Pacific book wins grant

Pacific book wins grant

AUCKLAND — A book about peace and social, environmental and political issues in the South Pacific is one of the projects awarded grants by the Rainbow Warrior trust fund.

Auckland-based Asia Pacific Network was awarded a $3500 grant to help complete a book written by a collective of "nuclear free and independent Pacific" activists from areas ranging from the Philippines to Tahiti. The book is dedicated to the memory of the late, deposed Fiji prime minister, Dr Timoci Bavadra.

Entitled Tu Galata, Social Change in the Pacific, the book is edited by Pacific journalist David Robie, author of Eyes of Fire, a 1986 account of the last voyage of the bombed Rainbow Warrior. Among contributions from 22 activists and writers are essays by Akilisi Pohivi and Susanna Ounei.

The 200-page book is expected to be a valuable resource with a large format and up to 70 photos. It is being published later this year.

Forty groups and individuals received grants this year, from the interest from money paid by France to New Zealand as compensation for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. The fund is administered by the Pacific Conservation and Development Trust.

The largest grants, of up to $10,000 each, went to several groups including the Vanuatu National Council of Women, the New Zealand Rainforest Coalition to help develop resources materials and the Waahi Whanui Trust to monitor Lake Waahi.

From GLW issue 22