Samoa, tapa, and the Pacific Island festival, NZ! - General Tiki

S shakatiki Member OC via Kailua via Dogtown via Mammoth Joined: May 05, 2003 Posts: 159	S shakatiki Posted posted on Sat, Feb 10, 2007 8:00 AM This week was an interesting one for me. I put together a trip to Samoa and New Zealand at the end of this month. I will be taking some very old tapa cloth (my grandfather brought it from Samoa on his journey to the South Pacific for national geographic back in the 30's...long story!) and I met a woman who is related to the Prime Minister down there that will help get the tapas into the museum in Apia. I called my mom and she was totally up for it. So the 2 of us will leave at the end of the month and stay in Samoa for about 8 days. I have already met a group of really cool local Samoans who are anxious to join us for the ceremony. (I'm sure there will be lots of Kava flowing!) Then we will travel on to NZ (a place that's been high on my list for a long time). We will go to Aukland to participate in the Pacific Island Festival (Pasifika) http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/whatson/events/pasifika/history.asp I will be taking down some beautiful coconut/silver jewelry to sell at the booth representing Samoa. Then on to see a friend of hers in Wellington who worked with her at the Eames office and recently won an oscar for his work on "Lord of the Rings" afterwhich he decided to move there. Sounds exciting huh? I can't wait. My mom is an amazing person (and a great photogragher!) so it's really cool to be able to do this with her. She is getting up there in age but hasn't slowed down too much. In the last 2 years she has been on photo shoots to Africa, Siberia, China, and the North pole (searching for polar bears on a Russian ice cutter!!) We also went to Peru a few years ago to close the book on my grandfather's (her father's) mysterious death. He founded the insitute of Manual Arts in Lima and died unexpectedly at an early age at which time all his fortunes and artifacts "disappeared" into a family he married in to (while still married to my grandmother back in the states. (another very long story!) He wrote a book on his travels to the South Pacific and South East Asia called "Polynesian Venture" by Truman Bailey circa 1939... I'll try to send an update while I'm down there. "Talofa!!"

This week was an interesting one for me. I put together a trip to Samoa and New Zealand at the end of this month. I will be taking some very old tapa cloth (my grandfather brought it from Samoa on his journey to the South Pacific for national geographic back in the 30's...long story!) and I met a woman who is related to the Prime Minister down there that will help get the tapas into the museum in Apia. I called my mom and she was totally up for it. So the 2 of us will leave at the end of the month and stay in Samoa for about 8 days. I have already met a group of really cool local Samoans who are anxious to join us for the ceremony. (I'm sure there will be lots of Kava flowing!) Then we will travel on to NZ (a place that's been high on my list for a long time). We will go to Aukland to participate in the Pacific Island Festival (Pasifika)
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/whatson/events/pasifika/history.asp
I will be taking down some beautiful coconut/silver jewelry to sell at the booth representing Samoa. Then on to see a friend of hers in Wellington who worked with her at the Eames office and recently won an oscar for his work on "Lord of the Rings" afterwhich he decided to move there. Sounds exciting huh? I can't wait. My mom is an amazing person (and a great photogragher!) so it's really cool to be able to do this with her. She is getting up there in age but hasn't slowed down too much. In the last 2 years she has been on photo shoots to Africa, Siberia, China, and the North pole (searching for polar bears on a Russian ice cutter!!) We also went to Peru a few years ago to close the book on my grandfather's (her father's) mysterious death. He founded the insitute of Manual Arts in Lima and died unexpectedly at an early age at which time all his fortunes and artifacts "disappeared" into a family he married in to (while still married to my grandmother back in the states. (another very long story!) He wrote a book on his travels to the South Pacific and South East Asia called "Polynesian Venture" by Truman Bailey circa 1939...
I'll try to send an update while I'm down there.
"Talofa!!"

Post #284611 by shakatiki on Sat, Feb 10, 2007 8:00 AM