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About the
Faculty ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~WE'RE BACK! BULA! Welcome to the original resource information center for planning and undertaking the Fiji Study Tour for 2004. To view the original material posted here prior to our departure, click here. The trip for 2004, our third overseas study tour focusing on the arts and culture of Fiji, was a great success with many new and exciting experiences and new friendships formed across the seas. Dates of travel were from June 17 to July 2nd, from Flint, Michigan to the main island of Viti Levu in Fiji. Our home base was the Beachouse in Korolevu which provided a central locale for activities in Suva, Navua, Pacific Harbour, Sigatoka and points west. It is also a beautiful setting with ample opportunities to relax and get to know our global neighbors while watching a blanket of stars during the cool evenings. We spent three intense days and nights working side by side with students and artists from the Oceania Centre for Arts & Culture at the University of the South Pacific. Inhibitions dropped and everyone was willing to try new experiences like dance, painting, music and all made presentations on our third evening when we celebrated over a lovo dinner that all had pitched in to help make. Other activities challenged us in more subtle or more physical ways, from just navigating the highways and shops, to the physically demanding trips to the Sigatoka Sand Dunes where we discovered a previously unknown site of human remains likely from the Lapita period while being guided by the Fiji Museum archaeologist, Sepeti Matararaba. Also, heading up the Navua River, we found rainforests lush with primordial vegetation and riverlets, partaking in our own cool swim under the powerful waterfalls. All this while chuckling in the knowledge of the area having been the shooting location for the summer movie release "Anaconda: Hunt for the Blood Orchid". There is still a lot of work to do based upon materials collected as part of research on cross-cultural experiences in the arts. But while that work continues, please enjoy the many photos that have been collected from some of the participants. Use them, however, only with written permission from the original copyright owner, please.
Let me know what you think or if you'd like more information on future overseas study tours to Fiji. I look forward to hearing from you! ~ Mara Jevera Fulmer, Assistant Professor/Program Coordinator in Graphic Design, C.S. Mott Community College About the
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