My name is Sara Vani, I am 23 years old. I am from a mixed parentage of both Motu and Koitabu, from the Motuan side, I am from Hanuabada, Elevala and Boera, and on the Koitabu side, I am from Gorohu. Gorohu is past Kido Lavagai.
The singer Taita Maraga is from there.
I am the eldest of six children and I have five younger brothers. My mum and Dad decided to take in my Mum’s last-born sister and my mum’s niece. So now, there are eight of us in the family. We’re a pretty big family.
Currently my family and I live in the big village of Hanuabada.
I started school in the village. I attended elementary school in the village but my mum felt that it was not working for me so they transferred me to Wardstrip Demonstration Primary School. I completed all my Elementary and Primary schooling at Wardstrip, and I was successful to get a placing at Gordons Secondary School, where I completed High School in 2017.
After high school, I was accepted to the University of Papua New Guinea to study Journalism and Public Relations.
After winning the Miss Hiri Hanenamo title, I withdrew from studies in 2020. I could not juggle school and the commitments I had as the Hiri Queen.
My mum was the 1996 Hiri queen. As a child, I used to wear her sash and parade around in the house and I said I want to be Hiri queen one day. I grew up vowing to be one of the Hiri queens or at least contest in the festival because I wanted to be like my mum.
I decide to take part in the festival when I turned 21 and I did just that in 2019 when I turned 21 in June.
Winning the crown was just a whole mixture of emotions. I really cannot express it. I was speechless because I felt like all the contestants were really good too and competition was really tough because the girls were amazing. I am blessed that I was the winner at the end of the day.
Since becoming queen, I had quite a number of engagements. A few that stood out include being a keynote speaker at the Laikim Sister program at the Australian High Commission. I was also Mistress of Ceremony for the groundbreaking of the Steamships Harbourside South project.
The crown is supposed to be passed on every year to the next queen but due to COVID, I have held onto it until now. My future plans after I pass on the crown, is to focus on my studies again, get my degree and work towards creating a better version of myself. I have networked a lot during my time as Hiri Queen and I hope many doors will open after I graduate from University.