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Showing posts from April, 2019

Pukupuka...a Remote Island...and Wonderful Manners

Teresa in the island's beautiful church (photo LP) Some years ago,I received the following letter from a young woman who lives on one of the most remote islands in the world, Pukapuka, in the Northern Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean.  I was fortunate to meet her and stay in her house during the infamous voyage on  SV Discovery   through the Suwarrow National Marine Park and other islands in the region in May 2011. Teresa's letter Prior to our departure I asked Edwina (Teresa to us) what she would like me send her from Australia. The island is regularly short of what we would regard as ordinary staples like rice, sugar, flour and medical supplies. The island " supermarket" with empty shelves (photo LP) But what Teresa particularly wanted for her family were vegetable and fruit seeds.  The islanders are largely restricted in their choice and eat mainly taro, every islander has their own small patch of soil in which to grow it, and cocon