SAMOA MEASLES UPDATE
After the intensive two day vaccination curfew in Samoa, the Island is said to now have 89% coverage against the measles following the door-to-door nationwide vaccination campaign.
The National Emergency Operation Centre has released the latest report showing targets achieved and moving rapidly towards the 100% coverage.
Around 120 mobile teams travelled the islands to administer the MMR vaccination in efforts to contain the virus that has claimed the lives of 65 people to date.
Mobile vaccination teams reported they had covered between 200-300 individuals over the two days, including many women over 35 and men over 19.
The Prime Minister told the media that preliminary vaccinated numbers in Samoa were expected to be “between thirty and forty thousand”
There were, however, 103 new cases of measles reported since Friday, Samoa’s Health Ministry said it a statement.…more
PULOTU UNDERWORLD
Pulotu Underworld is London's first club night that celebrates Pacific Island culture, music and artists. Named after Polynesia's underworld 'Pulotu' the event is about paying homage to Pacific Islands ancestors and ultimately decolonising the space by re-writing the western historical narrative and image of the exotic savage in a grass skirt.
The event began as an idea to create events for and by the UK's Pacific Island community as a way of connecting Pacific people with the intention of also creating safe spaces for queer, trans and intersex people of colour.
Shakaiah Perez aka DJ Lady Shaka who is the director and curator of Pulotu Underworld, said she thinks events like these are very important for the Pacific community. "Being that we are a minority in the UK, our community in London need to have spaces where we are able to connect with each other and learn and grow together" she said.…more
BEYOND THE EMPTY STREETS OF SAMOA
In the shadow of a state emergency, the streets of Apia have become a ghost town. The people of Samoa are on curfew as the government hustles to administer measles vaccinations to its vulnerable citizens, only mobile vaccination units, authorised government vehicles and media can roam the roads of what can only be described as something that resembles a post apocalyptic paradise.
Streets that usually bustle with life are empty and in the centre of a city that normally sings with the sounds of Samoans going about their daily life, only a handful of people can be seen. They’re manning the control centre, where all of the information is being fed back from the teams that are out administering the vaccinations.
In a country that bleeds blue, today they are seeing red. Told to mark their homes with anything red they can find, because that’s the signal to the authorities that someone in that household requires the measles vaccinations.…more
SAMOA MEASLES STATE OF EMERGENCY - LIVE UPDATES
Our CoconetTV journalist Tuki Laumea is on the ground in Samoa providing live updates as the governments State-Of-Emergency orders come into force in Samoa.
DAY 1
10.15am
An eerie calm has descended over Samoa this morning as families all over the island fly their red flags for mobile vaccination units to visit them for the measles vaccine. The streets of Samoa are empty as people obey the 2 day curfew at home, praying that this state of vaccine emergency will have a good impact on this devastating time for Samoa. 🇼🇸
10.57am
This is the coordination centre monitoring the mobile vax unit and the numbers of people being vaccinated and where mobile units have devices and feed the info back as they go.
11.21am
Helping hands. People dropping off donations and the schedule for food. They've just set off to deliver meals. 400 meals out a day.
2.14pm
Team coco in the empty streets of Apia
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DAY TWO
8.32am
Tourists are on lock down over the 2 day curfew as well, staying inside their resorts & hotels.…more
NZ - Know Your History! Opinion piece: A Samoan Journalist reacts to racist cartoon.
Tuki laumea is an international award winning filmmaker and journalist and director of the award winning documentary, 1918: Talune - Samoa and the ship of death.
This is a place I’ve spent a lot of time in. So today when I touched down in Samoa, there was something to me that was noticeably different about it. There’s a sorrow that sits in the air, a sadness in the faces of usually jovial people and a silence in the streets which typically burst with life.
So, unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll know the reason for this is that the measles has taken a stranglehold here and is rapidly ripping the life out of its beautiful population.
I’m here for what in western culture would be considered ‘sad reasons’, a funeral (non-measles related) but for my family at least, it’s a celebration of life. We laugh, we eat and we make fun of each other.…more
KIRIBATI 'ARMOUR' - The Wearable Arts of the Kiribati
Artist Numa Mackenzie wears this stunning #Kiribati traditional suit of armour made with revived traditional knowledge by Pacific artist Chris Charteris, master artist Kaetaeta Watson, Lizzy Leckie and the Tungaru: The Kiribati Project team, proudly funded by CNZ to support heritage arts.
Numa modelled this at the Pacific Heritage Arts Fono 2019 in Wellington. The armour and the spiky helmet - made from a dried puffer fish - took a lot of research by the team to recreate and is a fantastic project that has exhibited nationally and internationally. #PacificArts
"The armour came about because we heard the stories about the Kiribati armour but none of us had ever seen one. They were never seen on the island, they had one but it was so dated and broken up so much, that people weren’t allowed near it. But we heard these stories of them being museums all over the world.…more
WOMEN OF THE ISLANDS - LANU FALETAU
LANU FALETAU
LAWYER, MODEL & ACTIVIST
TONGAN
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Introducing Lanu Faletau who has just been selected as an Obama Leader for the Asia-Pacific Region with an announcement made today from Malaysia.
My name is Lanu Faletau and I was born in Tonga and migrated to New Zealand for school when I was about 6 years old, I then moved back to Tonga briefly before permantly moving to New Zealand for boarding school when I was about 12 years old. I am so proud to represent two incredible nations and being able to call both countries ‘home’ is always an honour for me. More specifically, I am actually from a tiny island called Taunga and that’s located in Vava’u (an outer island of Tonga). So, I am a typical island girl! I love the ocean, I love to swim, I love the sun and of course relaxing.
I come from a family of four, I have two older brothers; Inoke and Solo and one younger sister Sonata.…more
HEILALA PACIFIC GOLD LAGER LAUNCH
New Zealand's first Tongan owned lager being sold in New Zealand - 'Heilala Pacific Gold Lager' was launched at Manukau Pak n Save this morning with 21 pallets on sale to the public which had nearly sold out by lunch time.
The lager is being sold exclusively at Pak n Save in Manukau on a trial basis to test the demand but seeing as it had already sold out by the end of the day we're thinking it's going to be a popular choice of lager for the upcoming summer.
Pak n Save shoppers were treated to a live performance by Three Houses Down frontman Charlie Pome'e, DJ Rocky Ponting was on the 1s & 2s and Mai FM were giving a lucky shopper the chance to win a double pass to One Love Festival in Tauranga.…more
JERRY TUWAI - The Rugby Player from Fiji Who Conquered the World | Against All Odds
He won the World Rugby Men's Sevens Player of the Year Award at the World Rugby awards this year & he's the first Fijian player to win the award since Samisoni Viriviri in 2014.
This is the story of Jerry Tuwai who grew up in a poor shanty in Fiji playing rugby with plastic bottles. He went on to win the first Olympic medal for his country.
'A BOY CALLED PIANO - The true story of Fa'amoana 'John' Luafutu'
“Truth is us at the heart of our storytelling, the truth will set you free.
The ground breaking documentary ‘A Boy called Piano’ has its Oceanic premiere in Tahiti at the Fifo Documentary festival to huge fanfare, and will now play out on Whakaata Maori TV for NZ audiences.
“Shining a light on these stories is so important - it’s also brought light to people we tell it to in prisons and to so many people we have shown it to and that’s why we are taking it around prisons in tahiti as we have in Aotearoa”
Sharing this story with other Pacific prisoners has been the most rewarding part of the journey for the father son duo - where career gangsters and…more