Stories by Jamie Tahana

100 years ago today, the SS Talune steamed into Apia from Auckland with a disease that unleashed devastation on Samoa: the Spanish flu. It went on to kill a fifth of Samoa's population in two months.

The bellowing karakia was swept through the air by the vigorous breeze at the National War Memorial, as dignitaries gathered on a crisp morning for the unveiling.

As Papua New Guinea mourns its first death from the country's polio outbreak, the World Health Organisation says initial signs show a massive vaccination campaign is containing its spread.

People who were on board an Air Niugini plane that crashed into the sea in Chuuk on Friday are demanding answers, as investigations get underway. Video, Audio

In June, PNG became one of the few countries to buck an international trend towards eradicating polio. With 12 cases confirmed and as many as 100 suspected, experts say the return of polio was years…

Women couldn't vote and Māori seats hadn't yet appeared in Parliament but gold miners had special representation. Jamie Tahana looks at the goldfield electorates of the 1800s.

Lane, the storm saturating the islands of Hawaii, has been downgraded to a tropical storm after its intensity rapidly decreased on Saturday afternoon (NZT).

The six people detained in Fiji after a raid on a church accused of slavery by South Korean authorities have been released without charge.

Fiji's government is remaining tight-lipped regarding its involvement with a South Korea church, whose leader has been arrested and accused of enslaving some 400 followers in Fiji.

The death of an Iranian asylum seeker from an infection contracted on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island was preventable, an Australian coroner has ruled, and was the result of a multitude of errors.

Christianity's spread across the Pacific was enforced from the top-down, rather than spreading through some kind of social movement. Audio

Today it's babies and playgrounds but Parliament's early days were more like a drunken party. Jamie Tahana takes a look at Parliament's liquor infused beginning. 

Getting more women elected, getting young people involved, and shedding light on their role were the main themes when parliamentary speakers from around the region gathered this week. Audio

As Pacific countries look to taxes and other regulations to battle an obesity crisis, they're coming up against stepped up lobbying from global giants like Coca-Cola, eager to make up for falling…

Samoa will look to ban all single-use plastic from January, its government said, in the latest move to protect the country's oceans.

Samoa's prime minister has locked horns with the country's largest church after its pastors agreed to not pay income tax when a new law kicks in next month. Audio

Health workers in Papua New Guinea are calling for dramatic change as hospital shelves run bare. Some hospitals are scrounging for stocks of life saving drugs like antiretrovirals; Some remote centres…

The leader of Fiji's main opposition party was granted bail by a Suva court this afternoon, having appeared on charges laid by the country's anti-corruption body.

It's 60 years since Britain conducted its largest-ever nuclear test in Kiribati. As it looks to come back to the Pacific, Britain continues to insist its nuclear legacy is clean, contrary to veterans'…

The evacuation of residents on the ash-covered Vanuatu island of Ambae is finally getting under way, as food supplies dwindle and disease starts to spread.

The global shipping industry agreed a plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions for the first time on Friday in a deal that had been hard pushed by small Pacific countries.

Papua New Guinea's remote Highlands are again reeling after another major earthquake struck a region struggling after a 7.5 tremor only six weeks ago.

People in Fiji's sodden west were being urged to prepare for the worst on Saturday as the country prepared to be hit by the second cyclone in a week.

A week after Fiji's west was hit by a cyclone that killed six people, and with many still in need of aid, authorities are warning the area is likely to be hit by another this weekend.

Between 1941 and 1967, the sight of the Sunderland flying boats was common in the skies over Suva. 50 years on a league of veterans have returned for the unveiling of a monument marking their time…