After launching a successful international premier at the Pacific Arts Festival (FestPAC) in Hawaii last week, the University of Fiji is showing its documentary film: 'Drua: A Beacon of Discovery' to Fijian audiences.
The film is the university's research journey in climate change mitigation and adaptation using the traditional canoe, the I Vola Siga to record traditional ecological knowledge in the villages of Veiseisei, Lauwaki and Namoli in the western division.
The staff and students of the university were all involved in the project which worked with villages affected by climate change to see how the University's educational prospects could be improved by applying participatory principles to expand student and staff knowledge base.
Vice Chancellor, Professor Shaista Shameem says the film was commissioned to record the research process anthropologically for local and international film festivals and television.
She says the traditional canoe, the Drua, ‘I Vola Siga' with Captain Setareki Ledua of the Centre for i-Taukei Studies of the University at the helm, intends to sail to other villages and coastal areas in Fiji to continue with the climate and ecological crisis research.
Professor Shameem says the results will document the extent of these crisis on ocean life in Fiji and after that we will consider what avenues we will be able to pursue for adaptation in the long run'.
She says the Saweni Premier is held to take the research back to the people who were involved in it.
Professor Shameem says it was important for the university to honour traditional seafarers on this auspicious date as they sailed the vast oceans without modern navigational instruments, with just the stars, wind and currents as their guide.
She adds the speed and agility with which the drua sails is remarkable.
