungatanga (togetherness), manaakitanga (support), and wairauatanga (spiritual resilience).

“There is a definite resurgence in pounamu and the interest in indigenous platforms as wellness strategies.

“I like to incorporate a lot of both worlds – taking the best of mainstream education but also adding those beautiful aspects of indigenous learning.”

He says his dedication to sharing indigenous ways of teaching through traditional values comes from learning from other community leaders. His experiences with rangatahi in schools also play a role.

“Working on these workshops, I find a lot of young people are kinesthetic learners that learn through actually doing rather than perhaps studying for a test.

“I see art as a vehicle moving forward that I can use to support mental health within the community and young people that are challenged by mainstream techniques of teaching.

“There’s nothing wrong with mainstream; I think it works well for many. But, for the ones getting left behind, I see my mahi with pounamu and with bone as a safety net that might catch some of the learners that are struggling. I’m just here to provide a safe environment,” says Tomo.

Irra Lee is a second year student journalist in the Bachelor of Communication Studies degree at Auckland University of Technology.

By Joko Santoso in Purbalingga

A short film by a student whose family were victims of the 1965 anti-communist purge in Indonesia has won best fictional film at the 2018 Purbalingga Film Festival.

The film titled Against the Current (Melawan Arus) was directed by Eka Saputri and produced by the Kebumen 1 State Vocational School.

Facilitated by the Ministry of Education and Culture’s (Kemdikbud) Cinematography Development Centre (Pusbangfilm), the film tells the story of a man and wife defending their rights to their land despite being branded “decadents” of the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Yono, the husband, has lost his spirit to defend the land which is being disputed with the authorities. He suggests to his wife Siti that they move.

Siti however who is strong in her convictions remains living in the house squatting on the land. The 10-minute film researches a land conflict in Urut Sewu, Kebumen.

According to one member of the fictional film jury, Teguh Trianton, Against the Current succeeds getting views to explore the psychological aspects of the issue.

“The film leaves viewers contemplating deeply and leaves behind questions the answers to which can be found outside of the film,” sauidTrianton.

“We hope that our film can inspire views through the courage of community farmers in Urut Sewu in defending their right to land,” said director Eka Saputri.

Best documentary
The best documentary category was won by Sum by director Firman Fajar Wiguna and produced by the Purbalingga 2 State Vocational School.

The 15-minute film tells the story of a woman named Suminah, a former Indonesian Peasants Union (BTI, affiliated with the PKI) activist.

After being jailed for 13 years, Sum lives in solitude. She continues to wait for things to take a turn for the better.

According to the documentary jury board’s notes, the film Sum was put together through selected esthetic pictures and a sequence of clear informational narratives.

“As an endeavor at visual communication, this film enriches the national historical language through a grass-roots perspective and the victims who were impacted upon by the excesses of political struggles at the national level,” explained one of the jury members, Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu.

The favorite fictional film category was won by the film Banner (Umbul-Umbul) directed by Atik Alvianti and produced by the Purwareja Banjarnegara Group Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) 2 Vocational School.

Viewers’ favourite
In the favorite documentary film category meanwhile, viewers sided with Unseen Legacy (Warisan Tak Kasat Mata), directed by Sekar Fazhari from the Bukateja Purbalingga State senior high school.

The Lintang Kemukus award for Banyumas Raya maestro of the arts and culture was awarded to R. Soetedja (1909-1960), a composer from Banyumas, and the Kamuajo Musical Group was awarded the Lintang Kemukus category of contemporary arts and culture.

Purbalingga regent Dyah Hayuning Pratiwi, SE, B. Econ who attended the highpoints of the FFP event, said that the Purbalingga regency government was committed to supporting cinematographic activities and the film festival in Purbalingga.

“Aside from being an arena for friendly gatherings, cinematographic activities are also an arena to improve respective regency’s reputations and prestige,” he said.

Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the article was Film Tragedi 65 Raih Penghargaan di FFP 2018.

The making of Melawan Arus – dialogue in Bahasa Indonesian.

Auckland’s popular Silo Park will come alive to the sounds of the Caribbean next week.

Part of the Summer at Silo Park events, the Aotearoa-New Zealand Steelband Festival on Saturday, February 24, will bring together seven local steelbands and feature two special guest steelbands from Australia.

It is the first event of its kind to be held in New Zealand.

The festival is being organised by the first steelband to be established in New Zealand, the CaribbeaNZ Southern Stars.

Band manager Camille Nakhid says the event has been a longtime coming.

“CaribbeaNZ Southern Stars formed in 2005 and have played at festivals and private events all over New Zealand.

“With a number of other bands established in recent years we felt the time was right to bring us all together and stage the country’s first ever steelband festival.”

With a history stretching back to African drumming practices, the modern steelpan evolved in Trinidad during World War II, when industrious musicians with little resources refashioned disused 55-gallon drums into a range of instruments.

New musical identity
Initially stigmatised as unsophisticated music of poor communities, the image of steelpan music changed after Trinidad gained independence in 1962 and set out to define a new musical identity for itself.

Today, steelbands and Calypso music are globally recognised and synonymous with the Caribbean and the vibrant sights and sounds of carnival season, which has just finished.

“Carnival is the real annual party for Caribbean communities,” said Nakhid.

“Steelbands practise for months to prepare for the Panorama competitions. With our festival, we’re hoping to bring that same atmosphere, the Caribbean love of music and festivity, to downtown Auckland.”

As well as the nine steelbands, the festival will also feature guest performances by other drumming groups, and food – including lip-smacking Caribbean favourites – will be available throughout the day.

At 2.30pm, the bands will dress up in costumes for the festival parade and traditional massed-band finale performance.

‘Feelin’ de riddim’
Any members of the public who are “feelin’ de riddim” will be invited to take part in the parade, dance and join in the carnival atmosphere.

The festival is free to attend and opens at 9.30am.

It is being supported by Silo Park and the Auckland Council Creative Communities scheme.

A carnival night is also being held on the same day at the Fickling Centre, and will feature the CaribbeaNZ Southern Stars performing with exciting newcomers The Panimals (Bream Bay College) and special guest singer Errol Renaud from Sydney’s Caribbean Soul.

Limited tickets will be available on the door, and cost $20.

Contacts: Tish Viljoen 021 025 27616 or Camille Nakhid

• NZ’s first steelband festival to be held at Auckland’s Silo Park

By David Robie in Yogyakarta

A vision for a progressive activists, writers and researchers retreat in the lush outskirts of Indonesia’s most cultural city, Yogyakarta, is close to becoming reality.

The Indonesian Community and Activists Library (ICAL) is already an impressive “shell” in the front garden of Australian author and socio-political analyst, intellectual and consultant Max Lane, arguably the most knowledgeable English-language writer on Indonesian affairs.

Dr Lane, who has been writing and commenting about cultural and political developments in Indonesia, Philippines, Timor-Leste and his homeland since the 1970s, is delighted that completing the centre is so close.

“We have almost completed this building, the library, which will have a reading room, an office, and also some accommodation for those who would like to stay for a few days, or even longer to use the library,” he says, gesturing towards the empty rooms at the complex in the rice-producing and tourist village of Ngepas.

“The library will have about 4000 to 5000 books in the field of social sciences, humanities, history, feminism and so on.”

The books have been donated, but they mainly comprise the collections of some of Australia’s leading activists, such as John Percy, over more than five decades of his life.

