An 18-year-old Motuan beauty was crowned Hiri Hanenamo over the weekend during the Hiri Moale Festival.
Attending Marianville Secondary School, 18-year-old Olive Tau from Poreporena Village was crowned at the Miss Hiri Hanenamo for 2016 at the Hiri Moale Festival last weekend at Ela Beach.
Inspired by her aunty who was once a Hiri Henanamo back in the 70’s, Olive went ahead to take a bold stand for her family to take part in the contest.
“I felt that there was a need to learn more about my traditions and culture and that most of them were dying away slowly and losing its meaning in the change of times,” she says.
Being Olive’s first time to enter the contest, she adds that one other reason why she wanted to take part in the contest was because she wanted to boost her confidence in public speaking.
“Speaking in front of people has always been a challenge and seeing through this contest, I feel like I can stand in front of a thousand more people.”
Walking off stage, a teary eyed Olive says, she didn’t expect that she would be handed the honour of being handed the title of Hiri Hanenamo 2016.
“I’m hoping that my success can be seen as a challenge that we can move forward into the future with pride in our culture and traditions intact and never forgotten,” she said.
Olive’s tattooist was her aunty Idau Lohia.
