PM encourages students to ‘think outside the rocks’
The Prime Minister Henry Puna has asked the students of the Region to help shift the Pacific’s mindset away from the limiting perceptions of Small Islands States, and to start ‘re-imagining’ themselves with a stronger presence in the world.
In a speech entitled “Thinking Outside the Rocks: Re-imagining the Pacific”, the Prime Minister told a lecture hall full of students and staff of the University of the South Pacific in Suva that the Pacific Islands needed to take command of their own future on their own terms, as ‘Large Ocean Developing States’. The Friday talk was lifted from the theme of this year’s Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting and delivered to the USP audience as part of the Prime Minister’s official visit to Fiji, this week.
Puna said he chose the play-on-words to describe how the Pacific needed to venture beyond their self-imposed thinking that the islands were simply “dots on a map”.
“Our island nations carry enormous significance well beyond tiny volcanic specks and atolls in what is a vast, collective territory of the Pacific Ocean. This is our course for the future – thinking beyond the rocks.”
The Prime Minister also described how the Pacific had been subjected to an enduring imagining by outsiders – impressions developed over centuries that had become part of the island nations themselves.
“We simply took ownership, and made it ours,” he said, referring to the European constructs of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia.
He used the tradition of voyaging as a symbol of the re-birth of the way the Pacific has taken back control of imagining, and projecting itself to the world.
“The narrowness of our existence in the Pacific requires broadening,” the Prime Minister stated, “a widening of both opportunity and the way in which we must take on these tasks”.
“For these reasons I ask for encouragement to accept this responsibility to think beyond the constraints. Rise above. Explore ‘outside the rocks’, and progress with a boldness founded on who we can be, as Large Ocean Island States.”
The Prime Minister injected a great deal of humour into his address, describing his experiences as a young student and taking up law. He talked about the significant role the USP played in the region.
“For many of us, it’s the beginning of our long-term relations – relations that will grow and flourish long after we leave these halls and corridors – whether we’re in academia, teaching, law, medicine – or even politics.”
Even while studying abroad, Pacific Islanders enriched each other’s nations by creating families, he quipped.
“The Cook Islands is certainly a strong supporter of USP learning and relationship-building. I’d like to encourage you to continue to uphold the University with pride and make the most of your time here,” he added.
“You’re learning from the best – and they have the best intentions for your future. When you graduate from here – or even continue on with post-graduate training, you’ll realise just how valuable the USP is, and what it means to our countries – individually and as a whole region.”

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