Transcript
DALI JOBSON: Just quite devastated to be honest. The circumstances around it, to ne honest, weren't happy ones. So to be given a very special gift shows my daughter she has a place in our family and that's her roots and her culture and just to have it taken away and I don't know what's happening to it, it's very precious.
INDIRA STEWART: You have in the past, your family has brought in tabua in the past and it has never been confiscated, can you explain those circumstances when those tabua were brought in?
DJ: Yip, my parents got married and they moved to New Zealand in the '70s and they brought the tabua that they were given on their wedding day. This was in the [1970s], but when I got married here in New Zealand a couple of my family members came to New Zealand and brought me a tabua, so this would have been in 2006 and there was no problem with bringing the tabua. So it was quite surprising for me to come this time with my daughter's tabua and have it confiscated.
IS: Did you get any kind of warning before leaving Fiji that you might need to get an export permit for taking out tabua?
DJ: Not at all. I was not aware of the permit process, that were was such a thing that you needed to do before. I mean I wouldn't risk brining in an item as precious as that ignoring any notice of needing things like that. And we didn't see any notices in the airport when we had checked in and, yeah, it was just really surprising obviously when I'd read through the declaration paper which you're given on the plane about declaring what you're brining in, I did notice that there was, you know, bones and so I had declared it and I didn't think there would be a problem bringing it in. So I found it quite surprising and quite annoyed, or frustrated really that there wasn't any prior notice, fore-warnings or signs or posters at the Fiji airport.
IS: Are you warning other Fijians, or perhaps other Pacific islanders about being more careful with what they try and export from the region?
DJ: Yeah, absolutely I try and put the... I had to actually tell my family that this heirloom had been lost, or seized and I had to tell them, you know ' please don't be- this is the act' and I've forwarded them some of what is required in order to bring these things through, but it's not worth the risk. So I've definitely told my family and they're passed it on. none of them were aware. I mean from personal experience I would never risk this personal gift and if I knew before, you know, putting it in my bag or at the airport before checking my bag in there was a notice saying 'hey if you have there in your bag these are restricted items, you need a permit, for instance, export licence for this' I would definitely have heeded to that advice.
