Saving Una's Island

In a remote island in the South Pacific near Fiji, a family fights to save its heritage, embracing older traditions before they are lost to memory. The titular Una (and her husband Pela) once looked to off-island life for a better future. For years, the couple (like many) took off-island jobs in order to raise money to send their children to boarding school. Along the way, Una and Pela discovered that many in their small island clan had done the same—with the result that all of the island children were growing up with no knowledge of their heritage or customs as island people. Una and Pela choose to quit their jobs and return to the island in order to teach their children in the old-fashioned ways. Filmmakers Ed and Melissa Phillips' Saving Una's Island chronicles the first steps of the couple's new journey into the past. Island life is all about sufficiency—including harvesting food, cooking, building tools and small sea vessels, and ancient spirituality—elements that are often intertwined in daily life. Far from stereotypes about “resort style” island living, the lifestyle depicted here revolves around work, albeit work with a purpose that transcends simple sustenance. Particularly mesmerizing is a sequence in which Una's mother teaches the girls how to weave leaves into fans, mats, and other functional objects used throughout the households—a slow, deliberate process that joins many plant strands together into a single object, which also symbolizes what Una and Pela are doing with their family as they embrace their past in order to ensure the future of their culture. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Block)