"I remember when the big waves came, we would dive under them and come up laughing on the other side. Being part of those natural elements brought me so much joy. At school, she excelled in chemistry and would later go on to study medicinal plants, fascinated by the possibility that nature could hold cures for modern diseases. She studied in Fiji, Australia and the UK and later became the first woman from Solomon Islands to achieve a PhD in natural sciences."
"When whispers began that Tetepare might be next, the people of Western Province felt they were facing more than an environmental threat. Tetepare was tabu sacred ground, home to ancestral gardens, burial sites, and memories etched deep into the soil. To lose Tetepare would have been like losing part of ourselves, Soapi says. It wasn't just about trees any more, it was about identity and heritage."
"Soapi joined others to resist logging and dedicated her spare time to the movement. Then a university student, Soapi was a founding member of the Friends of Tetepare, a grassroots movement that later evolved into the Tetepare Descendants' Association (TDA). We worked with everyone on the island to conserve Tetepare, writing letters to certain individuals telling them not to do this, she says."
Katy Soapi grew up on Rendova with early, formative experiences of the sea and a deep connection to nature. She excelled in chemistry, studied medicinal plants, and completed studies in Fiji, Australia and the UK, becoming the first woman from Solomon Islands to earn a PhD in natural sciences. Commercial logging in the 1990s devastated forests and rivers across Solomon Islands and threatened Tetepare, a tabu sacred island with ancestral gardens and burial sites. Soapi helped found the Friends of Tetepare, which evolved into the Tetepare Descendants' Association, and worked with island communities to resist logging and conserve Tetepare.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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