Features

Shapeshifter news making waves

Saturday 21 August 2010 | Published in Features

News of Shapeshifter’s upcoming Club Raro show is making waves around the island. Heaps of people have already pre-purchased tickets online and are waiting for them to be shipped from New Zealand, and others are anticipating the arrival of Monday morning, when 88FM will put a limited number of tickets up for sale. Nick Henry […]

Know the value of belonging

Friday 20 August 2010 | Published in Church Talk

We are all very familiar with attending funerals – of family, friends, work associates and acquaintances we respected. For some we attend out of a sense of respect and solidarity with the family. Each funeral has its power to move us to a greater or lesser degree, depending how close we were to the deceased. […]

Avarua CICC plans future

Friday 20 August 2010 | Published in Church Talk

The Avarua Cook Islands Christian Church Ekalesia is having a four-day conference from Monday August 23 to Thursday August 26. The main theme of the event is ‘Journey Through the Ark’ while the policies, guidelines and strategic plan for the Avarua CICC will also be discussed. A booklet’ Te Araka’ will be the central focus […]

The Armour of God

Friday 20 August 2010 | Published in Church Talk

This is a particularly well known passage of scripture. A lot of Christians use this (and other passages) to take up arms and wage “war” on the enemy. There is no doubt we are called to go against the work of the devil but I do not believe it is in the manner that most […]

Reaching out through music

Saturday 14 August 2010 | Published in Features

Samoan hip-hop legend King Kapisi performed for a crowded Rehab on Wednesday night alongside his wife, fellow hip-hop artist Teremoana Rapley, originally from Rarotonga and a legend in her own right. He said he’s wanted to do a show on Rarotonga for awhile, but there’s something else that motivated this recent trip. King Kapisi and […]

Keeping the tradition alive

Saturday 14 August 2010 | Published in Features

This week’s tivaevae exhibition at Akaoa Hall was hugely successful, a well-attended display about which people are still raving. Brilliantly coloured and artfully hung, 28 tivaevae from Rarotonga and Atiu brightened the empty room. Local artist Andrea Eimke curated the exhibition, which included tivaevae from the private collections of Tata Crocombe and Cassey Eggleton. The […]

Arts action around Raro

Saturday 14 August 2010 | Published in Features

A number of events were held around the Pacific Arts Association symposium this week including a craft fair, tivaevae exhibition and a show at Staircase. Artists, scholars and curators from across the Pacific and around the world gathered at Crown Beach to discuss Pacific art and the issues surrounding it. Here is some of the […]

Tavionis on the state of art

Saturday 14 August 2010 | Published in Features

This week’s Pacific Arts Association (PAA) symposium, a major event for the local art community, generated some interesting discussion amongst attendees and raised some pertinent questions about Pacific art. An issue to which artists returned throughout was the repatriation of Pacific art, or the transfer of Pacific artefacts from overseas museums back to their islands […]

Sights set on affordable health

Saturday 14 August 2010 | Published in Features

Improving the health of all Cook Islanders through accessible and affordable health services is the objective of newly appointed director of funding and planning for of the Ministry of Health Dr Fran McGrath. Dr McGrath began in her new role this week with the Ministry of Health and brings with her a wealth of knowledge […]

A big fan of green energy

Saturday 14 August 2010 | Published in Features

Captain Tama’s Lagoon Cruises has already gone green with a compost toilet on Motu Koromiri and now owner Tamaiva Tuavera is applying the same green principle to his home. But this time, Tauavera is harnessing wind power and this week he installed a wind turbine at his hillside home in Muri. The wind turbine, which […]

Carnival adds to colourful day

Saturday 14 August 2010 | Published in Features

The Queen Carnival on Mauke was one of several colourful events organised on the island to celebrate self-governance on August 4. An air of expectation and excitement greeted the queen carnival, which sounds like an event more appropriate to the US culture unless one is aware that the infamous Tangiia chose two wives from Mauke […]

An island celebration

Saturday 14 August 2010 | Published in Features

While August 4, Constitution Day, was a quiet day on Rarotonga – it was the complete opposite on the outer island of Mauke when the community came together to celebrate the Cook Islands’ self-governance. And so with the theme ‘No taku ipukarea kia rangatira” and a gift of $2000 from the Ministry of Culture providing […]

Precision and exactness

Friday 13 August 2010 | Published in Church Talk

I am reminded of a karate expert who gave a demonstration of his skill in the use of a samurai sword. After breaking boards with his hands, cement blocks with his head, he asked for a volunteer from the audience. A macho teenage boy accepted the challenge and volunteered, lay down on his back, and […]

Exhibit explores new media

Thursday 12 August 2010 | Published in Features

PAA participants on Tuesday night attended The Beachcomber Contemporary Art gallery’s opening of an exhibit by Janet Lilo. Lilo, who is of Maori, Samoan and Niuean descent, is based in Auckland and could not be in Rarotonga for the symposium, so curator Ron Brownson presented her exhibit to the artists and scholars present. The exhibit, […]

Exhibition reflects old and new

Wednesday 11 August 2010 | Published in Features

Local artist Krick Barraud hosted a public exhibition of a piece of artwork she’s been crafting at Avana on Saturday evening. The work, housed in the remains of an old coral limestone building on the beach, represents a portion of the visual exam she took this weekend – the culmination of a Master’s in Art […]

Craft show

Wednesday 11 August 2010 | Published in Features

Tongan concepts of time and space

Wednesday 11 August 2010 | Published in Features

Last year, artist Semisi Fetokai Potauaine was one of seven recipients of the Commonwealth Connections International Residency. He is the second Tongan to win the coveted spot. ‘Okusitino Mahina, Jocelyne Dudding and Kolokesa Uafa Mahina-Tuai have recently published a book about his work and the philosophies that motivate it. Yesterday at the PAA symposium, they […]

Inspirational artist returns

Wednesday 11 August 2010 | Published in Features

Well-known Tongan artist Filipe Tohi is back on the island for the Pacific Arts Association (PAA) symposium. A long-time visitor to the Cook Islands, Tohi completed an artist-in-residency on Mangaia in 2004 and has since inspired many a local artist. Master lasher, carver, painter and sculptor, Tohi has to a great extent influenced local artist […]

A week of fun and adventure

Tuesday 10 August 2010 | Published in Church Talk

A one-week Vocational Bible School was held during the term holidays at the Avarua Seventh Day Adventist Church. The main theme for the week of fun and learning was ‘Wild Wood Forest – discover the untamed nature of God’. To attend the day camp was free and open to all children from five to 14 […]

Stunning shows 'raise the roof'

Saturday 7 August 2010 | Published in Features

While Te Maeva Nui crowds have been small to moderate throughout the week-long competition – the shows on stage have brought on cheers and applause that have almost lifted the roof. And the biggest cheers on Thursday night were for the outstanding Pukapuka team who took to the stage last. In fact, the northern island […]