Percy was a veteran socialist who co-founded the radical youth organisation Resistance and the Socialist Workers Party in Australia. He edited Direct Action for many years and helped establish Green Left Weekly. He died in 2015 and his passing inspired the library project with Lane, a close friend.

Filling a gap
The progressive book collection will help fill a gap in the literature for young activists and lecturers.

“We think the books are going to be very much put to use because this particular collection is probably still very difficult to find in Indonesia because of 35 years of authoritarian rule. Many books were not allowed, or difficult to be positioned, in libraries,” Lane says.

Under the Suharto regime between 1965 and 1998, book acquisitions for Indonesian school, university and community libraries were “underfunded and, when funded, narrow and censored”.

Lane hopes that ICAL will, in a “small but effective way”, help improve the situation.

“The books will comprise the collections of Australian progressive activists and intellectuals,” he says.

“The complex here is a very nice area to work in. It is less than half an hour from the three main university campuses and we expect university students, lecturers, NGO activists, political activists and others to be using the facilities here.

“It’s almost finished. We are still short of funds — we need US$3000 or $4000 to finish the central part of the library so people can start to use it. And probably another $5000 or $6000 to finish the accommodation area so people can stay over.

Team managing
“So I can say it is 80 percent or 90 percent funded and it will only take one or two months for the builder to complete work on it.”

Dr Max Lane and his wife, Faiza Mardzoeki, will manage the centre. She is one of Indonesia’s leading women playwrights and theatre directors, whose works include the 2006 play Nyai Ontosoroh (Madame Ontosoroh). She will be the day-to-day manager of the library programme.

Their home is a bungalow next door, on the banks of an attractive stream. Dr Lane injected about US$25,000 into the project himself and provided the land on their property.

Between them, Lane and Mardzoeki hope to see the centre become a lively base for creative and cultural activity. Classes, forums, discussions, short course training sessions on a range of topics relating to social sciences and humanities, and literature will be on the bucket list.

Dr Lane introduced the English-speaking world to the celebrated revolutionary Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who was imprisoned by Suharto for a decade on the Maluku island of Buru, by translating his classic Buru Quartet novels, starting with Bumi Manusia (The Earth of Mankind) in 1980. He was an officer working at the Australian Embassy at the time and it was not a popular move among his superiors.

According to an Asymptote profile of Dr Lane by Fadli Fawzi and Nazry Bahrawi, it was a dangerous era.

“At this time, Indonesian president Suharto’s New Order regime (the Partai Golongan Karya — Party of the Functional Groups, known as Golkar) was in power, propped up by foreign investment and backed by the army.

Heavy-handed repression
“It was also when heavy-handed repression was the norm in Southeast Asia, and Suharto’s New Order government was no exception. In the early 1980s, corpses began surfacing in public places as a result of extrajudicial killings.”

This was also a period when the Indonesian military was involved in bloody repression in East Timor after the country was invaded at the end of 1975.

Dr Lane’s own extraordinary literary outputs, apart from his translations, include his Unfinished Revolution: Indonesia Before and After Suharto (2008), Catastrophe in Indonesia (2010), and Unfinished Nation (2014) and collections of poetry.

Currently, Dr Lane is visiting senior fellow at the Institute for Southeast Asia Studies in Singapore. Previously he has lectured at universities across the region, including the University of Sydney in Australia and Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, and internationally.

The ICAL venture will be supported by a membership drive with the original members being invited on the basis of recommendations from of a panel of university professors and social justice activists.

Prospective new members will need to be recommended by two existing members.

More information about ICAL and a donations link are on the centre’s crowdfunding page.

• Green Left Weekly

A small, enthusiastic crowd gathered among the shelves of one of Auckland’s libraries earlier this week to listen to a lively and engaging talk on the practice of malu, the Samoan female tattoo.

The event, part of Papatoetoe Library’s regular “Tea and Topic” programme, was organised to celebrate Pasifika, when every March the diversity of cultures throughout the Pacific region is marked.

The talk was delivered by Leota Alice Meredith, a Samoan-New Zealander who discovered an appreciation for her home culture when she travelled to Samoa in her early 20s.

Her motivation behind the talk was “giving back to community”.

Meredith acknowledged she was not only inspired to speak about the malu, but to give her audience an opportunity to learn more about the Pacific and its people.

“I’m sure you have questions in regards to Pacific people and their mannerisms. I mean, look at what I’m wearing,” she laughed with her audience.

‘Main print’
Meredith described the malu, Samoa’s female tattoo, as the “main print or tattoo on the back of the legs” and readily showed off her own.

“Thank goodness, I managed to remember to shave my legs this morning.”

Tattooed in 1995 by the late Su’a Suluape Paulo – who was considered a master of his art – Meredith admitted she got through the four-hour ordeal by listening to the radio on her Walkman.

Meredith highlighted how the process of traditional tattooing involved three apprentices to the tattooist, some who begin training as young as seven or eight years.

“You learn by observation, so the sooner the better.” The first of these apprentices or assistants is responsible for pulling the skin taught so the tattooist’s tool bounces cleanly, while the second is responsible for diligently wiping away the blood.

The third assistant, Meredith jokingly added, was capturing the tattooist’s ashes “from the constant train of cigarettes” he supplied Paulo.

She outlined how the mix of blood and water, a result of cleaning the malu, was not a pleasant smell for Paulo, while cigarette smoke was.

But when asked by one audience member if it was painful, Meredith replied:

‘I wasn’t going to stop’
“Oh, yes, four hours and I was lucky. I wasn’t going to stop. As soon as he started I knew I wasn’t stopping. Because I knew if I stopped, that might be game over before you know it, and I was very adamant I did not want to wear tights for the rest of my life.”

But, as Meredith explained, the malu is not as painful as the male equivalent.

This is because the final part of the male tatau, or tattoo, consists of tattooing into the navel, which holds much spiritual significance because the umbilical cord symbolises life.

Importantly, malu also involves a journey, a journey Meredith explained must not be done alone.

“With the tattooing, you always go in partnerships. There’s always a pair of you. They say you don’t tattoo by yourself. It’s because when you journey through anything that is painful, you don’t journey alone. It’s something in all of us, in life in general.”

Malu also involves the “ritual” of cracking an egg over one’s head upon the tattoo’s completion “as a sign of renewal,” Meredith said.

Meredith also explained to the audience the numerous traditions and norms behind Samoa’s rich tattooing history, led by two families – Sa Su’a and Sa Tuluo’ena.

Revived the art
“The Su’a family literally revived the art of traditional Pacific tattooing, in the world,” Meredith said.

She also not only described how there are certain times to display the malu – less one becomes cursed – but how the female tattoo in the past involved a certain hierarchy.

“Originally, only a chief’s daughter could have the malu.”

But, inevitably, as time has passed, the malu – and tatau itself – has evolved.

Meredith explained how this has largely come due to the introduction of health regulations, which has seen the turtle shell and bone of traditional tools replaced with titanium.

Debate has also raged about whether non-Samoans are entitled to bear the malu and tatau, and if women are entitled to wear male tattoos and vice versa, a debate Meredith chalked down to “pushing boundaries”.

She could see where “traditionalists” were coming from, however.

“We’re surrounded by cultural protocols in order to map our cultural significance.”

Kendall Hutt is the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch contributing editor.

