Kathleen Hawkes, our niece who has just signed up to be a professor of photography at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, has been living in Fiji for the past five-plus months, compliments of the Fulbright Program.
While there, Kate's been working on a photography project looking at contemporary life and domestic space in the South Pacific. (As a punk kid, Kate and her family lived in Western Samoa for a year. For her, the big disappointment of that trip was that they weren't able to live in a grass hut.) 
We tend to think of Fiji as a place for a romantic get-away, which I'm sure it is. Gorgeous landscape there. There being an archipelago of over 330 islands, not near anybody else except for a bunch of other islands - not only is Fiji "down under" but "sorta off to the right somewhere" as well. Approximately 850,000 Fijians live and work on the islands. And they have normal everyday problems just like everyone else - fishing to do, families to raise and homes to rebuild on stilts now because of flooding. Hmm...
Kate's camera has documented all of these activities. Her blog Pacific Island Nation features some of what she has been working on while in Fiji. And her professional website shows even more goodies.
So, if you're thinking of visiting Fiji any time soon, let me know. I think I have someone who can show you around....
Photos courtesy of Kathleen Hawkes
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