Doreen Kuper is an

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

and cultural mediator from the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

. She is a former

Honorary Consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

of Solomon Islands to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and a former Chair of the

Festival of Pacific Arts The Festival of Pacific Arts, Pacific Arts Festival, or FESTPAC is a traveling festival hosted every four years, in the same year as the Summer Olympics, by a different country in Oceania ( map). It was conceived by the Pacific Community (former ...

Biography

Educated at the Melanesian Mission's St. Mary's School in Pamua, in 1962 she was awarded one of three scholarships to fund overseas secondary education. She attended St Gabriel's College,

Waverley Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott ** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...

. In 1992, she was appointed the Solomon Islands

. In the 2006 general elections she contested the seat of East Makira, but was unsuccessful - the fact she was not resident in the constituency made campaigning difficult. In 2010, as part of he role as consul, she launched the book '' Being the First,'' which is the first publication to feature the stories and experiences of women from the Solomon Islands, in their own words. She later launched the anthology in New Zealand. Kuper is a former Chair of the

, which was held in the Solomon Islands in 2012. The festival attracted an audience of 200,000 people, with 3,000 performers from twenty-four countries taking part. During her time as Chair, she led calls for the

repatriation Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

of art and artefacts to the Solomon Islands from non-Pacific countries. Her cultural leadership also enabled the Solomon Islands to host the Miss Pacific Pageant in 2013. In 2021, she was a guest speaker at a festival in

Honiara Honiara () is the capital and largest city of Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. , it had a population of 92,344 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the seaport of Point Cruz, and lie ...

celebrating the people of

Makira The island of Makira (also known as San Cristobal and San Cristóbal) is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in the Solomon Islands. It is third most populous island after Malaita and Guadalcanal, with a population of 55,126 as of 2020 ...

References

Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Solomon Islands politicians Honorary consuls

External links

* Photograph
Item 147 - Doreen [Kuper
Prebble NZ [New Zealand">uper">Item 147 - Doreen [Kuper
Prebble NZ [New Zealand/nowiki>] {{Authority control