Jane Va’afusuaga was born and raised in Eastbourne, Wellington and is of Scottish heritage. Having trained as a teacher, Jane taught for 10 years in Auckland and four years in Apia, Samoa. Jane lives in Samoa in the village of Falease’ela, with her husband, Olsen and daughter, Coco.
Their house sits beside the Liua le Vai o Sina River, where they host visitors from around the world through their ecocultural adventure tourism business. Life in the village means Jane has been immersed in the culture, language, natural environment, church and customs of the Samoan people. She works in the family business, writes when she can and volunteers at the local primary school where she has set up a library.
Jane is a 2017 New Zealand Society of Authors mentorship recipient.
Rebecca Stirnemann is a passionate scientist working on endangered birds and forest conservation. She spent seven years working on protecting the native birds of Sāmoa, including the manumea or tooth-billed pigeon. She has been lucky enough to see manumea in the wild and hopes that one day their numbers will increase so others can also see this princess of the forest.
Rebecca’s research has shown that a mix of hunting by people, invasive predators such as rats and cats, and loss of forest threatens both the manumea and other native bird species. Luckily there is a great team of people working on helping the manumea.
