ISLANDERS AT THE CROSSROADS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 631, 3 August 1951, Page 6

ISLANDERS AT THE CROSSROADS

"YY OU don’t have to look around very closely very long in these islands before you realise that on the one hand you have lushness, sensuality, security, and on the other disease, hardship and danger . . . . Wherever you look there seem to be two sides to every view-which all adds up to a picture of a people who are standing at the cross-roads between our way of life and their own." Russell Reid brought this impression back from the Cook Islands where, late last year, he spent three months and a half with a National Film Unit team making a film, Moana Roa. He gives something of each side of the picture in three talks which he has recorded for the NZBS. The first of these will be heard in the 3YA Women’s Session at 2.5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 7. In this first talk in Pacific Assignment Russeli Reid says something about the people, their dances, their love of the sun, their sense of humour. Then more seriously-so that no one will think the life of the Cook Islanders is just a lovely bunch of coco-nyts-he discusses, surprisingly, the housing problem, and its link with coconut trees and the vital*export trade. The impact of the church and the islanders’ reaction to the cinema are described in the second talk; and in the last Mr. Reid makes interesting comment on working life in the islands, food, health and education. The talks are illustrated with excerpts from the sound track of Moana Roa.