Results for Pacific Islands

Tongan born academic, Dr Losa Moata‘ane, has been appointed to the role of Associate Dean Pacific at Otago University’s Division of Sciences in Dunedin, New Zealand.

More support in strengthening nursery and midwifery leadership capacity was highlighted at the inaugural Pacific Heads of Nursing & Midwifery Meeting (PHoNM) held on 11th - 14th February in Nadi, Fiji.

Air New Zealand stated today that it will be reducing capacity on its Shanghai route throughout April, and Hong Kong route throughout April and May as a result of the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on customer demand.

People first arrived in Vava‘u between 850 and 810 BC, establishing themselves on the south central islands offshore of ‘Uta Vava’u. The earliest sites at Ofu, Pangaimotu and Otea are all but identical in their age, and they are coincidental with the oldest sites in Ha’apai. Bird remains aside, excavations of other types of food remains at these sites have an unexpected story to tell: one of scarcity. Fish remains were shockingly limited! Shellfish counts and species diversity are similarly impoverished, illustrating limited productivity, or at least limited sustainability, for reef foraging efforts. By David V. Burley.

New Zealand Police believe that there are members of the public who are keeping silent on what they know about the shooting death of a Tongan woman Meliame Fisi’ihoi two weeks ago, and are urging them to speak out.

We can confidently position first settlement in Ha’apai between 825 and 810 BC, only three generations (75 years) after the first Lapita canoes arrived at Fanga ‘Uta Lagoon on Tongatapu. The dates for individual Lapita sites are informative. They not only answer the question of when, but they reflect upon the process by which the expansion was undertaken. Within Ha‘apai, simultaneous settlement, widely dispersed hamlets on different islands, and small groups of people clearly speak to a planned and organized strategy. In its creation of a settlement network northward from Tongatapu, it brilliantly laid title to these islands. By David Burley.

An Otago University study is proposing that malaria in the past may have shaped the genome of Pacific people today, resulting in a genetic predisposition to Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and gout. The elevated levels of uric acids, which can strengthen the immune response to the mosquito-borne disease are also what causes the inflammatory reactions in gout. “Pacific people have their own genetic variants,” says Dr Ana Gosling.

Fine Tu’itupou-Arnold, has become the first person of Pacific Island descent to be elected as a member of the Standing Commission of the Red Cross and Red Crescent during an international conference last month in Geneva, Switzerland.

There are rare moments on an archaeological project which offer extraordinary insight into the past or when the past connects with the present in an utterly astonishing way. Both occurred in late July of 2007, as we were carrying out archaeological excavations in the village of Nukuleka at the northeast entrance to Fanga ‘Uta Lagoon on Tongatapu. This story is about the documentation of a shell game, taupita, but a shell game, as we found out, with an almost 3000-year-old history. It also is a story that binds Tonga’s earliest Lapita ancestors to the people of Nukuleka today. By David Burley and Sean Connaughton.