Thankyou Tom Zubrycki for getting me a ticket to the opening of ‘The Hungry Tide’ for the Sydney Film Festival. It was BOOKED OUT very quickly and deservedly so!
Lines of people wound outside the Sydney cinema complex down George Street last night, despite pouring rain.
Cinema doors open, crowds seated and Tom Zubrycki spoke about his important 3 year journey making ‘The Hungry Tide’ – a documentary following the life of Maria Tiimon from Kiribati and her advocacy for her Pacific Island nation against the hungry tide – the rising seas of climate change. A significant film.
The Edmund Rice Centre, Phil Glendenning, Jill Finnane who were at the premiere, are passionate advocates for Kiribati and advocates of Tom Zubrycki’s film.
I was part of the Pacific Calling Delegation to Kiribati with Nicola Daly cinematographer and Louise Whelan award winning photographer, Patrick Dobson father of Aboriginal Reconciliation – looking at urbanisation on the island of Tarawa, need for fresh water, rising tides -to this welcoming nation in the middle of the Pacific.
Australian author Susanne Gervay (visit her website and blog) has had a very busy year this year and social justice has been high on her agenda. She is one of the contributors to Fear Factor: Terror Incognito, an anthology of short stories featuring ten Australian and ten Indian writers, edited by Meenakshi Bharat and Sharon Rundle (Macmillan Australia/ Picador India, 2010). She has been writing about her travels to India and Kiribati, a “Pacific atoll nation drowning under climate change”. She has just launched Always Jack, the third book about Jack, following on from her wonderful I Am Jack and Super Jack. Most recently, Susanne was in South Korea for the Nambook-010 Fesival, the 5th Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival. She was there because she was taking part in Peace Story, a very special project. We are very grateful to Susanne for telling us all about it here. For those of us who couldn’t be there in person, Susanne’s description and photographs are definitely the next best thing!
In these troubled times with North Korea’s military attack on South Korea, the international publication of Peace Story is poignant and important. Twenty-two children’s authors and twenty-two illustrators from twenty-two countries engaged in an international cooperative to create a unique anthology, Peace Story, for young people. Respected academic author on Irish children’s literature Valerie Coghlan and Irish Laureate for children’s literature Siobhán Parkinson were the co-editors of Peace Story.
‘Peace Story’ was part of the Nami Island International Children’s Book Festival, South Korea which was first held in 2005 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. It is a six-week bi-annual festival of children’s books, the environment and peace, featuring outstanding exhibitions of children’s books and illustrations from all over the world. Much loved Korean illustrator Kang Woo-hyon, President of the Nambook-010 International Committee headed the ‘Peace Story’ project with the support of the Nami Island Minn family who published and translated some of the stories, and hosted the authors and illustrators on Nami Island. It was supported by National YMCA Korea, UNICEF and UNESCO Korea, the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, and Nami Island the official sponsor of the IBBY Hans Christian Anderson Awards.
My Australian story ‘To East Timor with Love Australia’, illustrated by the award-winning Frané Lessac, opens the anthology Peace Story. Frané Lessac’s vibrant colours of bright pink bougainvillea and yel
The voices of the peope of Kiribati have deeply powerful harmonies. Their songs make modern music feel thin. The youth service on Sunday was in their cathedral which is a massive church with open walls to the air and breeze can wft through - it’s hot on the equator.
Their traditional dancing is stylized, fast, beating, theatre with huge casts of strong, beautiful young people. The dancing and singing involves the whole community and is not for tourism. It’s part of their lives.
Our sturdy boat lost its top on the crash and crunch trip from Tarawa Island to Abaiang – highlights include:-
-my toe sliced and deciding to hang my leg over the side into the water
- Good news – no sharks were attracted to the trail of blood
- The Pacific Calling Partnership delegation all survived the 3 hours trip.
Abaiang has a wonderful Catholic school and old limestone church in the centre. However we focussed on the southern side with white sands, thatched huts, coconut trees and village hospitality.
The village elder told us about the sea flooding the taro plots and threats to housing and food supplies with warming climate and rising seas.
They prepared a feast in their mwaneaba meeting place. They cooked octopus – just caught in the sea – not my favourite dish. Kids played around us, the sea was blue, the palms green … and these villagers want to stay in their village.
Kiribati is low lying and vulnerable.
The children are beautiful, warm, laughing and school is valued. Most live in basic island accommodation with the mwaneaba – community meeting area – where there’s eating, gathering, praying, sharing, under a canopy of woven palms.
The main island of Tarawa is densely populated with the ocean on one side and lagoons on the other. The other islands are sparsely populated, but all islands and peoples face serious issues of:-
safe water supply, sanitation, sea water rising with climate change.
I’m here with the Pacific Calling Partnership to find out more about these low lying islands and take the message back that these islands with their people are at serious risk.
Nearly on the plane to Fiji, then flying to the capital of Kiribati -Tarawa – on the equator.
It’s a Pacific Calling Delegation including Patrick Dodson father of reconcilation, Phil Glendenning human rights advocate and Director of the Edmund Rice Centre, Tom Zubrycki award winning film maker - www.tomzubrycki.com.
The world is so small – apologies for cliche – Tom met my cousin Ruth Balint (also a documentary film maker) for coffee a few days ago.
Our delegation shared dinner last night in preparation to start our 8 day mission on Monday.
My purpose: As a kids and YA author who writes to gives choices to young people, and as an ambassador for Room to Read bringing literacy to kids in the developing world, I’m on a fact finding mission.
I’ll try to report from Kiribati.
