Transcript
FISA PIHIGIA: To go through all the designs. I don't know at the moment, maybe more than 20 or over 25, but the panel will go through the designs and then select, or shortlist, to three main ones. And we may be calling those successful designers for more information and also they will be paid over $NZ10,000 each [team] to develop more of those designs, regarding the criteria that has been set for who ever wants to compete.
DON WISEMAN: What sort of things are you looking for. Are you looking for anything specific at this point?
FP: Well you know the Pacific is a very diversified place. We all came from the Pacific, like Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, Cook Islands and many others but we all have our different culture, different language, different background, so that's a huge task for the panel to see that what we may come up with reflects the Pacific as a whole. So it's going to be a very tough task for the panel but I believe we can come up with something that will be accepted by many people in the Pacific, many countries, particularly the members of the Pacific Islands Forum, which also, I believe, supported this idea.
DW: Have you actually seen any of the concepts yet?
FP: No I haven't until we meet on the 28th of this month, because we won't be knowing who are the people, the designers, all we can identify is the number that has been given to each and everyone of them - trying to keep some secrecy with the people who provided those designs. But I haven'ty seen any.
DW: You will whittle it down to three and each of those team will get some money to develop it and then the winning sculpture -what will they get for that?
FP: At the moment we don't know but I believe that the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, plus who are supporting this exercise, will be providing funding to enable the memorial to be built at the site that has been identified. I think it is about $NZ500,000 dollars that's been allocated for the whole project. So whoever we recommended to the Minister to get approval, will be able to carry on. The materials have to be of the Pacific , everything that will be built has to reflect the Pacific and the countries that were also part of the First World War and Second World War and other conflicts .
DW: Is there a date when it is going to be in place at Pukeahu Park?
FP: Well there is no timeline yet but they are looking at before the end of the year or the beginning of next year, 2019.