Over 100 students and staff congregated at the Oceania Centre Pavilion on March 24th. The Centre hosted its first free movie “Moana” to the USP community. The Centre played an important part in the production of the film. The Oceania Centre’s Pasifika Voices was the choir support to the movie according to Head of SPACE, Professor Sudesh Mishra. A short documentary produced by Disney World was shown on the recording of Pasifika Voices. In 2016 a team of producers and technicians from Disney World arrived at USP. ICT was booked and during rehearsals and the recording, the building was on complete lockdown. Very few people knew that Disney World was at the Laucala campus.
In his welcoming speech the Head of SPACE, Professor Sudesh Mishra said “the centre was going back to encouraging our people, our region, our students to participate in any kind of creativity that they want to do and the centre will support it in whatever way it can. For those that are interested in painting, poetry, any form of writing, music, anything that is creative, standup comedy etc, come onto the Oceania Centre and talk to our people and they will guide you in the right direction. There will be poetry-reading nights and anyone can join us.
The Oceania Centre is an open space, and a safe space, everyone who wants to express themselves creatively can participate. That is the whole idea of this space. And to showcase the talents on campus, Pasifika Voices took to the stage. Pasifika Voices is made up of resident artists and USP students from Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu so far.
In her first solo performance, 19 years old Melemoala Lenati from Tonga, a second-year law student sang “How far I’ll go”. She joined Pasifika Voices this year and also enrolled in the Oceania Centre Social Class for Vocals. Romeo Sabbath sang “We know the way”. Romeo is 21 years old from Samoan and is a third-year student and has been part of Pasifika Voices since 2019. Melemoal and Romeo were backed by the Pasifika Voices Choir. This film night would not have been possible without partnering up with Radio Pasifika of SPACE who brought in the technical expertise and equipment.