• The iconic Pasifika Festival celebrating its 25th birthday at Auckland’s Western Park this weekend. More than 220 performance groups and 60,000 people reportedly took part.

Knee-jerk resentment of someone else’s success, as elsewhere, is sadly a feature of Vanuatu life, so the kind of comment seen below, prompted by the feature film Tanna‘s global success  — and now Oscar nomination, is not unexpected:

Thanks and good tumas blo save’ but my comments is, I think my people have been exploited and although the film is making its name to the top, how are these custom village people, the film actors, the island and the country been compensated for what they have to go through to produce this film including any protocol in this country? Can some one reply to this comments with some evidence?

Exploitation is a serious claim to make, however, so we are taking this opportunity to set the record straight.

Protecting kastom mo kalja is taken very seriously in Vanuatu. The Vanuatu Cultural Centre — as the commentor may already know — has stringent protocols in place to prevent exploitation of communities.

Filmcrews must get prior approval to work in Vanuatu, are carefully monitored while working in the country, and must give a copy of their unedited footage to the Cultural Centre when they leave.

On Tanna, the Tafea Cultural Centre supervises all cultural protocols.

In the film Tanna‘s case, The filmmakers went a step further – they opened a kastom rod (a relationship built on mutual respect and kastom) between themselves, the chiefs and the community. This connection is arguably a major reason why audiences have responded so well to Tanna – the genuine, heartfelt connection between the filmmakers, the cast and the community is apparent.

Vanuatu Daily Digest reached out to the filmmakers for clarification, and Janita Suter, wife of co-director Bentley Dean and location producer for the film had this to say:

“The film was only possible through the auspices of the Vanuatu Culture Centre at a national and local level, who insist and ensure that all people involved in the productions of films in Vanuatu are dealt with fairly and respectfully — including representation and payment during production (both traditional and financial).

“Beyond this The Vanuatu Culture Centre and community of Yakel are in charge of DVD sales for all of Vanuatu, including how the film is distributed and profits. Our aim is that people should continue to benefit from their cultural output.

“We’re regularly in contact with the community, in fact one was recently staying with us! The film continues to give back to the community and the chiefs have been happy with this arrangement right from the beginning. The chiefs maintain there is a strong kastom road between us.

“It is good to clarify this sort of commentary. There were very deliberate safeguards to ensure no ‘exploitation’ occurred and that the correct ‘monetary compensation’ was made for those involved in the film. This was all arranged through the official relevant Vanuatu institutions described above, as is the correct process for filming in Vanuatu, as well as the traditional chiefs of the villages involved.

“If people have queries on this they can speak with the chiefs of Yakel or Jacob Kapere from the Cultural Centre, or the cultural director of Tanna, JJ Nako (if you can find him!).”

• From Tanna to Hollywood: Film success for Vanuatu love story
• Oscars: Tanna marks first foreign language nomination for Australia

REVIEW: By Vaimoana Tapaleao of The New Zealand Herald

You know the film is something special when the opening scene brings a tear to the eye.

It is the call of song from an ancestor: the voice of a woman singing the language of our forefathers. Her chant and her words are the welcoming scene for Disney’s movie of the moment: Moana.

She’s been a long time coming, but Disney’s first Pacific princess has finally arrived.

This one is different, though. There are no ballgowns or diamond tiaras. Her hair is not straight, it’s wavy and the kind our mothers had to try to tame with the Pasifika version of gel: coconut oil.

This princess has a pig for a pet and, my gosh, her legs actually have calves.

Walking into the movie theatre to see this film was a weird experience.

As a Samoan woman, there was a sense of expectation for this film from the day Disney announced it was happening. There was also something close to dread: “Will they get it right?”

Te Vaka drums and vocals
As New Zealand Pacific band Te Vaka opened with a series of harmonies, drums and vocals unique to our part of the world, I began to breathe again.

“Home,” I thought.

A lot of controversy surrounded Moana, even before the girl who would lend her voice to her was cast.

People questioned the right a big-time international franchise had to create it.

When images of Maui, voiced by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, were released, people slammed the depiction of the revered demi-god who looked like an obese ogre.

Maui fished up the islands, and then deep-fried them, the memes said.

Disney was accused of cultural appropriation when it released a kids’ costume, a brown jump-suit with tattoos, just before Halloween. Disney answered the only way that would calm the waters, with an apology and removing the costume from shelves.

The thing is, however, this is the first time in Disney history that the people on screen actually look like us.

Mirror image of our backyard
In an earlier review of the film, an overseas-based writer said it was somewhat unrealistic because the scenery appeared magical.

The writer most probably has never stepped foot in the Pacific, because the Polynesia depicted in the film is an animated yet mirror image of our backyard.

The glittering see-through ocean looks like the one the village kids splash in behind my mum’s family fale in Savai’i.

Tamatoa, Sina, Tui, Fiti and hell, even the chicken Hei Hei (Ho!) – are all names that belong to family and church members, or words I grew up hearing.

The siapo (tapa cloth) hanging in the fale are the same as ones at home and the pe’a tattoo worn by Moana’s father, Tui, is the same as one seen on old photos of my great-grandfather.

The way the lava meets the sea, the way the blow holes spit out jets of water near the beach and even the lushness of the plants, frangipani trees and teuila, or red ginger, yeah, it is magical, but it is also our reality.

As a kid, a lot of people would ask about the origins of my name.

“Where is it from?” The answer has always been: Samoa – but it’s also Tongan, Māori, Hawai’ian, Tahitian … actually, it’s from the whole of the Pacific.

In the same way, Moana belongs to us. She is not just another Disney princess. She is a daughter of the South Pacific, and for that, I am proud.

Vaimoana Tapaleao is The New Zealand Herald’s Pacific Affairs and People reporter. An award-winning journalist, she is also a graduate of Auckland University of Technology and won the Pacific Media Centre’s Storyboard Award for diversity reporting in 2007. The article was first published by the Herald and has been republished with permission.

• Kiwi stars of Moana fought hard to preserve film’s mana, but one may even have risked his job
• Moana is still the number one film overseas
• Pacific choir records for big budget film Moana

Wansolwara, USP’s training newspaper, was also commemorated for its 20th year of publishing.

Journalism student Chrisnrita Aumanu received the award of Best Wansolwara Editor, sponsored by Fiji publication Business Melanesia.

She told Asia Pacific Report that she enjoyed her role as student editor this year and was humbled to receive the award.

‘Challenging times’

“There would be challenging times, for example, running out of stories to put on the pages and looming deadlines. But at the end of the day when the challenges are dealt with, and with the great help from our tutors, it’s a great feeling.”

She said one of the successes for 2016 was this years first edition of the newspaper, when  student journalists dedicated two-pages of the publication to TC Winston, the biggest cyclone ever to hit the Fiji islands.

Aumanu said being an editor has pushed her out of her comfort zone. Originally from the Solomon Islands, she hopes to bring her experience home to give back to her country.

She also acknowledged the team of student reporters and photographers who worked tirelessly on the newspaper this year.

‘Wansolwara’

“Wansolwara is a great news outlet, as it is a great platform for student journalists to put on paper what they have been taught in classrooms. Moreover, Wansolwara moulds budding journalists like us to write better stories each and every time with a sense of pride when we see our bylines.”

Another big winner of the night was former Wansolwara student editor, Sonal Singh, who won the Fiji Sun Tanoa Bowl Best Graduating Student Award.

