We need to protect our culture from becoming boring, beige bromeliads and insist on remaining bright colourful Cook Islanders, writes Ruta Mave.

Are you ready for this new year? If you are reading this then you have achieved the first step into the New Year, you are alive and well which is something not everyone was able to do. The eve was a Sunday so a calmer lead into 2024.

In the good old fashion attitude that ‘the sun was over the yard arm somewhere’, knowing it was already 2024 elsewhere because I had time travellers come back in time from celebrating New Year’s Eve in wet Auckland until early hours of 2024 then boarding a plane arriving in Rarotonga 2023 to do it all again. They, reported the new year did exist so this gave me permission to start my 2024 celebrating earlier.

Last year my father died Christmas day and was buried on New Year’s Eve. This year we had a remembrance unveiling for Christmas and another for 2024 eve with Taittinger and cake.

Not wanting to risk the dangers of driving, I celebrated with close family in the twilight of NYE and saw the crossover at midnight watching the midnight section of the Eras concert online.

Did I have to be out and about at midnight to acknowledge the start of something new and exciting ahead? Nope I did not. My thoughts moving forward is to be active not restless, to empower others not compete and to acknowledge, accept and embrace my privilege life.

I hope you have a sense of belonging and understanding of where you want to go this next 12 months rather than a list of to dos and don’ts.

Try not to create a tightrope you can’t step off to the side of now and again. If the line you have drawn is so narrow it’s hard to keep your balance; or if the road ahead has no rest stops or side detours it maybe a year of battling and belittling yourself. Instead, you could create a treasure hunt of learning and discovery that will achieve the same goals and destination but with a lot more fun and enjoyment along the way. Change the script get a new camera angle do it differently. If your goal is body health improvement, then change measuring kilograms to measuring centimetres. Try walking fast instead of jogging hard. Eating fruit instead of drinking juice. Read real books instead of Facebook. Or you could just wing it and accept who you are as you are and then ‘let go and let God’ be your director this year. It could be exciting.

Know who you are, what you are, what you stand for and what you are most proud of. Then shout it out, don’t fear being different because diversity is the key to mother nature’s abundance and we all want more.

As a nation we need to hold onto our cultural specialities tightly but it seems our government ministries are letting go of them lightly. 2024 marks the 50^th anniversary of the opening of the Rarotongan airport and in the rush to be ready for this auspicious occasion it seems everything of who and what we are and represent has been removed and replaced with something cookie cut from some minimalist boring design brochure.

Welcoming family home for Xmas took me to the airport and I was shocked to see the removal of the hibiscus from the grass area by the security entrance to international departure. The bushes always had large majestic flowers they looked to be as old as the airport. I hope they were carefully removed, relocated, replanted somewhere else. What a sacrilege.

Now there are bromeliads, squat spiky and from the Americas. Mondo grass from China, Japan and India and skinny palm trees of the 16 introduced varieties, not the Mitiaro fan palm with little shade to offer, and that attracts birds. I would have thought someone would have thought that attracting birds to the edge of the runway was not such a good idea. There is no shade over the wooden benches, there is no colour or life that looks like or represents who we are as a nation.

The bromeliad plant dies off after a couple of years, its flower lasts six months which is great but the Hibiscus has a multitude of flowers that can be picked and shared and worn and adorned by everyone each and every time they visit.  

There it is the first and last image of the Cook Islands at the airport staid, lifeless stark and from somewhere else. Is this the writing on the wall for us colourful indigenous natives? Will we be replaced and priced out of paradise by power people trying to impress the world by whitewashing us? We need to protect our culture from becoming boring, beige bromeliads and insist on remaining bright colourful Cook Islanders.