Moana 2 at the movies...

 

Yesterday, I went with my youngest to watch the highly anticipated movie "Moana 2" at our local cinema. With our fave movies now, we pick up the tickets with the lounge chairs that you can chill into with your feet up and the chair back and relaxed.

Add to that some ice cream, popcorn and a drink (in a promotional Moana cup of course) and that adds to the atmosphere of enjoying the movie. In this movie Moana has grown into a young woman and navigator with a new slew of additional characters that brings more laughs to the movie.

I still prefer the first Moana movie as my fave with its iconic music and storyline but my youngest prefers this one better. I must say that it did feature some important Samoan cultural elements for me like the ava ceremony with the ava bowl that was featured twice with for her title bestowal and for welcoming guests.

The other Samoan element was the tattoos featured on both hands of Moana's mother which are similar to mine but only on my right hand and Moana features one extended upon her hand. It was also interesting to see the Samoan male tattoos called a pe'a or malofie on Moana's father that was featured in the origin Moana and also on the old man.

This is the topic of the next book that I hope to publish and launch sometime soon. It's about the origins of tatau or tattoo in Samoa. It is so neat to see women's malu lima or hand tattoo featuring on the movie. Interestingly enough they didn't feature the Samoan thigh tattoo that is very popular called the malu.

It gave me great pride to think that I came from a line of navigators who traversed the seas and conquered the Pacific Ocean way before any European ventured out into the oceans. It also confirms our identities as explorers and wayfinders, with our ancestral DNA continuing to this day...

"Proud to be Samoan" FREE Artwork/s by Doug Healy...

 

Check out "Doug Healy"s artwork that I came across on Facebook. When I saw this particularly print I saved it as the artist has written on his Facebook post, and I quote..."All my Art is FREE to use and enjoy."

Thanks Doug Healy as he's obviously an amazingly talented artist but to share his artwork freely for other to enjoy shows his generosity to the max!

I especially like this series of his artwork on "Identities". If you go to his Facebook site it showcases his talent by creating artworks that feature iconic images associated with the theme of the pic.

Take for example this one with the red, white and blue colours of the flag, frangipani flowers, coconut palm tree fronds, some traditional Samoan tattoo designs with the words "Proud to be Samoan." So why not check it out and see if he has an iconic image that summarizes your cultural identity...

P.D. at Mt Maunganui then homeward bound...

Had a great time at Mt. Maunganui just out of Tauranga. Really enjoyed meeting with our national team of kaiako (tutors/lecturers) for our professional development with a team of 8 of us.

It's a 3 hour drive out of Auckland and the weather was beautiful driving in and then 3 days later, driving out to Auckland.

We have four campuses offering the course of learning called: Kaitiakitanga (guardianship, protection, preservation etc.) Post Graduate Diploma of Bicultural Professional Supervision.

The campuses are at:

1. Tamaki Makaurau (Māngere, Auckland campus)
2. Mangakotukutuku (Hamilton campus)
3. Tauranga campus
4. Papaioea (Palmerston North campus)

I even got time to explore a lil' island with a walkway as pictured above and between meetings we were able to go for long walks, swimming at the hotel pool (I gave the sea a miss) or just chillaxing on our hotel balconies. 

Now ready for finishing my marking, closing the year and looking forward to visiting Samoa in a couple more weeks. Roll on Christmas...

 

Sun, Surf and sand at Mt. Maunganui...

 

I'm currently in Mt Maunganui on a 3-day professional development teaching focus with discussions on how everything went.

Mt. Maunganui is an interesting place to be as I remember coming down with my family a few years ago. 

It's become a real touristy town with lots of hotels/motels and private homes on 'Marine Parade' and many luxury Cruise ships dock at the harbour nearby. 

Across the road the beach with golden sands beckons us all to put down our tools and enjoy the sand, surf and sun but we're here for some professional development so all the fun starts after finishing the work. Gotta go and catch some sun, oops! I mean surf! oops! I mean work meetings...

Birthday trip to Auckland Zoo...

