Winning tuna label entry announced

The Minister for Marine Resources, Hon. Teina Bishop, today announced the winners of the Cook Islands Schools Tuna Label Competition. There were 155 entries. Mangaia School submitted the most with 49. The winning entry was by Dennis Nanai (Gr 5) of Tekaaroa Adventist School who will walk away with a cash prize of $300. Second and third place went to Tekake William (Fm 5) Nukutere College and Joshua Milne respectively. Tekake William will receive a cash prize of $200 and Josh Milne will receive $100 cash for his efforts.
Ian George, Visual Arts Advisor for the Ministry of Education, was part of the selection panel for the competition and was impressed with the quality of the entries they received. “The ideas that came through were really good. There’s quite an ethnic influence coming through a lot of our labels and designs. The top three showed that there’s a lot of thought that went into the composition. The three were well balanced.”
Aitutakian Dennis Nanai’s winning entry managed to use themes that drew on traditional practices such as carving and Tatau, according to George. George commented that this element gave it more of an “authentic” feel than some of the other entries.
As for those entries that didn’t place in the top three, every entry will receive a $10 cash prize, which Minister Bishop will travel to each island to present in person. George made special mention of one particularly clever and humorous entry. “Somebody put in an entry where you just have the fish bones! That’s great because it meant it was so good, they ate everything there... So that was pretty cool.”

Headlines : Times 290 02 March 2009
- Lucky $1,000 winner
- Century old palm trees and the French connection
- Koutu Nui takes part in Raui meeting in Moorea
- WOM Award Dinner for Ake Hosea-Winterflood
- Island of Atiu to host Koutu Nui AGM in June 2009