Niue’s villages are the focus of Internet Niue’s current sponsorship programme. The IUSN Foundation that funds Internet Niue presents a $500 grant to each village council at the village’s annual show day. Foundation chief executive Per Darnell says the wifi service is free to villagers, but transmitters are normally hosted on land or buildings under … Read more …
What's Hot?
Speaking up for the Pacific
20 April 2013Internet Niue and its service provider RockET Systems have been speaking up in international forums on behalf of internet users in Niue and the wider Pacific. RockET director Emani Fakaotimanava-Lui says it’s important that the global internet community is constantly reminded of the internet access issues faced by small Pacific Islands. “Satellite connections such as … Read more …
Linking with our Pacific friends
22 November 2012Emani Fakaotimanava-Lui, director of Internet Niue’s service provider RockET Systems Limited, has been elected to the board of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the world-wide Internet Society (PICISOC). He will also serve as PICISOC secretary for two years. The chapter, which represents the interests of Oceania-Pacific internet users, seeks to provide impartial and relevant advice … Read more …
Fascinating Niue
Supernatural world
Alofi Hospital. Photo: Pacific Insights
Although most Niueans are active Christians, many still believe – to varying degrees – in a supernatural world inhabited by aitu, spirits of dead ancestors or ghosts.
Any location at which an unexpected or violent death occurs will have a fono or prohibition placed on it, distancing the living from the revenge of ancestral spirits. Until the appropriate time for a pastor to lift this tapu, people will not visit or will behave there in a very circumspect fashion.
Although there is a hospital in Alofi (pictured) and everyone has access to free western medicine, herbalists and taulaatua (traditional healers) are also patronised by locals. Taulaatua use specially prepared herbal preparations to treat the sick.