‘Biggest success’

He told Asia Pacific Report, the award is his biggest success this year.

“Since 2014, when I first came to know about the awards, it became one of my goals to win the best graduating student award. I could say that my consistency brought me closer to this.”

“This awards means that I am on the right track.”

Singh said the biggest challenges for the year have been managing his role as the president of the USP Journalism Students Association (JSA), as well as a six-week attachment, and his commitment to Wansolwara.

“However through the understanding and help from family, friends and my lecturers, I was able to overcome my obstacles.”

‘Revived’

Singh, together with fellow journalism students have also successfully “revived” USP’s JSA by raising enough funds to improve the facilities in their newsroom.

Asia Pacific Report asked Singh what advice he would give to other aspiring Pacific journalists: “My advice would be that if you have the will and courage to stand and speak for what is right to improve our society, then become a journalist. It’s more exciting and satisfying than you think.”

Chief guest

The chief guest at the awards night was former USP lecturer Dr Philip Cass who founded Wansolwara in 1996 and now teaches at UNITEC in Auckland.

“Wansolwara has gotten more ambitious, covering issues from across the Pacific region,” Cass said in a statement featured in the Fiji Times.

“I think over the years, Wansolwara has become a lot better and has certainly won a lot of awards. This certainly has reflected the hard work done by my successors and all the staff who have worked on it over the years.

“This is a very special moment for me to think that it has survived this long and has prospered this much. I was very touched and I am very grateful for this invitation.”

Wansolwara is now the longest surviving student publication in the Pacific region and continues to cover serious news on a quarterly basis.

USP journalism coordinator Dr Shailendra Singh said the awards have been an important event in university’s journalism calendar, since it was introduced by the Pacific Media Centre’s Professor David Robie.

‘Well supported’

“The awards are well supported by the news media industry in Fiji who sponsor the prizes,” Dr Singh said.

“News media industry representatives attend the function and present the prizes in person, which is a boost for the future journalists of the region.”

Dr Singh said the need for well-trained journalists had increased with the onset of social media and citizen journalism, especially in the face of the ongoing development problems faced by the region.

‘Young journalists’

“It is very important to encourage potential young journalists by recognising, incentivising and rewarding good examples of journalism,” said Dr Singh.

“The awards have become an important occasion in the USP journalism calendar over the years, given USP’s critical role in nurturing the future journalists to meet the needs of the region.”

The USP Journalism Programme has produced more than 200 graduates. Many are now working in various media roles throughout the Pacific and beyond.

• Previous Wansolwara publications

It was a weekend filled with Fijian culture and tradition as the community gathered at the Auckland Museum this week to open celebrations for Fijian language week.

On Saturday morning Fijian leaders from all around the country came together for the first time to address issues that are affecting the community living in New Zealand.

With the community’s population growing fast in Auckland, the leaders were concerned that approximately seven percent of New Zealand-born Fijians cannot speak the language.

The President of the Fiji Community Association of Auckland (FCAA), Naca Yalimaiwai, said it is important for Fijian youth to grow-up surrounded by their language so they can identify with their culture and who they are.

“It’s important to maintain that reputation of who we are when we come away from Fiji,” he said.

In the afternoon, the community turned out in big numbers for the launch of the Fijian collection at the museum.

‘Fijian treasures’

The collection of ancient Fijian artefacts was officially named: ‘Nai Yau Vakaviti: Na Ka Marequiti’ which translates into: ‘Our Fijian Treasures: That are treasured’.

The community said a special blessing for the items, acknowledging the culture, tradition and skill of their ancestors.

The exhibition is a part of the Pacific Collection Access Project at the Auckland Museum. It has, for the very time, allowed communities to view an extensive look into the Pacific collections they store.

The collection will continuing viewing until July 2017.

Watch the full video story here.

Fiji Language Week runs from October 3-9, 2016. This years theme is:Noqu vosa, me’u bula take, which means my language, learn it, speak it, live it!

EyeWitness news interviewed the cast members when they visited ABC7 broadcasting studio in LA.

Cast member Lingai Kowia told the EyeWitness reporter that he is glad “my world has been shown to you in the film, so you can learn what is good from my world.”

Global success

As the first movie to ever be filmed in Vanuatu, Tanna, has continued to receive global success.

It has been picked by Screen Australia as its official entry for best foreign language film at the 2017 Oscars and was voted best direction and best feature film at the Australian Directors Guild Awards.

In August the film was dubbed a “hit” when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival where it was also voted best film and best cinematographer.

The movie will be released in Canada in October at the Vancouver International Film Festival and Edmonton International Film Festival.

The plot follows a young girl, Wawa, who falls in love with the chief’s grandson but is unknowingly betrothed to another as part of a peace deal between two tribes.

It based on a true story in 1984 that led to custom changes on arranged marriage.

• Watch the EyeWitness interviews with the cast
• Vanuatu’s Romeo and Juliet epic Tanna nominated for Oscars
• Watch the trailer

By TJ Aumua in Auckland

Filmmakers Joshua Iosefo and Corey Larry Sio found out this month that their short film Forgotten Dawn Children will be screened in Sydney later this year at the Pasifika Film Festival.

The best friends are still overwhelmed saying it is a dream come true to have a film accepted into a festival.

Originally made for final year assignment at university, Sio, the films producer, says he is “shocked but humbled” at the news.

“I didn’t think we would submit it into anything…but he did!” Sio laughs pointing to the films director, Iosefo, who is sitting next to him.

“As we were making it I was like, yeah, this is going be in a film fest!” 22-year-old Iosefo admits.

“I just had this big dream that even though this was supposed to be an end of year assignment, I wanted to make it way more than that.”

“For it to be recognised in a film festival adds value to the film,” says Iosefo.

This is especially important to a film that is based on a shamefully true event that itself, has received little value and little recognition in New Zealand’s history.

 The film follows main character, Ioane, a middle-aged man, who is haunted by his memories of the dawn raids, and the struggle of growing up as a Pacific Islander in mid-1970s Auckland.

While going about his daily life, Ioane’s flash backs, show us the unjustifiable arrests of many Pacific Islanders whose homes were raided by police in what is now today’s trending suburbs of Ponsonby, Grey Lynn and Mount Albert.

 Honoring the struggle

“The Dawn Raids is not taught in New Zealand schools- it’s not in the curriculum,” Iosefo explains.

It wasn’t until a year-12 drama teacher in high school taught him about the dawn raids when he became “obsessed” with learning about it.

“I feel that, that was quite late in my life to learn something that concerns my people and my history in New Zealand,” Iosefo says, who is a proud Samoan/Niuean.

“Hence Forgotten Dawn Children.

“I felt that there needed to be something to honor that, to honor the struggle, as well as the memories of people…memories that have just been forgotten.”

‘Our people’

‘We don’t take credit for the film,’ they both say. ‘We are just telling the story of our people and what happened.’

Twenty-eight-year-old Sio, says seeing the film come to life has created a new found respect for his Pacific family.

“It’s made me realise how strong and resilient our people are. We are some of the greatest survivors of all time. We really, really, really are strong!

“It makes me even more proud to be Samoan.”

When asked of the most memorable moment in the film, Sio said it was the last scene.

“It was this police scene we filmed on a street in Māngere. We had cops chasing five Pacific Islanders down the street-we had to shoot it so many times.

