Guadalcanal Weaving FestivalIf you’re keen to check out a fascinating cultural festival, the Guadalcanal Weaving Festival will be held at Lela Beach 1-7 August. The festival is the first of its kind and is the result of a massive effort including representation of all
21 Wards of the Guadalcanal Province.
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Open Air Arts & Crafts in the park..’ Honiara, Solomon IslandsOpen 10am-4pm (best times)
Part of the Solomon Islands National Art Gallery (SINAG), Honiara..
Outside, under the colourful market stalls, you’ll find an array of hand made products by local Solomon Islanders, some of the traditional skills have been handed down thru their family generations, and show a strong Melanesian cultural influence.. they also use this space as their ‘studio’ and you can see them sitting under a tree, carving, using the specific timber or stone that they have been taught to use.. one of the carvers, Billy Vinajama is 82 years of age, from Gatokae Island at the gateway of Marovo Island, Billy is very passionate about his carving career & achievement and informs me he has been carving in stone for 44 years..
The ‘Avaiki Women’s Group (Women’s Arts & Crafts Group) are hapi, vibrant & actively involved in their craft: the weavers make mats, bags/ baskets/ kete (bag), fans/ jewellery & many more.. there are makers of print/ tie-dye on t-shirts/ dresses/ lavalava & cloth, some make jewellery produced out shell beads/ paper beads into intricate pieces of wearable jewellery.. the women’s leader is ‘Janet Ramoteo’
Avaiki Women’s Group: (women’s group photo)
L-R; 1:Janet Ramoteo, 2:Ela Maesulia, 3:Lucy Bangoika, 4:Nancy Tangangiki, 5:Ruth Sina, 6:Tala Maitaki, 7:Nancy Teabaika, 8:Melina Teahe, 9:Joyce Augia, 10:Nancy Tango, 11:Tusiato Graley, 12:Nesary Taiake, 13:Rose Maenaha..
L-R; 1:Lisah Tony, 2:Marion Tembe, 3:Grace Delson, 4:Rose Sasali, 5:Tahira Joe, 6:Jewter Orelly, 7:Rosa Giaka, 8:Rosana Farodo
Contact: If you have any enquiries, please contact Janet Ramoteo, Avaiki Women’s Group.
You can also ring Janet +677 773 0174 (Women’s Group Leader)
Location: Main Street of Honiara, on the corner, next to the round-about that leads to the Heritage Park Hotel, in the surrounding grounds next to the Solomon Islands National Art Gallery, (or, if staying at the Heritage Park Hotel Honiara, it is on the right side as you enter), there is a entertainment stage, large building that hosts & exhibits up to 60 local artist’s work, from paintings, sculptures, woven craft, jewellery out of paper & shell & carvings in timber & stone.. and more, these are for sale.
Opening times: 10am-4pm/ Monday-Saturday ((Note: Some Stall Holders open on Sundays, but not all))
So, come down and have a chat, or you can watch traditional local & national Solomon Islander carvers, weavers, knitters & jewellery makers create their magic..
Photo of Maggie (Pijin tutor/ cooking tutor) & Veronika (Editor)
Taken 16/03/2017 @ Lime Lounge cafe, Honiara
Maggie Wateha’a from Malaita Province, South Malaita
Maggie has been teaching ‘Solomon Island Pijin’ for 22 years, involved with RAMSI since 2004 up until 2016, and was involved with a variety of International NGO’s , VSA (Volunteers Service Abroad), AVI, NZH, Australian High Commission.. Maggie has also been involved with the American Peace Corps for 12 years, achieved a certificate teaching S.I Pijin through Peace Corp’s Washington (cert In Linguistics)..
Besides ‘Pijin Classes’, Maggie also teaches
Certificate:
Diploma:
‘CLASSES’:
Times: 7am – 9pm.
Duration: Classes run from 1Hour up to 2 Hours (course)
Days: Monday to Saturdays
Cost: (negotiable)
If you have any queries please contact Maggie
+677 747 3631
+6777399677
Honiara, Solomon Islands
Association of Solomon Islanders in Creative Fashion (ASIICF) is having their Annual Fashion Show on the 3rd of December at the Coral Sea Resort. And their Fashion Week will commence there after until the 9th of December.
If you would like to to purchase a ticket for the Fashion Show then please refer to the attached flyer (below).
If you would like to view locally made garments, accessories and Artworks, then they will be displayed at the National Art Gallery until the 9th of December.
Do you want your environment to be clean?
Please come help us stop water pollution
Saturday 19th November
8am till 10 am at the Art Gallery
(Between Heritage Hotel and Breakwater Cafe)
Point Cruz
Organised Vaiclehi, Casssandro, Nahala, Loise, Jolyn and Hendrix
Then afterwards you can visit the great exhibition of some of the best of the Solomon Islands Arts Association in the Gallery. There are paintings, based on or inspired by local culture, history or myth, and prints, carvings, weaving and fabrics. All work is for sale. 10am- 4pm everyday.
