Three women who have been working to help build the new Te Puke voyaging canoe at Taumako, are volunteering to go to Reef Islands to take a training in Virgin Coconut Oil production.  They volunteer because if Taumako can establish a Virgin Coconut Oil business it will give support to the families who spend their energy and time building canoes and teaching young people to sail them.  Taumako has a lot of coconuts and there is a great demand for Virgin Coco Oil.  If 3 women c

Aloha Tatou, The Vaka Taumako Project of Solomon Islands is preparing for a voyage from Taumako to Vanuatu in November, 2016. The aim of this voyage is to reunite the families who have been separated for over 70 years by a closed border. There are family members on both sides who have not seen each other all this time, and they plan to do it before they die. When this border re-opens for local residents then there will be a revival of regional community and people from both

Cyclone Pam hit the island of Nifiloli hard. Community members retreated into the interior or fled to the somewhat higher island of Fenualoa. We are still learning more about what the damages were and what needs to be done now. The Peter Taea and Dixon Wia families, who were caring for the Taumako-built voyaging canoe (vaka) named “Holau Kaveia,” told Dr Simon Salopuka that the waves and surge of Cyclone Pam drove the vaka from where it was secured at the bush end of the beac