Bainimarama Praises Artist Bower
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama yesterday applauded Savusavu artist Shane Bower. Mr Bower designed the Royal New Zealand Air Force Commemorative Monument unveiled by Mr Bainimarama at the University of the South Pacific.
Mr Bainimarama said he was proud that Fiji had an artist of Mr Bower’s caliber with the skill and imagination to come up with such a striking design.
“It is a fusion of technology and nature in the form of a Sunderland flying boat with the wings of a seabird,” he said.
Mr Bainimarama, said through the RNZAF life in Fiji the base was a large employer of Fijians, sustained a range of business and contributed greatly to the health of the local economy. When the Lau Group was devastated by a hurricane in 1949, the squadron flew emergency flights to 11 of its islands carrying vital food. Mr Bainimarama said the RNZAF presence at Laucala Bay spanned 25 years from 1942 – at the height of World War II – to 1967, when the facilities were turned over to create the University of the South Pacific, the first regional university.
New Zealand, he said, continued to partner Fiji and other Pacific countries to ensure that the young people were properly equipped to play their part in development. As well as its close engagement with USP, NZ is working with Fiji’s Higher Education Commission to strengthen the standard of tertiary education in Fiji.
Mr Bower trawled through many designs and read books about aircraft before he came up with the concept for the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Commemorative Monument. Tomorrow: PM's speech in full and flight of the Orion