Life Changing

Life changing

Solomoni Biumaiono Thursday, June 07, 2012

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Mosese Ratagau (standing, left) with members of the Wainunu conservation committee and other villagers on one of the reefs that has just been declared a marine protected area. Picture: SOLOMONI BIUMAIONO

Mosese Ratagau was weeding at his plantation a year ago when he received the call of the vanua to go and serve his people.

He was called to lead the people of Wainunus efforts to protect their forests and seas from further environmental degradation.

I was just weeding in my plantation when a carrier stopped and I was told by one of my elders from my village to attend a workshop, that eventually led to me being elected as the chairman of the Wainunu conservation committee, Mosese says.

His work entails becoming the liaison between the vanua Wainunu and the NGO that is working to help conserve the forests and marine eco systems, the Wildlife Conservation Society (Fiji).

We have formally established marine protected areas for the vanua Wainunu and yes, were defying all the odds despite the many negative criticisms that we faced and its a challenge for us the committee to ensure we overcome this and to reflect the benefits we can get for our vanua, Mosese says.

He was elected to become the chairman for the vanua Wainunus committee that works to safeguard their natural resources against exploitation and damage one year ago.

But for Mosese, his story did not start in his village of Nakorotiki but in the hustle and bustle of Suva. He was a police constable, joining the Fiji Police Force in 1989 after leaving high school three years earlier.

After spending 16 years with the police, Mosese decided to try his hand in becoming a security detail with international security company called Triple Canopy in Iraq. He joined Triple Canopy in 2005 and returned two years later and again, resumed his work with the police and in 2009 he decided to take another tour of duty with an international security company. And this time, he joined Dyncorp and served his time in Afghanistan.

I fell sick while in Afghan and was sent back to Fiji for some rest but once I got back to the village, I decided to call it a day and to try out farming. I have never looked back since and I dont think that I would want to return to my old job with the force, Mosese says.

His life-changing decision was made after he had several encounters with copra, yaqona and dalo buyers, whom he said, would wake him up from his sleep to ask him to sell his produce to them.

How else would you want it? Imagine youre sleeping inside your house and they actually come to you to ask to buy your produce. Thats what made me change my mind about working in a city and I decided to become a full time farmer, he says.

And he believes his training and the discipline he learnt from the police will definitely help him in his endeavours in becoming a successful commercial farmer.

Now as a farmer, he plans to put his four children through school, including tertiary education level and also improve his farms and working for his vanua. All his children attend school in Suva.

When the tikina Wainunu decided to put pen to paper to formally establish a marine reserve, Mosese was overwhelmed with the support from his fellow villagers.

Mosese was just trying his hand at farming and making good use of his mataqali (clan) lands to make a living after spending so many years in Suva, when he was asked to take up the yoke of his vanua.

And with a busy schedule as a farmer and chairman of an important committee in his community, he will certainly need all the help and motivation he can get.