“The first thing most people want to know is, where in the world is Rotuma?“ explained Dr. Hiagi M Wesley, the BYU-Hawaii symposium organizer. “That’s why we titled this event, “Rotuma in the Pacific,” he continued, “at least they know Rotuma is in the Pacific region of the world.” Dr. Wesley, a native Rotuman, said Rotuma is an island located about 500 miles from Fiji.
There are approximately 10,000 Rotumans with only about 3,000 actually living on Rotuma and another 6,000 living on Fiji. Dr. Wesley said, “That leaves about 1,000 Rotumans like me sprinkled around the US and Europe.”
Dr. Wesley left his position with the Granite School District in Salt Lake City to accept a position as a faculty member in the BYU-Hawaii School of Education beginning fall semester, 2006. As he conceived the Rotuma Symposium, he invited Alan Howard and Jan Rensel,, authors of the book “Island Legacy: A history of the Rotuman people,” to appear on the program. Both are now professors at the University of Hawaii. “I went to Rotuma as an anthropology graduate student at Stanford,” said Dr. Howard,. “Jan and I have been studying the Rotuman culture for 20 years now,” he added.
The Symposium began with a traditional Hawaiian welcome chant by William K. Wallace III, Director of the Hawaiian Studies program at BYU-Hawaii. Keith Roberts, Vice President of Academics, officially welcomed the guests and audience to the campus.
The feature-length movie “The Land has Eyes” was screened by those attending the Rotuman symposium. Dr. Wesley explained that he had seen the movie at the Sundance Film festival in Park City, Utah and how it had brought back many of his memories of growing up in Rotuma. The writer and director of the movie Dr. Vilsoni Hereniko and his wife Jeanette who raised the $500,000 needed to produce “The Land has Eyes,” were at the symposium. Dr.Hereniko is also a faculty member at the University of Hawaii.
Dr. Hereniko explained this is the first movie he and his wife produced, although he has been a playwright for 20 years. It was his first attempt at writing a screenplay and directing a movie. “Much of the storyline is based on my experiences growing up in Rotuma,” he explained. “Just as the school child in the film, I studied by the light of an oil lantern.” He explained that when the film was completed, he and his wife Jeanette had taken it back to Rotuma for the premiere showing. “I grew up thinking that movies were only about Caucasians and foreign cultures,” he noted. “But for many young Rotumans, they will remember the first film they viewed was about them and their native society… that is a wondrous thing to contemplate!”