I am of blended heritage, born to my father Bill Vakaafi Motufoou, from the upraised coral atolls of Niue Island, and my mother Rauru Inamata, from the beautiful sandy shores of the Cook Islands. I was gifted the name Inangaro, which means “love” in Cook Island Māori.
I was born and raised in Mutalau, a village with a vibrant history on the island of Niue. Niue’s population is just over 1,600 people, and our
village’s population is less than 100 people. The most important thing in our community is our collective well-being, understanding of social connections, and standing firm in our faith and our cultural and traditional values. My love for art, history, languages, culture, and storytelling was fostered in this community. We are also known for our farming and subsistence living. The first classroom for my brothers, sister, and me was on the plantation, where we learned the greatest values in life: family, hard work, unity in purpose, and reaping what we sowed.
As a child growing up in Niue, I dreamed of traveling the world. And as I grew older, various jobs and volunteer activities gave me opportunities to travel to places like New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii, Japan, the USA, Korea, Turkey, Norway, and more. These experiences really changed my world perspective.
When you come from a small community, everyone has to pitch in. We are very much in tune with nature, and caring for the environment because it is ingrained within our indigenous cultures. However, what I witnessed in more developed countries were systems that focused more on economic returns rather than the well-being of their citizens. I saw so much disparity in wealth, including homelessness, hunger, and racial inequalities. I feel that the livelihoods of indigenous communities are compromised by the forced seizure of resources by the leadership, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. I understand that the economy is important for the financial well-being of a country, but you need people to develop and build communities. Social responsibility and social justice are important.
Through these experiences, I have come to appreciate the simple island way of life and understand my place and contribution on a larger scale. For me, prosperity is not about accumulating wealth or merely surviving each day. It is about touching the lives of others and finding ways to enrich them.
Using my experience working as a journalist, radio producer, and the head of a wide range of networks and organizations, I am now providing opportunities for our Pasifika people to share their stories, rewrite our distorted history, and reclaim our culture and identity. This is because, throughout history, colonialism has had devastating impacts on indigenous people worldwide.