Jane Kanas

“Bula, I am from Vanuatu. I work at the University of the South Pacific for the Centre for Flexible Learning as a learning designer. We work with lecturers in producing materials for students to learn from, so in effect we design learning.

I love the ocean, I love walking on the beach and collecting whatever the sea throws up on the beach – so I’m probably born a beachcomber. And I love working with what I find on the beach and recreating them into pieces of art and jewellery. And photography too – I like to have a camera in my bag because it’s just anything that I see that I think is art. And whenever I can use one of my pictures in my course design I slot it in.”

Heart 2 Heart

Today seems to be the right time to talk to you both, after all those years. The divorce was inevitable, and although our lives are different from others, we are still a family.

“I picked that [digital story] because at that time it was an emotional fight that I was going through, and I just needed for my sons to understand why what happened, happened, and to hear it from my side. And I just thought it was an opportune time to do that story.

I just loved the whole idea of creating a story out of pictures. They’re important because I think when we get caught up in this whole (I don’t know what to call it) of living – what are we going to do today, do I have the shopping money, has the electricity bill been paid – when we get caught up in all of this we don’t see the beauty in other people, the people that we come in contact with. OK, physical beauty perhaps, but we don’t see what is within them. And the stories that each person goes through in life are worth listening to because we gain. We gain from what we hear, what we see, what we listen to. So to me these personal stories are always useful for myself in making decisions … I love personal stories.”