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Presentation
on the Small Islands Voice Inter-regional Workshop held in Palau
in November 2002 to the Mitiaro Community
By
Maarametua Murare
Mitiaro Community Hall, Mitiaro, Cook Islands
18th December 2002
Number
of participants: 112
The
public was asked to come and hear my experiences at the Small
Islands Voice Workshop I attended in Palau. We started with a
prayer, which was conducted by the Island Secretary and then a
short message from the Mayor.
I
started with my presentation I told them what I did and saw and
that Palau was very similar to Mitiaro in many ways. I talked
about the proposal of a student exchange programme between Bequia
in the Caribbean and Mitiaro. Everyone was very excited about
this new proposal.
I
then talked about the youth as that was my main focus as the youth
representative to the Small Islands Voice Workshop in Palau.
Almost
before I could get started one of the younger community members
asked why was I going to talk about youth? I then explained that
youth are the future, but that we must pay attention to them now
if we are going to have a good future in Mitiaro.
For
example:
- Some youth
are causing a lot of trouble.
- Youth
are sometimes hard to control.
- Youth
are disobedient to their elders.
- The youth
need to know who they are and what they are.
- They must
know about their heritage in order that they can help plan their
future.
One
person asked me what will happen in five years time, will the
Small Islands Voice Project be successful? So I said it will happen
if we all work together to help benefit our island and our people.
If we won't work together nothing will happen and everything will
remain the same.
The
Mayor and church minister asked me to work with the youth so that
they would become more active in community projects like those
of REAP and Mitiaro Itiki Environmental Rangers. I told them Papa
Bruce and I had talked about the need for such and that it was
a good idea.
Also
that it was important for youth issues and concerns to be heard
at community meetings and maybe even sometimes at island council
meetings.
I
also told them about the video of the workshop and they very much
encouraged me to show it on TV for the whole island of Mitiaro
to see.
The
entire community of Mitiaro was very grateful and honoured to
be chosen to represent the Cook Islands at this important meeting
in Palau.
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