Biography Vilsoni Hereniko was born and raised on the Polynesian island of Rotuma in Fiji for the first sixteen years of his life. The youngest of eleven children, he learned to tell stories from his father who gifted him with the oral tales of his island. Today he makes a living teaching his students how to tell indigenous stories for the screen. His first feature film titled "Pear ta Ma 'On Maf: The Land Has Eyes" was set on his home island and had its world premiere at Sundance in 2004. Seventeen years later, he tells another story set on his island about the origin of the coconut tree which his people, and many others in Oceania and other parts of the world, regard as the tree of life.