Fern Ridge (Safla Rama) Digest

About this time last year I returned from teaching and research assignments at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA. In the course I taught over there I included a component on native features films. The first film I showed was Tukana: Husait I Asua? Soon after my return I took a trip to Bougainville to run a workshop for teachers of Buin Secondary, Bana Secondary, and Tonu Secondary. It was also an opportunity for me to travel through the no-go zone area right into the Panguna mine site. What remains now is only a memory like a bad scar, yet the film has kept alive much of the glory days of Bougainville in my visual memory. The film was produced in early 1980s and released in 1983. Tukana ’s release came seven years after Papua New Guinea gained its Independence in 1975. Three years before the 10 th Anniversary celebration, the timely production of the film helped asked deep questions about the direction to which the country wa...

Taking the trip to the North Shore of O`ahu after the Palm Sunday service was such a joy. The trip was planned the night before as John, Hala, and myself sat around the Friendship Circle at the East West Center. We just decided that it might help to put things into perspective for us to drive out of Honolulu and Waikiki, a touristic metropolitant space that overshadows the beautiful Hawaiian Island of O`ahu. There’s more one could see in O`ahu than Waikiki or the modern skyscrapers of Honolulu. Our trip to the North Shore began on the afternoon of Palm Sunday. My wantoks John Sopa, Alfred M. Riibako (Hala) and Ishmael Togamae are from the Solomon Islands. John and Ishmael have their own cars. John is studying at the Kapiolani Community College, Ishmael is a medical doctor at a hospital in Hawaii, and Hala is completing his degree in computer science at the University of Hawaii. Our other wantok, Muguwa Dilu, from PNG decided to opt out of our trip. We began our trip without any expec...