Epeli Rakai Tuibeqa

We owe our neighbours our fashion skills, says Havora

Reigning Miss Pacific Island and Miss PNG, Abigail Havora, highlighted this important factor when acknowledging the three international judges at the project runway last night.

She noted that early missionaries who came into PNG were from Fiji, Tonga and the Cook Islands, where judges Epeli Rakai Tuibeqa, Sione Liafail Maileseni and Ellena Maineteremoana Tavioni are respectively from.

"These missionaries’ wives taught our women to sew, make handicrafts from pandanus and coconut leaves.

"These skills are still being practiced by homes right across PNG."