The making of masi has been encouraged among women of Naviti District in Yasawa as they engage in a program to promote the art. This is part of a program promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN and Vinaka Fiji.
The program recently gathered women from various villages in the district to learn about the art of harvesting and screen printing of masi, also known as tapa.
A grateful Melaia Macaca of Kese Village said the training would help them make use of existing resources for income generation.
According to the ministry, masi processing materials and seedlings were distributed to participants as “take home resource materials” to further help them in refining their skills and to share their knowledge with other interested women.
The training was made possible through the Fiji Forest and Landscape Restoration project (FLR), a global project implemented by FAO with funding support from the Government of the Federal Republic Germany through the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, International Climate Initiative (IKI).
Organisers of the training said the program’s main aim was to equip women of Naviti with knowledge of masi making to sustainably harvest masi for household and commercial use while ensuring this important traditional knowledge was not lost.
Under FAO, the FLR project approach has four main principles.
These include; balancing ecological functions with human development that enhance resilience of ecosystems or populations, continuous learning process, and engaging multiple stakeholders.
