Meet Manoa, Matua Coordinator for Otara’s Cook Islands Community

Manoa Tuatai, who turned 80 last month, is one of the treasured Coordinators for Vaka Tautua’s Matua Ola Manuia Day Programme. The programme helps our Pacific matua (older people) stay connected with their communities, and encourages them to lead active, healthy lives.

Manoa comes from Manihiki in the Cook Islands, a northern atoll known as the ‘Island of Pearls’ and one of the most remote inhabited islands in the Pacific. At age 18, she moved to Rarotonga to start a career in nursing at the main hospital, then based in town at Avarua.

After her children moved to New Zealand for school, Manoa remained in Rarotonga to complete 40 years of service as a public health nurse. She eventually joined her three daughters and granddaughter in Aotearoa in 1999 and, as a way of staying connected with her culture and language, Manoa joined Vaka Tautua’s Matua Ola Manuia group for Kūki 'Āirani older people in Otara.

Manoa says, “I’m happy to meet with the Matua Ola group for lunch and fellowship. It’s good that Vaka Tautua supports us to do that. I really appreciate the material provided for our sewing activities as I have always enjoyed making tivaevae.”

Having been taught to embroider by a schoolteacher as a young girl, Manoa has been sewing and stitching for most of her life. There are two kinds of tivaevae Manoa creates – applique and piecework – and she likes to keep herself busy by starting a new quilt as soon as she has finished the latest piece. Designing the pattern, selecting colours, then cutting and hand-stitching the shapes brings her great joy.

For Manoa, the Matua Ola Manuia Day Programme is a regular outing where she can meet other people and socialise. She enjoys the great fellowship and loves sharing her skills with other tivaevae makers, helping preserve this beautiful craft for future generations.