 

Happy Birthday to me! Yes, it's that time of year again and I got to spend it with my close family at an AirB&B which was really lovely.

I also thought to take a trip to the Zoo much to the chagrin of my entourage and we sent out to view all of the enclosures at the Auckland Zoom.

It had been a few years since I'd taken a tour around the enclosures it is very different with lots more viewing platforms and places to view the animals or reptiles etc.

This pic is taken with my middle child next to a large elephant corrugated iron sculpture. I remember it years ago and it's still going strong with many a family and friends photo taken under it.

There were 5 different areas starting that were amazing to view and they had lots of information for the interested traveller and plenty of seats for the weary walker:

1. Africa Safari track
2. Aotearoa New Zealand
3. South East Asia Jungle Track
4. South America Rainforest Track
5. Australia Bush Track

It was definitely worth the trip and I'd highly recommend it as an exercise activity as I easily broke my 10K steps a day in walking around and seeing all the sites. One of my favourite was checking out the NZ track which took one up stairs and you ending up on a viewing platform on top of the trees and native bush canopy....

"Wicked" movie...

 Just returned from watching the highly anticipated movie "Wicked" as a Girls' night out, and it was definitely worth the wait. The movie was a musical and the music was amazing with both lead actresses' amazing voices! i.e Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

I also enjoyed the set design with an interesting storyline that is the 'back story' of the Wicked Witch of the West from the "Wizard of Oz" book that I read as a child. The origin story was written by L. Frank Braum who's initials were used to name the main character of LFB or Alphaba.

It was also a hit Broadway Production that I remember seeing advertised in Melbourne when we were there last in Australia. It's still also being showcased in Musical Theatres around the world and something I'd definitely watch.

It's only Part 1, so we anticipate that there's probably an upcoming Part 2. (Spoiler alert!). I guessed that the Wizard of Oz is actually the biological father of Alphaba but my entourage don't agree so I guess we'll wait until the next movie instalment. However, as a seasoned writer, there were enough clues to given but I'm happy to stand corrected if this is not the case.

Over all a neat evening out as we watched the last show of the evening and it was a fairly long movie at just under 3 hours but there was plenty of drama to keep us watching. Some of the songs were outstanding with one called "Gravity". Comes highly recommended if you like musicals and theatre and something just a little different...

It has definitely been a very busy couple of months and especially hurling towards Christmas! with so much happening since my last post.

Just yesterday, I was able to double-team with my eldest at a Career's Expo at a local school of around 800 students called Papatoetoe Intermediate school. 

I was invited as an Author and Publisher and I was able to share some tips, considerations, ideas and answer questions from the students as well.

My eldest was able to give her perspective as an avid reader, and law student on how enjoying reading and writing had helped her to get into law school with other tips about publishing on Whattpad and AO3 (Archive on your own).

There, we exhibited with 9 other career "experts" that included a lawyer, entrepenuer, a CEO, police, virologist, environmental scientist, general manager of a hotel and an artitect.

It was a really interesting experience as we got to have 8 groups of students over a period of 4 hours. The neat thing about my eldest was that they got to introduce themselves and we played a game with them of making up their own story with each student contributing three words each. It was hilarious at times.

I was able to thank Vilimi, the careers coordinator, for inviting us there as they served us with a lovely lunch and even gave us a box of biscuits as a Christmas gift. I was also able to respond in kind by leaving two of my books for the school and will keep in contact too.

One of the highlights of my day, apart from having my eldest accompany me, was that there were some students who recognized my books from the earlier schools they'd attended. One in particular remembered some of the books that she had seen at her earlier school library and at an ECE Early Childhood Education and that family members had bought some. I in turn had to give her one that she didn't already have in her collection and that was a real blessing. 

It was also interesting that she explained that "Sina and the Tuna", my first book that I published in 2015 almost 10 years ago (next year) was her favourite of them all. The neat thing was that I had already considered to re-publish books in a different format so looking to re-launching the books with a different look but still retaining the same text. Roll on 2025...