“People were coming down the street, I think people thought it was real, seeing everyone watching-that will forever stay in mind.

“We were almost done, that was our last and biggest scene and we had no energy left.”

“We were so exhausted that night,” Iosefo adds.

“I fainted in the car…while I was sitting down!” he laughs.

‘Home grown’

It took an eight-member-crew made up of fellow students in their class to make the film which they refer to as “totally home grown”.

Family, friends, and a childhood music teacher were also “shoulder tapped” and generously donated their talent, time and money to making the film.

“At least three quarters of the cast are my family,” says Iosefo.

He credits his dad, who not only acted in the film, but also played the role of transport, errands runner and provided food for the cast and crew throughout the long hours of shooting.

Both Sio and Iosefo say they will be launching a new film project next year.

In the meantime, they are still feeling overwhelmed by their films success and will be flying to Sydney in November for the screening of Forgotten Dawn Children at the Pasifika Film Festival.

We wish them all the best!

Tanna, the movie shot on Tanna Island, Vanuatu, has been picked by Screen Australia as its official entry for best foreign language film at the 2017 Oscars.

The plot follows a young girl, Wawa, who falls in love with the chief’s grandson but is unknowingly betrothed to another as part of a peace deal hatched between two warring tribes.

The chief of Yakel village plays Chief Charlie and the Yakel medicine man plays the Shaman.

Mungau, who plays the chief’s grandson Dain, was chosen by consensus because he was considered the “most handsome” man of the village.

Sydney Morning Herald entertainment writer Linda Morris reported that since its limited Australian release, Tanna has collected a series of international awards.

The Romeo and Juliet tale is directed by Australian documentary filmmakers Bentley Dean and Martin Butler.

The trailer says: “The young lovers run away, but are pursued by enemy warriors intent on killing them.

“They must choose between their hearts and the future of the tribe, while the villagers must wrestle with preserving their traditional culture and adapting it to the increasing outside demands for individual freedom.”

True story
Tanna is based on a true story in 1984 that led to custom changes on arranged marriage and the film is performed by the people of Yakel.

It was voted best film and best cinematographer at the Venice International Film Festival, and the best direction and best feature film at the Australian Directors Guild Awards.

It was also featured in the New Zealand International Film Festival last month.

The Venice jury said: “The eye behind Tanna captures the subtleties and complexities of a culture under threat and provides the audience with a clear vision of that world.”

The chief executive of Screen Australia Graeme Mason said: “Tanna does what all great films aspire to do: transport you out of your seat and keep you completely riveted as you dive into another world.

“It’s a simple and universal story told with such impressive nuance and looks extraordinary on screen. It’s a great privilege to submit Tanna to the Academy on behalf of Australia, the filmmakers and the people of Yakel.”

The movie will be released in New York City and Los Angeles on September 16 and 23 respectively.

Thompson Marango is a Vanuatu Daily Post reporter.

• The trailer for Tanna
• Film Link’s comment

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.

1 of 8

A Buzzfeed article stated eight indigenous crew members are currently involved in the film, including: cinematographer Cornel Ozies and award-winning actor Shari Sebbens are both working directly with Waititi, and Jaru producer and writer, Kodie Bedford, is working in the stunts department.

An indigenous water company has also been contracted to provide water to the production.

According to a Māori Television article, Waititi said: “Being Māori, it’s extremely important to me to have native presence on any film. We’re bringing a huge Hollywood production to this country [Australia] and it’s only right that we make an effort to include indigenous film makers on the journey.”

Penny Smallacombe, head of the indigenous department at Screen Australia said: “We are enormously proud of the talent and ambition of this cohort. From an attachment comes practical and hands-on experience, invaluable networking and the opportunity to forge a sustainable career in the industry.”

Auckland-based Samoan photographer Evotia Tamua will use an artist residency at the National University of Samoa to complete a 20-year photography project documenting the changing lives of people in Salelesi village.

Creative New Zealand, in partnership with the National University of Samoa, offers an annual three-month artist residency in Apia. Established in 2006, the residency celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.

Describing herself as related to almost everyone in Salelesi, on Upolu Island, Evotia will continue her photography culminating in a solo exhibition at MADD Gallery in Samoa this year and in Auckland in 2017.

“I started this project in 1994 when I began my career as a professional photographer. Travelling to Samoa almost yearly I have photographed how the village has adapted to social, political and environmental change,” says Evotia.

“The village has gone from box type TVs or no TVs to large flat screens in open fale. People have migrated from the village, been banished from the village, married into the village, died in the village or are now growing old there.”

Arts Council member Luamanuvao Winnie Laban said: “This is a fascinating project which I am sure will generate great interest in Samoa and New Zealand.  I am looking forward to seeing this wonderful collection of images by such a gifted photographer in one space.”

Evotia Tamua specialises in documenting the Pacific way of life in the islands and in Auckland. She has exhibited her work in New Zealand, Samoa, Australia and England.  Her photography has appeared in Pacific New Zealand and Samoa: Pacific Pride.

Gap in market
In 2007, seeing a gap in the market for Pacific book publishing, she helped found Little Island Press.

In 2008, she published Pacific Auckland, which documents the lives of Pacific Islanders in Auckland, and Polynesian Festival which has a selection of 15 years of photographs from the ASB Polyfest.

Evotia has also worked on projects with visual artist Fatu Feu’u and multi-disciplinary artist Yuki Kihara.

Evotia works as a commercial photographer and has also worked as a tutor and newspaper photographer.

The residency offers New Zealand Pasifika artists the opportunity to develop their potential, skills and practice and is open to established mid-career and senior Pasifika artists who are resident in New Zealand.

Previous recipients include visual artist Siliga Setoga, multidisciplinary artist Shigeyuki Kihara, choreographer/director Lemi Ponifasio, actor/director Nathaniel Lees, the late curator Jim Vivieaere, playwright Fiona Collins, installation artist Tiffany Singh, and the VaHine Collective (Lonnie Hutchinson, Lily Laita and Niki Hastings-McFall).

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

Stop press: A visa has been subsequently granted to the Iranian filmmker

Amnesty International has criticised the denial of a visa for Iranian film director Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami who is due to visit New Zealand during the Documentary Edge Film Festival next month.

This award-winning documentary, Sonita, addresses the issue of forced marriage in Iran.

Through the journey of a young Afghan refugee turned rapper living in Tehran, the film tells the story of how Sonita Alizadeh narrowly escapes forced marriage at 16 by writing the song “Brides for Sale”.

A human rights activist, Ghaemmaghami was due to speak at screenings of the documentary and also to feature as a guest masterclass speaker at an international industry event.

Amnesty International, sponsor of the documentary, said in a statement today that the Screen Edge Forum was giving New Zealand audiences the opportunity to explore these important issues.

“Film directors are often the target of crackdowns by governments in their own countries,
but it is deeply concerning to see our own country rejecting this visa application”, said Margaret Taylor, activism manager at Amnesty International.

“Rokhsareh plans to visit several other countries such as Australia, Turkey and the United States on her worldwide tour to promote this documentary, so it’s surprising that New Zealand has rejected her application on the grounds that she may be a flight risk.”

Amnesty International said it would like to hear more from Immigration New Zealand on how officials came to this decision and the organisation would welcome a reassessment of this case.

