I was an Information and Research Officer, then Associate Hansard Editor and Clerk at the Table for the Cook Islands Parliament (1995-2005). I have been the curator and manager of the Cook Islands Library & Museum since 2005.

I’ve been mentored by Max Kiermeyer (Clerk of the Australian Federal Parliament), the late Professor Emeritus Ron Crocombe, Dr Adrian Kaeppler (Curator, Oceania Ethnology) and Michelle Austin-Dennehy (Specialist Conservator) of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, Grace Hutton (Curator) at Te Papa Tongarewa in New Zealand, Professor Margaret Ann Boden, Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex and, Kirk Sullivan, a PhD candidate from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

What are you research interests? What interests you about these areas?

I try to reflective, insightful, sensitive to language and remain constantly open to experience (van Manen). I’m interested in Māori language, particularly etymology of Māori words, folklore, legends and myths, Cook Islands Art (weaving, tatau, tapa and scuplture) and Performing Arts (pe‘e, music and dance) and our flora and fauna.

What new work have you got coming up?

Folklore of Ma‘uke, a collaboration with Emma Powell on Te Maeva Nui, articles relating to Tapa collection with the Smithsonian Museum and a project on Cook Islands Music in collaboration with Kirk Sullivan.

Share a favourite quote and why it’s particularly meaningful to you. 

Every rose has a thorn

Every night has a dawn;

And every cowboy sings a sad, sad song 

This is a “meaning of life” quote, which I first heard as a young person.  It is a simple way of saying that there are some things in life that you can’t control; that life is full of beauty but it is also full of ugliness, and that you have to accept that fate plays a big part in our lives. The last line reminds me of life when I was growing up on Rarotonga in the 1970s. Country and Western music was very popular in the Cook Islands because it encapsulated stories that Cook Islanders could relate to when life was much simpler here. This quote is both humorous and honest. It is also nostalgic.                    

What are your hopes for Te Vairanga Kite Pakari?

Imparting to the next generation what we researchers have learned is important, e.g. myths and legends, tapa making, pe’e, traditional medicine. Life lessons and the values of our culture are embedded in these stories and activities.