Pacific Talk

It's hard to imagine how the US-Australia refugee deal could have been handled worse Refugees arrive in the United States with barely the clothes on their back and many say they feel abandoned

“Hard work puts you where good luck can find you!”
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Wishing these guys from Malekula all the very best in their final exams at the University of the South Pacific, Laucala Campus in Suva.
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feature with many thanks to xx
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🇹🇴 Today I’m absolutely thrilled to honor one of my dearest friends on my IG page!
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Many of you may not know that I spent many wonderful years living in Nuku’alofa in the Kingdom of Tonga. My very first job after I left university was with the Bank of Tonga where I met and had the pleasure of working with Alvina … what fun we had! They say truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave and impossible to forget and this is so true!
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Vina embarks today on a career change after 36 years working in the Bank and I couldn’t be prouder of the role model she has been not only for young women in Tonga but throughout the Pacific working in the finance arena at the Bank of Tonga / Westpac Banking Corporation / Bank of South Pacific.
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Vina, ‘ofa lahi atu xx
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🇻🇺 Four sisters remember Vanuatu’s first Independence ... reunited for the first time in 24 years, Mary-Estelle Mahuk and her 3 sisters took time to remember the very first Independence day, 30 July 1980.
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Those who didn’t live through it may forget that 1980 was a turbulent time + it wasn’t yet clear whether the new born nation of Vanuatu would emerge intact from decolonisation. The Kapalu sisters, as they were then, were spread between city + town.
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For Mary-Estelle, a Malapoa college student at the time, it was an exciting + confusing time. “On Independence day, I was up at the park, in my Girl Guides uniform, watching everything that was going on.” “I didn’t really know what was happening, what it meant to be independent. But then when it came— all the armies coming in from PNG, from Fiji, from France … then I’m thinking, ‘OK, this is really something happening.’”
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Malapoa’s student population were given brand new uniforms + proudly joined the victory march that kicked off their country’s independence celebration. How did it feel to march? Even now, forty years later, the excitement still glows in her eyes. “Wow, it was awesome. I had that feeling that I was really somebody + I was really proud of who I am. “I was really proud of my school + at the same time of my country, going through the process of independence.”
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Forty years on, she feels that independence has achieved a great many things. Positions that used to be occupied only by French or English people are now held by Ni Vanuatu. “It’s a long process, but it’s really good to see all this change.”
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“It took some time, but now we’re seeing real independence, and I’m really proud to be Ni Vanuatu.”
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feature with many thanks to the lovely and Dan McGarry xx
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