'Amelia the Youngest
(In Tongan dance)
(In Middle-Eastern dance)
Phoenix Bird
" Rising out of the ashes"
PHOENIX MOANAN ISLAND CLASSES:
Phoenix Performing Arts of Moana (PPAM) for teaching Moanan-Tongan performing arts and dances at The Belconnen Arts Centre, Canberra ACT AUSTRALIA.
For further information please contact Belconnen Arts Centre on 02 6173 3300/
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or PPAM's Manager, Ms Luseane H. Tuita, on 6257 9907 /0412480097 (mob).
PHOENIX CONSULTANCY:
Phoenix Tas-Moanan Consultancy (PTMC) is for hiring to run public-university workshops, lecturers, researches, advices/consultations, etc., on Moanan-Tongan culture, oral traditions, arts, politics, history & society (by Mr Siosiua Lafitani Tofua'ipangai).
PTMC can run consultations, workshops and lecturers on the importance for both youth and adult of attaining a better education either on technical or academic terms, or both levels (by Siosiua).
Women group consulations on issues relating to domestic violence, drugs, abuse, youth, etc. can be conducted as well by Ms Lucy (Luseane) Tuita.
For more information please contact the Director, Mr Siosiua Lafitani Tofua'ipangai, on 02 6257 9907(hm)/0415668769 (mob)/Emails:
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OR Ms Luseane Tuita on 02 62579907 (hm)/Email:
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Who's Online
We have 10 guests online
Phoenix Movement
- Friday Dance classes, 7-9pm.
- Wednesday Chanting Classes 7-8pm.
LONDON FALE
We invite you to read our Spotlight Interview with both
Tongan born 'Siua and Lucy' of the Phoenix Performing Arts of Moana
based in Canberra, AUSTRALIA.
View the details here..
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WHY HULA-DANCING IN A SWIMSUIT... |
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Written by Melanie Poole
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 This is a Public Speech by Melanie Poole of Australia at the 2009 Graduation Ceremony of
Hawker College in Canberra, one of the nation's famous youths with powerful, intellectual and spiritual wisdom of unique nature. Our Phoenix member, 'Ilaisa Linmei Khoo Lafitani, was one of the students of Hawker who completed her Year 12 and now ready to continue to university studies in 2010. I attended, with my partner, Luseane (Lucy) Nakao-Tuita, on this Ceremony and listened to Melanie's fascinated and challenging oratory. We'll talk with Melanie early next year on our PIYN's Radio Show 91.1FM/www.cmsradio.org.au with Lucy, every Fri from 9am-12pm and Sun from 6pm to 9pm, with English language between 10-11am & 6-7pm and the rest are in Tongan...Siua Lafitani Tofua'ipangai....
(Melanie in Pakistan... )
WHY HULA-DANCING IN A SWIMSUIT IS BETTER THAN BEING SUCCESSFUL: 4Steps to Avoiding Success
Melanie Poole, December 2009
Parents, teachers, friends and, most importantly, you, the graduating class of 2009.Thank you for asking me to speak today. It is an absolute honour to be here.My two years at Hawker made me who I am. Here my teachers encouraged me to be creative, to have an opinion, to question – and to be outraged, when I should be outraged. Importantly, they did not patronise me. When I said I wanted to change theworld, they did not call me unrealistic, naïve, or cute. They asked me what I was waiting for.It’s rare that young people are encouraged like this. It is too easy to think that we are meant to discard our dreams when we wake up and enter the ‘real’ world. But I have seen that if we don’t trust in our dreams, we can end up walking a straight and narrow path, which leads absolutely nowhere.
Today I want to tell you that can shape your reality however you choose. All of us, no matter our particular circumstances, are, as educated young Australians, part of a very tiny privileged minority.I was sitting where you are sitting seven years ago and since then many of the things I dreamt of have come true. Things better than what I even dared to dream of have came true too. I have travelled to over 25 countries. I have lived in a Kenyan village and learned what ‘community’ really means. I have worked in a refugee camp, where I saw the extremes of human suffering and compassion. I’ve run naked among whitebutterflies in an abandoned oasis in the Iranian desert. I’ve watched 1000s of kilos of opium being smuggled on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where I also learnt how to shoot a pistol. I have stood in the United Nations General Assembly and addressed the countries of the world.But seven years ago, I was walking toward that straight and narrow path.
