August 2, 2008

By Michael Field 

It is a moment on intense sadness to learn that Tokelau leader Falani Aukuso is dead. Worse still is to hear that he took his own life.

When he died, he was living in Suva where he was deputy director general of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

It was in Suva we last met up, waiting for a plane to Auckland. He was somewhat distraught; his sister had just died and he was heading to her funeral in Wellington.

Of course, there are fonder memories of this soft spoken, gentle fellow.

The best were from the first referendum in Tokelau in 2005, as we all sailed out of Samoa on the Lady Naomi. The nature of travelling to Tokelau ensured that there was plenty of time to have slow, off-the-record and meandering conversations. I remember one night, off Fakaofo, as we waited for the last of the barges to come out, we talked of a future Tokelau. 
He had his own visions, of course, but he was keen to hear how others thought the lovely lost piece of paradise could move ahead.

He seemed to me keen to create a more independent state; he had no obvious hostility toward New Zealand. He just wanted to see Tokelauan society and tradition come to the fore in the one and only place it really mattered; Tokelau itself.

The truth though is that I knew little of him. We greeted always as friends, but what his demons where, I knew not. 

I have a sense though of disappointment. After the second referendum failed, I was sitting in the government office in Atafu. The phone rang, and as was the nature of Tokelau, even an odd passing reporter picked up a phone even no one else was around.

It was Falani, calling from Suva. He wanted to know the result of the ballot. I gave it too him and I could tell he was sad that this had failed again.
With him leaving us now, one wonders what will happen with the movement towards greater self government. Places like Tokelau do not have vast numbers of characters with the talent and character that Falani had.

He was a good man.

Copyright: Michael Field