During the three day Christmas ROC market I was privileged to be able to interview a fellow vendor by the name of Jennifer Liew. She is a Wise Cook island woman who is a grandmother, dedicated to creating quality articles of clothing. The label that Ms Liew uses for her stall is called Jen Hen Fiji. Her stall was filled with a riot of bright and colorful Bula wear and board shorts for toddlers, pacific island Christmas reeves and ‘Ei Katus’. According to Ms Liew, these are cook island traditional hairpieces made of flowers.
“My purpose started out being little girls’ dresses, little boys’ pants and shirts, Bula shirts and tropical wear. Than I went on to make board shorts because I have three grandsons” She tells me. All the clothes in her stall is made with the love care from Ms Liew. She had begun making clothes for her grandsons, and as it piled up she made the decision to sell it. “They literally had shorts for everyday of the year, because I was like, oh! I like that!”. The baby clothes that hang from the side of her tent are colorful Bula wear with different prints from different pacific island countries. My eye picks up on Hawaiian, Samoan, and Fijian prints.
Prior to 2024 she had been working full time, so this had been a hobby that provided stress relief during hard times. Ms Liew tells me that at the end of her day she would spend time sowing clothes for her grandsons.
She gets her materials from around town and in which she says is easy once you know where to look. “All of these,” she says gesturing towards the clothes, “it shows you the range of fabrics that is available locally,”. The ideas for the clothes comes from patterns that she is easily able to copy with experience.
When asked about how she learnt to make Ei Katus she informs me that it was something she had to learn as a young woman growing up in the cook islands. It was something every woman wore and was an everyday accessory. She tells me that putting on your Ei Katu was as essential as putting on your make up. “Like how a woman has to leave the house with a purse?” I ask, in which she nods. She tells me that in the cook islands their Ei Katus were made from fresh flowers, but the ones she sells have plastic flowers. She made this decision with care for the pacific islanders who wish to take a piece of home to their next destination. With the changing times, she realised that people were taking Ei Katus with plastic flowers and hanging them as bedroom/ household decor.
Miss Liew decided she would push for this Pacific Identity because in her word “everyone does it now!”. Its not just the cook islanders wearing ei katus anymore. Other pacific island countries have begun wearing them to showcase their identities as members of the Pacific. “Anyone who wants to identify as a cook islander or pacific islander, are all wearing it because it makes them stand out,” she says.
When she had decided to make ei katus to sell in Fiji, she came up with an idea. Miss Liew realized that Fijians liked doing kalavatas, so she began doing blue and white ei katus in order to appeal to those who were supporting the Fiji sevens or the Drua team. “stand out in the crowd!” she would tell her customers. She than began looking into the sukuna bowl, where people would watch the rugby match between the army and the police. She would tell her customers to “support their teams!” by wearing her ei katus.
Later on people began asking for custom made ei katus for special occasions like weddings and school functions. Despite the use of ei katus in special occasions, Miss Liew also encourages people to wear them in their everyday lives. “you don’t need to just wear them at weddings, you can wear them to town,” she encourages. Infact, to make it easier to wear, she sells hats that imitate ei katus. During the three day roc market she hadn’t brought them to sell but she was wearing one during our interview. The hat she wears is a woven beach hat with plastic sunflowers beautifully wrapped around the base. She tells me that the flowers are glued on and that they prevent the hat from flying away.
Apart from ei katus and baby clothes, Miss Liew has also started making christmas reeves. What is usually a nothern hemisphere tradition has been turned tropical with her take on the christmas reeves. Instead of a circular reeve covered in snow and pine cones, she’s made reeves covered in bright and colourful pacific island flowers and ferns. She put it on her door and it attracted attention so she decided to make more to sell. The sales of her Christmas reeves seemed to do well with most already being sold out during the time of our interview.
When asked about the biggest struggles she’s faced as a roc market vendor, she tells me about how hard it is to get plastic flowers. It isn’t exactly the process of getting them from around town, but rather the quality. When a customer asks for a certain ei katu made from six months ago, Miss Liew isn’t able to promise the exact same quality or shade. The pink flower bought from a shop from six months ago will have a different quality and shade from a pink flower bought last week. This fluctuation of quality makes it extremely difficult to recreate ei katus for clients who reorder it.
Jennifer tells me that through the hard work of sowing and creating, she loves to see others enjoy and appreciate her work.
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