Although I received great encouragement at Hawker, and I did want to do something good with my life, I was nonetheless determined to be perfect—or at least close to perfect. I smiled at everyone in the corridor because it was important to be liked, and I gossiped behind people’s backs because that was how you kept up with the group. I read Cosmo advice columns, counted my calories, and made sure I was never at home on a Saturday night. I aimed for the highest marks and was determined to get into the most prestigious law school possible.I took a gap year after Year 12 and lived in a pub in London. Suddenly there were no more grades, no more cool groups to be part of. And every day I heard the stories of the old drunk men around the bar. They were stories of lonely men and the violence and alcoholism that had broken them. And yet—some of these men had been successful.They had excelled at good jobs. But story after story was the same, some unforeseen event – the closure of a factory, for example, or a bad investment – had lost these mentheir careers, the only things that had mattered to them.
After London, I volunteered in a small Kenyan village called Kebaroti. (To those of youwho are considering similar activities, let me say, on a side note, that I advise you to becautious and research your choice carefully. Profit-making ‘volun-touring’ enterprisesoutnumber actual legitimate volunteering opportunities these days.)One thing that struck me was the way people in Kebaroti looked out for each other. InKenya they have a word, ‘harambee’, which means all for one. To be successful inKebaroti meant being healthy, strong, and part of a prosperous community. No matter your job or your wealth, you were not successful if those in your village were suffering.
In Kebaroti, no-one cared that I could write an excellent essay analysing Jane Austen, orthat I had a good UAI. I couldn’t make a mud brick. I couldn’t properly wash clothes inthe river. I couldn’t carry water on my head. I danced like a clumsy white person. Icouldn’t even speak Swahili. Children could do these things in Kebaroti. And I couldn’t.What I realised then, and what I wish I had known when I sat where you are sitting today, is that trying to be perfect is a burden. And nothing meaningful, beautiful or amazing ever came out of shouldering it.For years you have been trained to obsess about your grades and your future, and you might have worried that your grades weren’t good enough, or your life special enough.Right now everyone around you is talking about raw scores and scaled scores and test scores and UAIs. Today you will receive honours and awards, and these numbers and these achievements will seem the most important thing in the world.
To be successful in this way means judging yourself against other people, the peoplewho didn’t get that job, who didn’t get into a good school. This turns our life into acompetition for the highest grades, the most attractive body, the best job, the most money.I want to remind you that there are things that are vastly more important.What matters in the rest of your life has very little to do with your career choice and everything to do with your human connections. We all know this truth, deep down, and yet we often manage to forget it when we are making our life decisions.Today I want to tell you to avoid success. I have four suggestions about how.
First: Risk everything, even failure.
When we talk about taking risks, what we are usually talking about is confronting a fearof failure. We are conditioned to think of failure as a bad thing, and so we avoid it at allcosts.But sometimes we need to fail, because it will stop us from going down the wrong path.As one philosopher wrote: ‘self-sabotage is the smart thing you can do if you’re sabotaging a self that is not really you.’ I’ve got a friend who always wanted to be a musician, but studied law to please his parents. He hated everything about law schooland became a depressed, cynical person. In our third year, he found the tedium of Corporations Law so unbearable that he gave up on studying and failed the exam. This was the best thing that ever happened to him. Finally his parents realised that he was never going to be a lawyer and stopped pressuring him. He dropped out of law school,and now he is one of the most contented and cheerful people I know.
