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Te Batere performed by members of the KTA was one of the highlights of another very successful South Seas Island Night. The event was organised by PISUK at the London Welsh Rugby Club in Richmond, Surrey, England on Saturday 15 October 2005. The gathering drew almost 200 people from or who had spent time in most islands groups of the Pacific, be they described as Polynesia, Micronesia, or Melanesia. Among the guests were the high commissioners of Fiji and Papua New Guinea and their partners; and from Germany an organiser of the annual Polynesian dancing jamboree.

The KTA shared the stage with other performers notably from West Papua, the territory that forms the western half of the island of New Guinea and that is still fighting for independence from the Indonesian colonial administration (see http://www.westpapua.net/).

Other items on the packed programme were addresses by the chair of PISUK, KTA member and honorary Kiribati consul, Mike Walsh and other PISUKI officials and guests. Food and drink were provided through the Welsh club, who made us most welcome again, and there was a giant raffle, for which there were so many prizes that almost half of those attending won something!

Hegnes Dixon