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UH student, professor share their connection to the South Pacific island of Rotuma

John Taukave, a Rotuman performing artist and graduate student in the Center for Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and Dr. Vilsoni Hereniko, professor in the School of Cinematic Arts. The podcast was created as a final product for an independent study with the Center for Oral History in spring 2023.
UH Mānoa Center for Oral History
John Taukave, a Rotuman performing artist and graduate student in the Center for Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and Dr. Vilsoni Hereniko, professor in the School of Cinematic Arts. The podcast was created as a final product for an independent study with the Center for Oral History in spring 2023.

This week happens to be Rotuman Language Week. Rotuma is an island in the South Pacific with political and cultural connections to Fiji.

John Taukave hails from the island and is currently a graduate student in the Center for Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi. As part of a Center for Oral History project, he sat down with a UH School of Cinematic Arts professor who also hails from Rotuma, Vilsoni Hereniko.

Listen to an excerpt from that interview in which Hereniko talks about storytelling and special moments growing up on the remote Pacific island.

Full podcast on YouTube:


This interview aired on The Conversation on May 11, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.

Catherine Cruz is the host of The Conversation. Originally from Guam, she spent more than 30 years at KITV, covering beats from government to education. Contact her at ccruz@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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