Another reason why we should risk failure is that often it will expand the range of things we believe ourselves capable of.An American poet wrote that we must travel in the direction of our fear. I have taken this quite literally and travelled to fairly dangerous places. I am not advocating that youall do the same – I am sure your parents wouldn’t appreciate me encouraging you totravel quite as madly as I have! - but what really scared me when I went to these places was that I went alone and I didn’t really know what awaited me.One of my most challenging experiences was living in Pakistan for five months, workingon a women’s education program. When I arrived, I was flown to a small town in a vast mountain landscape. I learned that I was the only white, non-Muslim foreigner for milesaround. I was told that I had to travel from the Afghan border to Kashmir, interviewing hundreds of young women about their lives, and then write a book-length report about it. It sounded pretty impossible.My trip took me down countless undulating mountain tracks overlooking dangerous looking churning brown rivers below. It took me to Talibanised Afghan border towns,where I was the only woman visible for miles, and where I watched sacks of opium being smuggled and toured an AK-47 factory. It took me into the homes of the most strong willed women I have ever met. And before I knew it, I had typed 30,000 words.Avoiding risks because we are afraid that we might fail is a perfect recipe for a dull life.It will blind you to your own capabilities. Risk failure, and you will accomplish things beyond that which you even dreamed of.
My second step: Be bold and speak your mind Plenty of people will tell you that you ‘have a lot to learn’.
This is true – we all have a lot to learn. But that doesn’t mean that the thoughts and opinions you have right now are not valuable.People might tell you that you are the ‘leaders of tomorrow’. Well, we don’t have time to wait until tomorrow. Our elected leaders are doing a pretty good job of screwing up the planet right now. And since we are the ones who will be left with the mess, we need to speak up today.Often, you’ll have ideas that challenge the things society has come to accept as normal.Last year, when I addressed the United Nations General Assembly as Australia’s Youth Representative, I deliberately challenged the things that other diplomats seemed to think we could never change.I said that young Australians expect the UN member countries to do better. That we do not accept the logic that makes trade deals binding, but human rights protection optional. That we reject arguments of inevitability when it comes to poverty and gender inequality. That there are no excuses for not acting on climate change.There will be people who tell you that such ideas are ‘inappropriate’, that they are not polite, or practical, or that you won’t make any difference anyway. Ignore those people.Don’t let them patronise you. Remember that Martin Luther King was only 26 when he sparked the fight for racial equality in the US. Nelson Mandela sowed the seeds for the fight against Apartheid while in his early 20s. From the French revolutionaries, to Gandhi, to Che Guevara, to Bob Marley, young people have been the spark which setsalight the fires of the most important movements in our history.Of course, you don’t have to be the next Guevara right away.
But when you have an idea, don’t worry about it being outlandish, or silly. In fact, embrace those things – the younger that we are, the more outlandishness we can get away with. As a matter of fact,after I finish this speech, my friends and I going off to Parliament in elf and santa costumes. We are going to reward our leaders for their contribution to tackling climate change with a large delivery of coal. Our costumes will probably look ridiculous. Our actions will not save the world. But we might get our voices heard: and that issomething.Only idealism can change the world. Cynicism can’t. If you have something to say. Just say it don’t be silent.
Thirdly: Find a mentor Taking risks and speaking up are not easy.
This is where a mentor comes in. A mentor believes in you and will offer you honest advice but will never make you feel small. They are somebody who you admire and can learn from. Often what will really convince usthat we can do something is the fact that someone else thinks we can. This, above all, is what a mentor does: they believe in you.There are lots of ways to find a mentor. You may have someone in your life already – a family member perhaps. If not, then don’t feel afraid to approach somebody.
Most people are flattered at this type of request, and realise the value of helping others. And if you do get turned back, then don’t take it personally – it is probably just because thatperson is too busy. Just find somebody else to ask – there are plenty of inspirational people out there.I know one young man who had the audacity to ring up a certain shadow Foreign Minister by the name of Kevin Rudd some years back. Rudd agreed to mentor him, and,as you can imagine, it has turned out to be a pretty fruitful relationship. Not that a mentor has to be someone powerful. Sometimes the best mentors you will find are those whom you admire for their character – people whose generosity, altruism or good workethic you would like to emulate.Remember that not all mentoring occurs through face-to-face interaction; it can alsotake place through telephone conversations or email. I once spent almost a year emailing the mother of an ex-boyfriend of mine before meeting her. By the time we met,her son and I were not even together any more! but she has remained one of the most supportive and inspiring people in my life.And my final step: cherish your human connections above everything else.My travels have taught me that before you can make a contribution to the world, you have to connect with it.