Sonita will screen at The Roxy in Miramar, Wellington, on May 13-15 and at Q Theatre, Auckland, on May 19-29.

The festival has set up a petition calling for Immigration NZ to reverse its decision on
Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami’s visa.

You can add your name here.

​The Veiqia Project Exhibition is now open at Auckland University of Technology’s St Paul St Gallery Three as a result of the journey of seven women reconnecting with a “sleeping” cultural practice.

The exhibition boasts the artwork of five contemporary artists from Australia and New Zealand that were developed from 12 months of research and museum visits, in the hope of further understanding “Veiqia” – the practice of female tattooing in Fiji.

“The project is about reawakening ourselves as Fijian woman,” says curator Tarisi Sorovi-Vunidilo.

“The exhibition highlights a process each artist took to learn more about Veiqia, an ancient practice that is part of the rite of passage for young girls before they become a woman,” says Sorovi-Vunidilo.

“It reminds us of our role in Fijian society and reaffirms our place in our family.”

Artist Donita Hulmes says she only heard the word Veiqia a year ago.

“What came to me was the question – why don’t we know about this? This project now gives me hope that we can put the practice back into light and give the names back to our great-grandmothers.”

Artist Joana Monolagi says this is not the end for the project.

“This has opened up a lot of our personal life as a Fijian women and who knows where this will take us.”

The Veiqia Project is supported by AUT’s Office of Pacific Advancement.

“Pacific communities across the world have a wealth of Pacific artistic talent,” says Head of Pacific Advancement Walter Fraser. “We are pleased to be a part of helping showcase this diverse talent.”

​The exhibition is at the St Paul Street Gallery Three from March 16-26, and is aligned with the Pacific Arts Association XII International Symposium.

Artists: Margaret Aull, Luisa Tora, Dulcie Stewart, Donita Hulmes, Joana Monolagi.

Curators: Tarisi Sorovi-Vunidilo and Ema Tavola.

When: 16-26 March 2016

Where: St Paul St Gallery Three, AUT, Auckland City

More about The Veiqia Project

By Christina Milligan in Pape’ete

The 13th Festival International du Film Documentaire Océanien (Pacific International Documentary Festival) was held recently in Tahiti, attended by filmmakers from throughout the Pacific.

FIFO, as it is known, is an important event for bringing attention to Pacific films which sometimes struggle for attention outside their home territories.

An outstanding example this year was the film Le Salaire des Profondeurs, a film from New Caledonian filmmakers Dominique Roberjot and Christine Della-Maggiora. This film explores the fate of Fijian fisherman diving for sea cucumbers in an illegal, unregulated environment which exposes many of them to injury, even death.

It is a deeply disturbing, politically challenging story which deserves a wider audience.

The festival screens a small number of films in competition, with a much wider selection of features and shorts screened outside competition. Prizes are awarded by an international jury, which this year was headed by Abderrahmane Sissako, the Mauritanian director who expressed his deep appreciation for the work that FIFO does, and the connections that he felt between the indigenous people of the Sahara and of the Pacific.

Jury prizes were awarded this year to the New Zealand films The Ground We Won and The Price of Peace, and to the NZ-Tahitian co-production Tupaia. Honourable mention was made of Le Salaire des Profondeurs.

And the audience prize, awarded by public vote, went to the New Zealand film Hip Hoperation.

A compilation of trailers for the 11 films entered in this year’s FIFO in Tahiti.

The Grand Prize was awarded to Another Country, directed by Australian Molly Reynolds. This film follows the great Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil back to his home territory and is a searing indictment of the damage done to the Aboriginal people by colonisation.

Co-creator and chair of FIFO, Wallès Kotra, has commented that the festival is “at least as popular with grandmothers as with the young” and visiting filmmakers find this engagement by the people of Tahiti one of the truly charming aspects of this festival.

As New Zealand filmmaker Lala Rolls comments: “These stories are Pacific stories that it is right to share in our own neighbourhood. They help reflect on and build the Pacific community, often with shared heritage, cultural similarities and values.”

Christina Milligan is a film director and producer, and is also a lecturer in documentary making and screen writing at Auckland University of Technology. She was co-producer of The Price of Peace, one of the jury prize-winners at FIFO this year.

FIFO 2016 – the 13th Pacific International Documentary Film Festival

New documentary gives fresh side to Tame Iti story

Pasifika Renaissance, an NGO dedicated to Pacific oral histories, has appealed to groups documenting traditional knowledge to upload stories to their YouTube channel.

Among recent collaborators are Papua New Guinean journalist and community worker Milton Tyotam Kwaipo, from Rabaul, who runs a multimedia studio in Madang Province.

After earning a BA majoring music, journalism and public relations at the University of Papua New Guinea in 2006, he later worked for NGO World Vision International in PNG, Timor Leste and Vanuatu from 2009 to 2015.

He also earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Development in 2014.

In 2015, he started Milate Multimedia Produxion that focuses on using multimedia (music, audio, radio programs, video and photography) for social empowerment through sharing of ‘positive stories’, focusing on local communities developing themselves rather than waiting for outside sources to aid them.

He is also a musician, playing a flute, saxophone and other instruments.

Pasifika Renaissance’s appeal said:

Since many interested and motivated people have asked us about possible participation in our NGO’s activities, we decided to invite you to document oral traditions from knowledgeable elders in your village or island by a video/digital camera, tablet or cellphone to upload your videos on our YouTube page.

The topics of your elders’ narrations include legends, folktales, colonial histories, experiences of WWII and dying cultural practices.

Narrators can speak in their languages or English in your videos, since the target of your videos is younger people on your island.

This project will primarily enable you to record disappearing oral traditions of your home island and share them with your people.

Furthermore, through this project, we seek your active involvement in revitalising your island’s traditional culture and creating a larger “renaissance” movement in a wider Pacific region.

In addition, if you have an opportunity to take videos of cultural practices (e.g. fishing, festivals, rituals, dances) on your island, please share them with us to upload them on our YouTube page.

If you are interested in this project, please send us a message on FB or at pasifika.renaissance@gmail.com, so we’ll send you more detailed info. We are very looking forward to your participation in our endeavor!

We are very keen to collaborate with a researcher, government official, and interested community member of the Pacific islands to pursue our common goals. Please contact us to discuss possible collaboration. Thank you!

The latest upload to the channel has been a “Western-style” dance “Kahlek Dil” from Pohnpei.

In addition to earlier Western influence in island music in the 19th century, Pohnpeian people learned several forms of foreign dances during the German administration (1899-1914).

One of them is marching dances, which were created through interactions with foreigners in the Marshall Islands and spread throughout Micronesia in the early 1900s.

Cinema Pasifika is a new series of programmes showcasing short films from the Pacific Islands region being screened by Australia Plus for the past two weeks and into next month.

In this fifth episode from Papua New Guinea, Painim Aut, Esther is a teenager living in a village in Simbu Province.

She begins to drift apart from her family when her friendship with Jimmy, a boy working at the supermarket, develops into something more.

After hearing that another one of his girlfriends is HIV positive she worries that she might also have the virus.

This thoughtful and challenging production was made by the students from the Centre for Social Communications and Media in Goroka, Papua New Guinea.

About Cinema Pasifika
The international television channel Australia Plus recently launched Cinema Pasifika, a new series of five half hour programmes, showcasing short films from the Pacific Islands region.

