Two summers ago I travelled to Fiji and New Zealand with a group of professors and librarians from BYU-Hawaii. I was like a kid in a candy store. Ask them all. The trees, the clouds, the people . . . I couldn't soak it up fast enough.
Someone snapped these photos of me from the van.
Someone snapped these photos of me from the van.
Yes, I stuck my head out the window and snapped photos all day.
And then I scribbled out articles all night.
It was heaven.
One of the most exciting moments of the trip was meeting an author who I adore, Epeli Hau'ofa. He made me think deeply and laugh whole heartedly.
I found out last night that he died on Sunday, January 11th.
Today is his funeral.
I can't describe how I felt when I heard the news--sad that he's gone, happy that he was here, grateful that I got to meet him and interview him and take photos of him before he passed on.
I love it when people have a profound impact on the world around them. Epeli Hau'ofa was like a mental meteor in the Pacific.
LY Epeli Hau'ofa! And God bless!
Click here to read the Newsroom article I wrote about USP and Epeli Hau'ofa.
But be prepared to NOT recognize me AT ALL.
Click here to read the announcement of his death.
And to see how much better my photos of him are then the one The Solomon Times chose to print. (Hello! They coulda asked me.)
And look how totally star struck I am interviewing him and getting my favorite book, Tales of the Tikong, signed by him:
And here are some photos of the incredible creativity pouring out of the Oceana Centre for Arts and Culture that he founded and directed:
Aloha Oe, Epeli . . .
Oceania will miss you!
3 comments:
Sorry Crash to hear that you lost someone that had such a great impact on your life. I'm glad you were able to learn from him and have shared some of that with us.
LY!!
that's so awesome that you got to meet him! so sad that he has passed. Love the photos!!
I have never heard of him (except back when you posted about him in the midst of that post about Miss D--I got kinda distracted) but I found all of this very interesting and I intend to add his books to my to be read shelf.
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