Page 18 - Fiji Traveller Issue 4

Lusiana Qolikoro

one. These existing tables were the starting point for Rise Beyond the Reef. It was core to community-
building and an approach that should be a fundamental for the development and/or aid sector.
“We should be about connecting, understanding, bridging and building upon the existing tables,”
Lotawa has written. “Regardless of what you bring to the table, approach it with the respect it
deserves. It has proven itself key to sustainable practices in our partnerships.”
Lusiana Qolikoro, who traces progeny to the Lau Group, is a gifted weaver and sewer. Lusiana has
not only been a consistent supplier to Rise Beyond the Reef, but is an example of how the project
has also become a knowledge transfer platform.
“I’d been weaving ever since I was child, with my grandmother. Since being married and living in
Ba, I have been able to utilise these natural abilities to earn an income and teach others,” Lusiana
said.
Rise Beyond the Reef provides each village with one sewing machine and the actual material
to use. Groups have now become specialised – so a village can be known as the “turtle” group or
“marama dolls”; some production crews are big enough to produce more than one product.
Once complete, the products are usually collected by the district coordinator who then takes them
to the quality controller. Once products are accepted, the women are paid.
Sometimes orders come in “short corner” and Lusiana and her team may work through the night,
taking turns at the two or three machines available, to meet the order.
It is not all work, mind! There is always giggling and sometimes, sadness, to be shared. The work
space has developed into so much more than just an ‘office’. It has become a safe space for women
to just talk.
In the same way, Rise Beyond the Reef’s products have multiple functions. They are beautiful
souvenirs that demonstrate the skills and creativity of Fijian women and have a contemporary
aesthetic at home in modern settings. They are a door to economic empowerment and income for
those women and their families. And they are also an example of how “development” projects that
take a long-term view, and respect existing tables and contexts, are more likely to succeed.

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