NEWS & EVENTS

TPVM TAKES ON WOW


Te Puna Vai Mārama entered the Pride Cook Islands Anuanua Week World of Wearable Arts competition in April.

Pride Cook Islands, in partnership with Te Tiare Association, held a week of events and activities to celebrate love, unity, and the first anniversary of the decriminalization of same-sex marriage in the Cook Islands.

The entrants for the Wearable Arts competition were tasked with designing a wearable yet artist garment of a certain colour, whilst practicing sustainability. Each of the 6 entrants got allocated a colour of the rainbow which their garment had to match - ours was tārona (purple).

The garment, dreamt up by Prof. Heather Worth, was inspired by Netflix's Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, Jean Paul Gaultier's 1998 Marie Antoinette collection and Miss Cook Islands 1968. Fabric was sourced from op shops, and the final design even included some bamboo and old swimming pool noodles from the homes of TPVM staff.
‍
Our entry was modelled by the beautiful Talia, who looked fabulous as she strut down the catwalk for both the judging and the official public event.

ARTICLE HERE
ARTICLE HERE
ARTICLE HERE
APIA REPORTAUCKLAND REPORT

PAST EVENTS

RESEARCH SEMINAR: VALERY WICHMAN

Wednesday 28th February, 2024
Valery Wichman is the chief advisor of Te Tiare Association and an advocate for equality and giving a voice for those who cannot speak. Valery is currently the Director of Central Policy and planning office at the office of the Prime Minister. She is a lawyer by trade but has worked in the public policy space for the last 10 years, her recent notable working including the development of the Te Ara Akapapa’anga Nui 2020+ which gives a 100 year vision towards Turanga Memeitaki.

As part of TPVM's research seminar series, Valery delivered a seminar on her Masters research on Turanga Memeitaki (Wellbeing) and the Anuanua (Rainbow) community in the Cook Islands, highlighting her innovative methodology Kai Vananga-Vatavata, a method grounded in Akapapa'anga that makes spiritual space for dialogue with particular attentiveness and empathy to better provide for the sensitivities working with diverse and marginalized groups.

Meitaki ma'ata to Val for sharing with us.

THE 5TH PACIFIC ISLANDS UNIVERSITIES RESEARCH NETWORK CONFERENCE

Rarotonga, Cook Islands

4th - 6th July, 2023
The 2023 PIURN conference, 'Exploring this Sea of Islands', promises to bring together researchers from across the Pacific for three days of interdisciplinary discussion and learning, as well as the chance to explore the beautiful island of Rarotonga.
LEARN MORE

TIVAEVAE EPISTO-METHODOLOGY

Wednesday 22nd February, 2023
Threading through traditional borders to weave marginalised voice, honour local knowledge and use cultural metaphor to guide method in hard-to-reach communities.

Join us as we hear from Dr Debi Futter-Puati on the metaphor of tivaevae as a research episto-methodology and how this was applied to her research on to Pacific sex, gender and sexuality education.