The University of the South Pacific in Fiji has a colourful market which happens in the third week of every month for four days. Locals and students are both welcome.

There is music, food and clothes stalls, and also books and accessories at Suva’s Laucala Campus.

I snapped some photos while Julie Cleaver got b-roll for the climate change mini documentary we’re making.

We have several interviews lined up today, so watch for our stories over the next couple of days.

• Other Bearing Witness project stories

Market day at USP

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Niuean taro has made a return to the shelves and the stomachs of many in New Zealand — but the humble vegetable has come at a cost.

The Niuean taro is being sold at the Mangere Food Market for $12.99 a kg – more than twice the price of the Fijian and Samoan equivalent.

Managing director for the Mangere Food Market, Vutha Hang says transport costs are to blame.

“Reason why it’s more expensive is because they send it via plane, if they send it via boat then it’ll be cheaper,” he says.

Hang was approached by Shopexports and Freight Ltd to sell the product. Others had declined the offer, he said.

“For me I’ll try, if the people buy it then I’ll carry on and sell it, but if people don’t buy it then I have to stop.”

Shopexports and Freight Ltd, which imports the taro for Mangere Food Market, claims on its Facebook page that the produce supports growers in Niue.

Niuean expats claim their country’s product is of a superior quality than other Pacific varieties.

Fotu Jackson, a Pacific engagement manager at AUT University, says from her extensive knowledge of the Pacific she believes Niuean taro is one of the best.

“I think Niuean taro has a lot more taste, the texture is different than other taro from the Pacific – and I say that as a Samoan,” she says.

Jackson says the soil in Niue is very rich, and she believes this contributes to the uniqueness of the Niuean variety.

Hang says a lot of customers come into his store and look for the taro but only a few actually buy it.

Jackson says despite the price of the Niuean taro, it is worth it.

“I was actually one of the people who drove to buy the taro.”

Jackson says there are not many places you can buy Niuean taro, whereas the Fijian and Samoan variety is readily available throughout the country.

“When it comes to New Zealand it’s really popular, it’s in high demand.”

Repeated efforts to get comment from Shopexports and Freight Ltd were not been successful.

Brandon Ulfsby is a student journalist with Auckland University of Technology’s traning newspaper Te Waha Nui.

Walk down almost any street in Indonesia and you are bound to find street vendors, selling everything from fried tofu to a fresh new haircut.

Known as “kaki lima”, or five legs, food vendors are a vital part of the Indonesian economy, feeding the city’s workers, and even becoming a point of pride.

They have even been admired for their resilience, following the global financial crisis, and their calmness in the face of last month’s Jakarta terror attacks.

However kaki lima vendors are often evicted from busy precincts such as Jakarta’s old city, or Kota Tua, with authorities claiming they are unhygienic eyesores that clog the streets.

So when Dr Rizal Muslimin, an architecture lecturer at the University of Sydney, needed a practical project for his students he was drawn to the street vendors in Bandung, Indonesia’s third largest city, where he first attended university.

The students were tasked with developing a sustainable street vendor shelter for Jakarta vendors.

Dr Muslimin and his counterpart at the Bandung Institute of Technology, Professor Aswin Indraprahasta, came up with an exchange programme where architecture students would spend a week in Sydney designing shelters for street vendors, and another week in Bandung building and testing them.

Real-life experience
They wanted to challenge their students to use design to address a social issue and also give them rare real-life experience.

A group of six students from Sydney and eight from Bandung took part in the exchange during the last two weeks of January.

They split into groups of three, each with a different brief to design shelter structures that could replace the existing ramshackle designs. The designs were to be not only attractive, but functional and user-friendly. They also had to take into account cost and local materials, with most using bamboo.

Australian student Matthew Naivasha said they created structures that could adapt from serving food in the day to clothes stalls in the evening.

The designs could fold up or incorporate street lamps or poles.

“The vendors felt touched. The government doesn’t like them, doesn’t think they look nice, and so for the Aussies to come and to try and make it a better place, they really appreciated that,” says Arum Larasati, a student at the Bandung Institute of Technology.

The project aligns neatly with Bandung’s “Creative City” concept, promoted by Mayor Ridwan Kamil, which harnesses Bandung’s creative community to make the city more vibrant and liveable.

Dr Muslimin believes the shelters could also be used in markets in Australia.

“The needs of stallholders in Australia’s own community markets are not dissimilar to the Indonesians. They both need something that that is easy to transport and set up and pull down in a short space of time,” says Dr Muslimin.