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| The Sepik storyboard plaque marking the 2007 opening of the Pacific Media Centre by then Pacific Affairs Minister Luamanuvau Winnie Laban – gone, relocated? IMAGE: CAFÉ PACIFIC |
February 16, 2021
PACIFIC journalists, media researchers, students and other stakeholders have expressed
concern about the future of New Zealand’s Pacific Media Centre after more than
two months without a director and a recent shock “closure” of the centre’s office.
The centre,
founded in 2007 and described by an external review as a “jewel in the AUT
crown”, had worked in its current Communication Studies office in the Sir Paul
Reeves Building at the Auckland University of Technology’s city campus since it
opened eight years ago.
It was abruptly
emptied earlier this month of more than a decade of awards, books, files,
publications, picture frames and taonga, including a traditional carved Papua
New Guinean storyboard marking the opening of the centre by then Pacific
Affairs Minister Luamanuvao Winnie Laban in October 2007.
The official line
is that it is a “move” for the centre but there is confusion over the actual
location of any replacement space.
It is understood
that none of the centre’s staff or the PMC Advisory Board members were
consulted, nor were they notified before the removal took place. None were
present at the removal.