It is not so hard for people with the education you have already received to learn about the world. It’s easy to google ‘world poverty’ ‘climate change’ or ‘Canberra’s homeless’, and produce an informed speech or essay.But to really change things, we need to let things touch us personally. We need toexpose ourselves to the uncomfortable, unjust suffering of others. We need to connectwith the inspiring, beautiful parts of humanity.
As Winston Churchill put it, “Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can movetheir tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.”
As Youth Representative last year, I did a five month consultation around Australia which reminded me of these words. When Sudanese refugees in Brisbane told me about peopleabusing them on the streets, when Indigenous teenagers in Arnhem Land told me about losing friends to suicide every week, when a student broke down in tears as he described being bullied, I was swamped with emotion. It wasn’t because I was learning anything new. I’m well aware that racism, suicide and bullying are problems. But, as a young farmer from rural Western Australia, who recently met a refugee for the first time,remarked, it isn’t until things touch us personally that we realise how much they hurt.
In conclusion…I know that most graduation speeches tell you to shoot for the moon, or take up the challenge of the twenty-first century. But today I'd like you to give up. Give up on the draining, nonsensical quest to succeed. This quest can make us bury our true selves, our quirks and eccentricities. It stops us from taking great leaps into the unknown, from landing in the places that truly call to us.And what is even worse is this: someday you will be somewhere, maybe lying by a quietriver, or standing on an orange-purple mountain at sunset, perhaps even staring blankly at a television screen. Maybe something bad will have happened: you will have lost someone you loved, or failed at something you badly wanted to succeed at. And sitting there, you will not need good grades or a good job. You will need yourself. If you have been perfect all your life, and have managed to meet all the expectations of your family,your friends, your community, your society, chances are excellent that there will be agrey emptiness where your core should be.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said that what lies behind us and what lies before us are tinymatters compared to what lies within us. Today, I am supposed to tell you that you havereached the end of an era, and that you are about to begin building your futures. But lifeis not going to start when you figure out what you want to do. Life is the constant process of figuring out – and, at times, transforming, the person you want to be.And remember, if you ever hear yourself saying that you do not have time for the peopleyou love, or time to do what you love – whether it is listening to music, writing poetry,watching movies, or hula dancing in a swimsuit – then you are on the road to losingyourself. At the end of the day, you never wake up and fall into the ‘real world’. The only world that is real is the one you make for yourself. If you want to dream, then you can.And you don’t even need to know exactly what your dreams are: if you are following that small voice inside you, the one that tells you to go another way, then you will find yourself living them.
I’ll leave you with the words of a very wise and eminent man, who you may have been acquainted with in your younger years: Dr Seuss.
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
You are the one who'll decide where to go.
(Melanie & Former President Clinton of the USA)
More Information about Melanie:
After living in northern NSW and Tasmania, Melanie completed school in Canberra, where she was active in student activities including Rotary’s Model United Nations conferences, and in community groups including Amnesty International, ACT refugee support services and Canberra Youth Theatre. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2002 Model United Nations Assembly in Hong Kong, which encouraged her interest in the role of young people in international policy....read more on http://www.youthrep.org.au/melanie/blog/?p=4
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PIYN's Weekly Radio Show
Talofa lava, Malo e lelei, Fakalofa lahi atu, Aloha, Bula Vinaka....!!!
Taai Sullivan
Welcome to Potatala 'a e Kolomu'a's Weekly Show by Pacific Island Youth Network (PIYN) on CMS 91.1FM/www.cmsradio,org,au/www.nuama.org !!
Every Friday from 9am-12pm and Sunday from 6pm-9pm !!
Listen to Moanan-Tongan voices in English and Tongan languages !!
Profile # 1
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 "Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, so is my life. For me it's a continuing
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Profile # 2
 I was born in December 1978 in Auckland, New Zealand. Shortly after my family moved to Australia. At the age of 7 I took up ballet with Elizabeth
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My dance with Lu'isa at Futa's Funeral- Dismissal Ceremony
Our dance at Futa's funeral dissimisal ceremony
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