This new series celebrates a range of diverse and unique cinematic voices and each of the short films are followed by short interviews with filmmakers about their creative inspirations, influences and their plans for the future.

It is hoped that funding can be found to turn this series into a DVD for use in schools and universities throughout the Pacific region.

This new TV series was developed following the completion of a research report by the Pacific Community (SPC) titled: “Cinema Pasifika: developing the narrative film and television sector in the Pacific Island region”.

This report, which was produced by Flinch Marketing, found that the Pacific Islands region could generate significant economic, cultural and social benefits by supporting the development of a sustainable film and television industry. ​

The Cinema Pasifika series was developed as a pro bono project by Flinch Marketing and we would like to give special thanks to all the participating filmmakers and the following people who supported this initiative: Laisiasa Dave Lavaki (series editor); Meli Tuqota (series titles); Rako Pasefika (series music); and Elise Huffer (SPC).

Other films in the Cinema Pasifika series:
Episode 1: Va Tapuia (Sacred Spaces) directed by Tusi Tamasese (Samoa).
Screening: 21 Jan, 7.30pm PNG time

Episode 2. Hans Up! Buai O Laip Blong Yu! Hands Hands Up! Your Betel Nut or Your Life! by Emmanuel Narakobi (Papua New Guinea). Screening: 28 Jan, 7.30pm PNG time

Episode 3. Zori by Jack Niedenthal & Suzanne Chutaro (Marshall Islands).
Screening: 4 Feb, 7.30pm PNG time

Episode 4. Envy by Clarence Dass (Fiji).
Screening: 11 Feb, 7.30pm PNG time

Episode 5. Painim Aut produced by the Centre for Social and Creative Media (Papua New Guinea).
Screening: 18 Feb, 7.30pm PNG time

Report from The Conversation

By Liam Burke

Quentin Tarantino has secured his place in popular culture by reaching into neglected corners of cinema for genres that are ready for reinvention and rediscovery.

This approach saw the motormouth filmmaker bring postmodern panache to the gangster film with Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994), mythologise martial arts movies in Kill Bill (2003), and imagine a Hollywood ending for World War II in Inglourious Basterds (2009).

This fruitful trail now brings us to the remote mountainside lodge of Minnie’s Haberdashery – the setting for Tarantino’s eighth film, appropriately titled The Hateful Eight (2015). Across his films Tarantino has built up a loyal company of actors willing to brave these uncertain cinematic detours.

With The Hateful Eight bustling into theatres, I sat down with two of Tarantino’s favourite stars, Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell, to discuss the filmmaker, the movie’s political parallels, and why the Western may never again be a Hollywood mainstay.

A high-octane cast comes together
In post-Civil War Wyoming, an unlikely group of bounty hunters, bandits, and lawmen take shelter from a merciless blizzard in the isolated stagecoach lodge of Minnie’s Haberdashery. The strangers each harbour dark secrets and deadly intentions.

Among the lodge’s reluctant occupants is Samuel L. Jackson’s Union soldier-turned-bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren.

Jackson said the Tarantino set was unusually close and collaborative:

I think it’s unique to this particular film, mainly because we rehearsed it for so long and we spent so much time together… Once we got to [primary location] Telluride [Colorado], Quentin still found unique ways of bringing us all together, cast and crew […] you form a bond that’s very unique and different on his sets.

Kurt Russell plays John “The Hangman” Ruth, a bounty hunter determined to bring prisoner Daisy Domergue to the town of Red Rock. Impenetrable snow forces them to stay at the lodge, with Ruth increasingly suspicious of the other travellers already there.

Russell, a Hollywood veteran who previously worked with Tarantino on Death Proof (2007), said of the on-set atmosphere,

There was a real high level of appreciation of each other’s talent on this, so it was fun to be there and watch somebody else do what they were doing […] the crew and cast were very close.

Jackson, who has contributed to six of Tarantino’s films, describes the filmmaker as a “masterful storyteller [who] creates characters that are complete and honest and entertaining, and memorable”.

The film’s eponymous gunslingers are impeccably cast, with Jackson relishing a further opportunity to spit out Tarantino’s dialogue and Russell bringing old school bluster to the bear-like John Ruth.

Kurt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh are spectacular as John “The Hangman” Ruth and gunslinger Daisy Domergue. RoadshowRussell spends much of the film tethered to his bounty, viper-like Daisy Domergue, played by a revelatory Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Rounding out the octet are Demián Bichir’s unlikely lodge proprietor Bob The Mexican, Reservoir Dogs alumni Tim Roth and Michael Madsen, while Bruce Dern and Walton Goggins play Confederate lost causers.

Like the writer/director’s 2012 movie Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight is a Western, a genre which has enjoyed only limited success since its heyday in the 1950s.

Russell, whose first starring role came at the age of 12 in the 1963 Western TV series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, attributes this decline to genre fatigue:

There was a lot of Westerns on TV [in the 1960s]. In those days you did 26 shows as a series. So you had 26 new shows being written for nine different Westerns. At some point you’ve worn out your welcome.

Jackson disagreed with this take, countering, “I don’t think that about courtroom shows or hospital shows. There’s a whole bunch of PC crap going on too”. Jackson suggests that even if contemporary social attitudes do not allow for the black and white morality of classical Westerns,

They do it in another way now, it’s cop shows and all the other stuff – the alphabet soup of spy shows. People are still shooting themselves all over TV.

Placing The Hateful Eight in the director’s larger filmography, Jackson believes the new film, “fits right in there like the rest of them” with the only difference being that Tarantino “tells bigger stories now, and the scope of them seems to be larger”.

While the film’s first act does feature some impressive snowbound vistas, The Hateful Eight is mainly set in a single location. It invites inevitable comparisons with Tarantino’s first film, the warehouse-set crime drama Reservoir Dogs.

The Hateful Eight engages in some of the same non-linear storytelling synonymous with Tarantino’s catalogue, but it is also one of his most measured film since his breakout success. Commenting on Tarantino’s command of the form, Russell reflects,

He was in his prime here; that is one of the things that I take away from this experience and that I feel very fortunate about. Sometimes you get to work with great directors but unfortunately they weren’t in their prime [Jackson lets out a knowing chuckle].

We can honestly say that it was one thing to work with them perhaps before or after, but when you get to work with Orson Welles absolutely in his prime or you get to work with Quentin Tarantino absolutely in his prime, that’s one to hold on to.

Going old-school: camera, sound and action
Evoking Reservoir Dogs is not the director’s only nostalgic impulse. The notoriously digital-shy filmmaker has avoided industry standard techniques to shoot and process the Western on actual 70mm film.

It’s also the first film since 1966’s Khartoum to be shot in Ultra Panavision 70, which gives The Hateful Eight an impossibly wide aspect ratio.

To showcase this old school format the film is being distributed in a 1950s-style roadshow release with a longer cut (complete with an intermission and musical overture) shown in select theatres first, before the “shorter” 167-minute version is exhibited widely.

In doing so, Tarantino is hoping to combat the loss of cinema audiences to television and streaming services by “eventising” the release. This strategy may work for cinephiles but it’s unlikely to tempt home viewers increasingly accustomed to binge watching Netflix in their pyjamas.

Another incentive for film buffs is The Hateful Eight’s score. Tarantino’s soundtracks are almost as popular as the films they serve. In his first seven releases, the director eschewed a traditional score in favour of cherry-picking obscure film music and retro pop rock.

