Pukapukan community offended by comments on Radio Cook Islands

Shona, Trevor and Charles Pitt, Directors and owners of Radio Cook Islands, Cook Islands TV and the Cook Islands Herald and Times, attended a meeting on Friday morning of the Pukapuka community held at the Pukapuka Hostel.
Their presence was to apologise to the Pukapuka people for comments made on Radio Cook Islands on Thursday about Pukapuka people by radio talkback host Ben Mose and also his guest on radio, George George.
The comments concerned the roles of Pukapuka men and women and were made on the same day a conference on women was being held at the Crown Beach Resort.
Some 50 Pukapuka people including Pukapuka traditional leaders attended the meeting which got underway at 10am. Makirere Poila chaired the meeting and Nuku Rapana also attended.
Many of those present according to well known Pukapukan Tingika Elikana, the Solicitor General, had taken the day off work as the plan agreed at a meeting on Thursday evening was to do a protest march with placards from the Hostel to the radio station. Elikana said he personally did not hear the comments but understood from speaking to others that they were disrespectful, hurtful, culturally offensive and possibly racist. He said the comments showed people did not understand Pukapuka custom and tradition. He said not only Pukapukans but all northern islanders would be offended. He further stated that this is a wider concern that needs to be addressed.
Nuku Rapana said it took a lot to make a Pukapukan angry but they had been angered by the comments made. He thanked the media owners for fronting up and apologizing.
The MP for Pukapuka Vai Peua also spoke expressing his concerns.
The Pitt family members apologized for the comments made on radio and invited Pukapukan community leaders and representatives to go on radio and television on Friday to air their concerns. The Cook Island Times newspaper would also report on the matter. Other action concerning the radio staff would be taken. A warning would be given and those concerned would be instructed to apologise.
The Pitt family members spoke of their long association and friendship with the Pukapukan people going back nearly 50 years. It was because of that long connection that Pitt family members advised the Pukapukan community to come directly to them if they had concerns with media matters.
Pukapuaka representatives went on radio Cook Islands at 12.30pm on Friday to air their concerns. George George also contacted them and made comment in explanation of Thursday’s events.

Headlines : Times 290 02 March 2009
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