Whether it s the waitress casually emptying the ash trays over the balcony straight into the water, or the “Eco-lodge” bailing up its garbage into plastic bags and boating them out into the current off shore, or the casual dropping of everything and anything into the street, or local business emptying its rubbish down the banks of the Mataniko River, Honiara is a cesspool of garbage.
Who would ever guess, before coming here, that a tropical paradise could be so filthy?
The dramatic increase in population alongside the introduction of plastics and other non-biodegradable rubbish have not integrated well with traditional approaches to garbage disposal.
If you are sick of seeing rubbish everywhere come along for a couple of hours tomorrow morning and do you bit; set a good example and not only help clean up a little but spur the sort of cultural change so sadly needed in this city. Nothing changes behaviour better than seeing people you know practicing and exemplifying another way of doing things.
The general clean up day at the Art Gallery follows on from the GoGreen – Annual School Clean Up, sponsored by BSP, today Friday 18th November.
I recommend you bring your own gloves and bucket and garbage bags and any other clean up gear you have.
You can easily make yourself and kids a handy rubbish “picker-upperer” and save your back.
Requirements:
(Piece of dowel,old broom handle, or roughly straight stick about 120 cms long,
String, raffia, plastic tape or anything to tie with. About 1 metre,
Glue, any sort,
Strong wire coat hanger, or other firm wire
Pliers or wire cutters, or you can break the wire by bending it back and forth around the same point, but it takes a little longer.)
* Simply cut two or three pieces of strong wire coat hanger about 20 cms long. 
Firmly tie the lengths of wire to a piece of dowel, broom handle, stick with string with about 12cms overlap, as in the diagram below.
Coat the string with glue and allow to dry.
You now have a handy rubbish picker-upperer to help make Honiara a little more beautifuller and rubbish conscious.
See you at the Art Gallery 8 – 10am Saturday 19th November
Sure it’s easy enough to buy cheap DVDs down town but there’s something about a B-I-G screen and surround sound. You just can’t beat going to the cinema, as we did on the weekend … in Honiara!
Taloa Cinema at Rove has been open for some weeks now. It’s just across from the Mambo Juice bus stop and the Ngossi/Tasahe turnoff, a few doors back to the east on the Rove seafront. It’s behind the DVD shop in a spacious airconditioned room with a couple of big standing fans, about 40 seats and a couple of light mattresses on the floor at the front. It’s comfortable and clean – a great escape in every way. More…
I have one of the best balconies in Honiara for watching the comings and goings and hubbub of life in the city. Normally a great spot to hang out, read a book and lap up the cool breeze that always seems to miss the streets below. But at the moment I’m starring in my own private re-staging of Rear Window with my sprained ankle elevated and the trusty binoculars on constant standby.
It is amazing to watch the ever changing and erratic moods of the sea below, the schools of fish skipping across the water, the fierce flurries of frenetic feeding, the excitement and noise of the wedding party trucks in spontaneous procession and the general amble and congestion of everyday in Honiara from my eyrie on the hill.
But the most obvious coming and going of this past week are the two immense luxury super yachts intermittently parked off Town Ground; the very stylish and recently re-fitted Mystery and the even bigger Ethereal. They certainly do add a stark contrast to the usual OBMs puttering along the coast or out to central province and Savo. More…
Who said Rotarians don’t have balls?
Fantasea, the 2016 annual Rotarian gala ball, is on. Your chance to frock up and go for a spin at the Rotary Fantasea Ball, Cowboys Bar and Grill from 6.30pm 4th June.
For those who never thought they would have a chance to don the glitz and glamour in Honiara it is time to hit the bale shops with a vengeance or dust of that little black dress. This is The social occasion on the Honiara social calendar. So if you can’t get to Wogasia that weekend Fantasea is the place to be.
The night will rock to the strains of Australian band ‘The Corporates’.
Tickets are $660 from BJS Agencies, Commonwealth St, Point Cruz.
For more information contact Judy@bjs.com.sb ph 23532 or 7496030
Come along to the youth market and chat to the entrepreneurs of tomorrow’s Solomon Islands and support their enterprise.
By Sam Ryan
Honiara, Solomon Islands – Youth@Work’s popular Youth Market will be happening from 9am-5pm Wednesday- Friday this week at the SMI Grounds opposite the new Sol plaza, Town Ground.
At the Youth Market young people who own small scale enterprises are given stalls where they can display and sell their products and services to the general public. Their products and services range from locally cooked food to hand-made creative arts and crafts which aim to offer customers a variety of choice.
If you are one of the many expats here who gets paid in your home currency, or just not paid very much, you are going to have to deal with with getting cash and International Exchange Rates. Bank fees on foreign exchange are always a huge and painful slug and their exchange rates very ‘conservative’.
The best way we have found is to have friends and acquaintances bring cash into the country when they are travelling. You can bring in the equivalent of $50,000 Solomon Islands Dollars (SID). $10,000 AUD seems to be okay, but that might change if there is a big movement in the exchange rate.
We move money into the friends Australian bank account online and they bring us the cash to exchange here.
The are two good places to change foreign cash in Honiara that give much better rates than the banks. You need your passport or local drivers’ licence for identification.
The Pineapple Post 