Trade consultant and former Fiji cabinet minister and diplomat Kaliopate Tavola and other speakers from the Melanesian sub-region have arrived here in Wellington ahead of opening of a new initiative, the Tok-Talanoa NZ-Melanesia Symposium.
Cultural performances, an art exhibition, and keynote speaker former PNG Prime Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu form a prelude to plenary sessions the following day.
But there’s little doubt the chill on New Zealand’s relationship with Fiji, and the recent schism between Forum leaders with military leader Frank Bainimarama will be raised during sessions on security and good governance.
Tok-Talanoa organizers the Pacific Corporation Foundation are keen to see how New Zealand might improve its engagement with Melanesia; where the development realities facing nations with six-figure population sizes are all magnified when it comes to Papua New Guinea and its 6.5million people.
Program Manager Tina McNicholas said hearing from the largest Pacific region with “the lion’s share of resources, people – and challenges, is critical to helping us all understand and appreciate each other when NZ sits as a partner at the Pacific development table.”
Reducing poverty and hardship in the region is the overall goal of the New Zealand AID Pacific Strategy to 2015, rolled out last year.
“Sharing and exchanging views and hearing about the many strengths that Melanesia offers for sustainable development will help us build on the Pacific Strategy, and identify some practical and progressive areas which align with our PCF vision and goals,” said McNicholas.
“Recent news events have made more New Zealanders curious about Fiji; and highlighted how little many of us know about Melanesia beyond Fiji. There’s also a tendency for mainstream New Zealand to use Polynesians as their point of reference for all Pacific people. This doesn’t help the reality that New Zealand is a part of, not apart from the Pacific,” she said.
“As the exhibition for our opening event notes; ‘it’s taim bilong Melanesia — Melanesia’s time to just talk about issues of concern which will in turn shape the future of the region – and that should be of concern to us all,” she added.
The NZ-Melanesia program merges a range of guest panelists with New Zealanders who’ve lived and worked in Melanesia to present and discuss their insights across symposium themes: political and regional relationships, economic development, security and governance, and cultural frameworks.
Speakers, including former PNG Prime Minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu and Solomon Islands Chief Justice Sir Albert Rocky Palmer, come from a diverse range of both government and civil society organizations in New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.
