the publishing field

Church team enters the publishing field

The Lotu Pasifika Productions en try into a wider field of publication in the Pacific region is worthy of note.

Lotu Pasifika traces its origin to the first co-operative effort in the media area about 1963 with the development of the Pacific Islands Christian educa tion curriculum, which was the star ting point for the production of Chris tian publications on a regional basis.

A number of surveys conducted during the 1960 s and early 1970 s in dicated, moreover, that there was a need for a publishing house in the Pacific, with a broader base than purely religious publications, one that would be concerned with education on a wider plane than the emphasis upon Sunday School materials.

In 1976, Lotu Pasifika Productions is better known for its concern for the publication of materials with a wide and popular appeal. It is also noteworthy for its emphasis that there should be proper attention paid to manuscripts written in the vernacular as instanced by its Fijian language recipe book and its Tongan language monograph of the life of Sui La Polu.

One of the major concerns is to produce textual support by way of supplementary readers that will ex tend local curricula objectives and also provide printed works suitable for use on an inter-regional basis.

Although it has no official stan ding, other than its inter congregational organisational struc ture, Lotu Pasifika is seeking to work with the various education departments to produce texts which will have specific value within a syllabus. For Fiji, LPP is now produc ing a text on the life of Cargill, the missionary.

One of the more interesting projects which has been advanced by LPP is the publishing of a children’s magazine for use throughout the Pacific region.

The magazine, to be called Coconut, is designed for use by children in the top two years of the primary school and the first two years of the post-primary school. The staff of LPP have conducted a survey of the children’s response to the first trial issue of the magazine and the consen sus seems to be that a suitable level of language difficulty has been sur

mounted. It is a continuing aim of the publishers that they should seek the children’s response to the material presented and that the magazine should provide a back-up by way of supplementary material for course prescriptions being followed in schools.

One of the initial contributions, for instance, will be a cartoon series on the peoples of the Pacific, and on such topics as weather stations and the education of handicapped children.

The name of the magazine was chosen from entries received in a com petition, the winners being two boys from Tailevu in Fiji, who suggested

that the coconut has real significance in the Pacific as it is a fruit which floats everywhere and it is a plant of which every part can be used.

The manager of Lotu Pasifika Publications is Isake Raratabu of Fiji and the editor lova Geita of Papua New Guinea.

At present the Rev David Williams of the Church Missionary Society is acting as LPP's publishing trainer.

LPP is solely a publishing house and all work is sent out for printing.

At present LPP receives financial sup port from sponsoring organisations, but the long-term objective is economic viability.