Here the director breaks with this practice by enlisting Ennio Morricone, whose iconic music gave Sergio Leone’s Westerns their operatic grandeur, to provide the film’s score. While the haunting themes cannot match Morricone’s work on classics like Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) they maintain and reinforce the film’s sense of ever-present danger.

Morricone’s score is essential to bring texture to a film that runs the risk of becoming wearisome across its three-hour running time. Tarantino “the writer” has given Tarantino “the director” an incredibly difficult task by setting the lion’s share of The Hateful Eight in a single location.

Rather than resist the theatricality of this set up, Tarantino has wisely leaned into it. Snowflakes drop from spotlight-like shafts of light that peak through the lodge’s rafters and the 70mm aspect ratio provides a wider stage for the actors to perform, while the director himself reads off-camera stage directions at a crucial juncture. This is assured filmmaking from a director with the conviction to allow the camera to rest on a blood-stained tableaux.

Jackson said that this larger canvas did not affect his performance, but notes that for the audience the characters have,

lives outside of the main focus of what was going on… if you watch the movie a second or third time and follow somebody other than the person who was the major focus of the shot you’ll see all kinds of stuff happening in it.

The lens of the past examines the future
After Tarantino’s more detached earlier work the director’s confidence is also evident by the film’s greater political engagement. Before the release of The Hateful Eight, Tarantino made a number of comments about the divisiveness that pervades modern America.

The film includes many moments that evoke contemporary discussion around US liberal media bias, the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina capitol, and more recently the Oregon militia’s occupation of a wildlife refuge.

Russell believes that as it is an election year, the film’s post-Civil War setting might find particular relevance:

That’s when [divisiveness] is talked about most… And they are not afraid to say something about it… Because maybe there’s a group out there that they want to appeal to, or a group out there that wants someone to appeal to them. And then it dies down for a while – you vote and that’s it.

These days, few Westerns can be found roaming the multiplexes. Russell summarises the genre’s decline by observing,

I think the Western will be something that you get in piecemeal now. You get it in little fits and spurts, but I don’t think it’ll ever be a mainstay again. It’s really hard to come up with a new take.

While The Hateful Eight may not offer a wholly new spin on the Western genre, Tarantino is successful at creating a slow burn chamber piece that ratchets up the tension with the introduction of each gun-toting character.

By providing eight protagonists with uncertain pasts and nebulous morality, Tarantino also affords the spectator a measure of autonomy absent in many modern films. This effect is reinforced by the carefully staged and layered 70mm tableaux that allow the viewer to decide where to look, and ultimately where to rest their allegiance once the bullets start flying and the film races towards a blood-soaked third act.

The Hateful Eight premiered in New Zealand on January 20.

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks, Dana Gourrier, Zoe Bell, Lee Horsley, Gene Jones, Keith Jefferson, Craig Stark, Belinda Owino, Channing Tatum

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Running time: 170 mins

Rating: R18 (graphic violence, sexual violence, offensive language)

 Liam Burke is senior media studies lecturer, Swinburne University of Technology. This review is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence.

Sharing knowledge and skills of traditional art forms – ranging from tattooing to drumming – provide insights into a distinct culture, reports Georgina Harris of Asia-Pacific Journalism.

The Auckland War Memorial Museum recently hosted six Cook Island artists as part of Creative New Zealand’s Pacific Heritage Artists Project.

A day of demonstrations, talks and workshops on September 12 allowed the specialist artists to share knowledge and skills of their heritage art forms – ranging from tattooing to drumming – that are distinct to the Cook Island culture.

The project is a Creative New Zealand annual exchange intended to support Pacific art links with New Zealand.

Piloted in 2012 with seven heritage artists from Samoa, the programme is aligned with certain celebrations in the Pacific such as language weeks or independence. Tonga was chosen in 2013 with Niue following last year.

This year was tied with the 50th anniversary of self-governance in the Cook Islands on August 4.

Senior outreach programmer at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Ole Maiava, said the response was “very positive”.

He said there was good feedback from attendees, especially regarding the talks by master tattooist Tetini Pekepo and master vaka navigator Tua Pittman.

Navigation techniques
At his talk, Rarotongan Tua Pittman spoke of his time on the vaka Marumaru Atua, including visits to San Francisco, Niue and Sydney.

Marumaru Atua mixes modernity with traditional navigation techniques; while using the stars and clouds for directions there is also a GPS on board “for safety”. One of the crew keeps on eye on the GPS but does not disclose the information to the rest of the team.

Pittman said his passion and love of Cook Island culture was intertwined with vaka and navigation.

Jemima Peau, senior weaver (Raranga Rito) said she was there to “represent the weaving mamas” of the Cook Islands with her hats, jewellery and fans.

Peau is from the village of Omoka on the island of Penrhyn, and currently lives in Rarotonga. She was taught to weave by her mother.

She said that weaving was a connection to Cook Island culture as the material used from the coconut tree was unique to the Pacific.

Speaking about her time in New Zealand, Peau said she was appreciative of Creative NZ choosing rito weaving to be one of the heritage art forms.

‘Awesome success’
The artists also did demonstrations and workshops at Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington and Fresh Gallery Otara.

Makerita Urale, Creative NZ’s senior arts adviser for Pacific Arts, helped initiate the pilot through the agency’s international team.

Urale said the programme had been well-received since its first year.

“It’s been an awesome success in terms of sharing each different country each year.”

Urale said there was great importance in keeping the heritage arts alive.

“It’s not just about making material things like the vaka or a hat or piece of jewellery; the making of these works incorporates a lot of our cultural identity, our history and our creative process.”

The programme is free, something that Urale said was deliberate.

Partner institutions
Creative NZ partners with public institutions such as Te Papa and Auckland Museum but decided last year to include Fresh Gallery Otara as it is an area where a lot of Pacific people are.

Consultation is key to the project with CNZ receiving advice and support from experts and curators at Te Papa and other leading Pacific figures.

CNZ also decided to bring a cultural adviser on board to help.

“Everything is run past the cultural adviser to ensure the right kaupapa and protocol” said Urale.

This year was Cook Islander Caren Rangi who is on the CNZ Arts Council and sits on the board of NZ on Air. Rangi helped to run the programme and host.

There is also an artist liason co-ordinator. This year Tuaratini Raa took this position.

This role is taken by someone with knowledge and standing who can engage with the community.

Cultural ‘conversation’
Ana Sciascia, the Creative NZ international adviser who helps co-ordinate the programme with Urale, emphasised the importance of the cultural exchange, or “conversation” between the tangata whenua of Aotearoa and the visiting artists.

This year was the first time the artists were formally hosted by the contemporary Maori art collective Toi Maori Aotearoa, where Sciascia said the visiting artists saw the “strength of coming together as a collective for the arts of your culture”, something she said was inspiring for the Cook Island visitors.

They are also taken behind the scenes of the Te Papa Pacific collection and given a tour of exhibitions at Auckland Museum with the curators.

At present the programme only visits Auckland and Wellington, something that Sciascia said would remain for the time being, due to budget restraints.

The nation for next year’s project has not yet been decided.

Both the Auckland Museum and Te Papa purchase work from the heritage artists each year, and Urale acknowledges this is a positive for Pacific arts.

“It will be available for future generations and will be looked after properly.”

Georgina Harris is a postgraduate student journalist at AUT University.