Rarotonga

Through The Eye

Of A Camera

James Siers’ photographic essay on Rarotonga is similar to a number of others which have been produced in recent years with the principal purpose of catering for the Pacific Islands tourist trade. This is a type of book which has inherent deficien cies and if these are accepted for what they are then Rarotonga must be considered to match its pre decessors in content and quality of presentation. The book looks at only two of the islands in the Cook Is lands, Rarotonga and Aitutaki, because it is only there that there is available access by air and accom modation catering for tourists.

As he has demonstrated on several occasions, James Siers is a most competent professional photo grapher and he does his Cook Is lands subjects proud. The reader cannot fail to be entranced by the rugged beauty of the Rarotongan skyline, or the sweep of some of the island’s beaches or the dramatic ap peal of the lagoon of Aitutaki.

However, it is with the local peo ple that Siers shows the mastery of his trade and his feeling for the Cook Islands’ way of life. He cap tures with sympathy and perception much of the ebullient character of this island society in the people, young and old, well-known and not so well-known that appear on many of the pages in the book.

Here we are able to see in quite natural surroundings, the honoured elder citizens, such as Mrs J.

Williams, and Charlie Cowan, known to many as Tumu Korero, for his great volume of writing on his own people. We can also see Sir Albert Henry, in the informal style which he so often adopts, as he stands on the beach at Titikaveka, clad in a floral pareu and with a beach towel tossed over his shoulders.

But the lesser-known are not neglected and the book gives deserved prominence to fishermen, schoolchildren, the boys who ride the race horses on the beach at Mun and the people who dance and sing

on so many occasions in the Cook Islands way of life. The casual visi tor to the islands will also get some impressions of the economic back ground of these places for there is a reasonable coverage of the agricultural, craft and entertain ment industries.

This is, in most respects, a book that can be recommended to the particular audience for which it is prepared, and I hope that it proves to be a worthwhile venture for Mr Siers, and then, perhaps, he may feel encouraged to produce a second edition in which he will be able to eliminate a number of minor flaws, which to anyone who knows the Cook Islands in any degree of familiarity must be considerable irritants.

Cook Islands dancing and singing is at its best when it is spontaneous, or linked to .some occasion which has deep local significance and 1 would have preferred to have seen more of this feature of life on Rarotonga and Aitutaki and less of the quite synthetic dancing that is served up for tourists and as the bill of-fare of touring dance teams.

There is so much colour in the is lands. in the sky, the sea and on the land, that I feel that it is inap propriate for the phoographer to enhance what nature has to offer.

I may be doing Mr Siers an in justice. but my memories ot so many sunsets are such that 1 feel that Mr Siers must have made use ot filters to obtain, in several ot his scenes, effects which are not Rarotongan.

This book is also interesting because its author has made use of some of the photographs in the George Crummer collection, which date back some 60-70 years, to pro vide a contrast between the past and present and this is to be commend ed. But I wish that a little more research had been done ot a wreck cast upon a coral shore. The book says “No one knows where this ship ran aground.” The most elementary steps in research would have told the author that this was the

Saragossa, the wreck of which on Mangaia is in fact one of the best known incidents in the maritime history of the Cook Islands.

The author also falls into the common trap of crediting the Rev John Williams with “rediscovering”

Rarotonga, which is quite erroneous as there were a number of ships that came before Williams on the En deavour. including the Sydney vessel Cumberland , whose visit to Rarotonga has been well-docu mented. And 1 am not impressed with sentences that leave me with the suspended feeling “Swim ming, snorkelling, canoeing, tour ing, or just hiring a motorcycle or car and pleasing yourself’.

To sum up. 1 must not be too carp ing in my criticism of this book. It more than adequately serves the purpose it was designed to meet, that is to provide an introduction to the island of Rarotonga and Aitutaki, for the visitor whose stay

there will be of short duration.

G. Coppell

w.

SIERS, James (RAROTONGA By James Siers.

Published by Wellington, Millwood Press Ltd, 1977).