Pacific youth and first time voters in Aotearoa New Zealand feel forgotten and ill equipped ahead of the election.

Pasifika are the fastest growing youth population in New Zealand and their main concerns are the cost of living and beating the dire statistics stacked against them.

Although Pasifika have been long established in areas like Timaru and Christchurch, their voices have not always been heard.

“I don’t feel part of the conversation . . . just sitting in the background,” Timaru Boys High Year 13 student Kaluseti Moimoi said.

Moimoi grew up in Oamaru and the upcoming election marks his first time voting. He has enrolled to vote but does not quite know where to start.

“Not really sure who I am going to vote for. Not really sure about the parties or what they are doing. I don’t think there is much education around that.”

More than half of New Zealand’s Pacific population is under 25 years old.

Wanting to feel empowered
The growing group wants to feel empowered to speak up on issues like climate change and creating a better future for their families.

But a lack of civic information has left people in the dark, with less than one month to go until they are expected to make cast their vote.

Rangiora New Life School head girl Avinis Siasau Ma’u also has concerns.

“I don’t get any information about this at school. The only information is on the news or from friends. This is the society we are going to live in so it’s key to know what kind of party is going to lead our country,” Ma’u said.

Although she was still learning the names and values of each party, she plans to vote for a party that prioritised Pacific language weeks and addressed the cost of living.

“Back then $20 could get you a lot, but now $20 can only get you three things,” she said.

She said almost everyone she knew had complained about the cost of food.

Periods of family stress
“Every family will go through periods of time where it’s just stress and paying off debt and asking will we have enough for groceries.”

Kaluseti Moimoi’s family was also feeling the pressure and he hopes a “good education” and gaining a degree at the University of Canterbury to become an accountant would change that.

“That is my main goal; to work for the good of my family. That’s what my mum taught me. I’ve got five siblings at home. My parents work really hard.”

Timaru Tongan Society general manager Sina Latu said her community was often left out of the conversation.

The Electoral Commission told RNZ Pacific it was working alongside Pacific leaders and churches, yet Latu said she had not heard a word from them.

“They haven’t approached our Tongan Society or our churches, I think it really shows how we are not heard because we are down south.

Pasifika aren’t just in South Auckland, “they need to reach out everywhere, not just in the big cities. It’s not good enough,” she said.

Encouraging young ones
“We ourselves are trying to encourage young ones to enroll to vote but if we didn’t do that then the majority of them wouldn’t vote.”

Penieli Latu moved to New Zealand from Tonga in 2000 and has never voted until now.

“I turned 50 this year, I am happy to have finally enrolled to vote. I can’t wait to do two ticks.”

Latu wants the next government to make sure the Ministry for Pacific Peoples stays.

For him their language weeks foster a deep sense of Pacific pride and belonging — especially for Pasifika in the South Island.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The awards have been held annually since 2005 highlighting the “essential role Pacific music plays in defining culture and identity”.

This year’s big winners included rapper Melodownz, R’n’B crooner Sam V and Tokelauan singer Olivia Foa’i.

Pacific radio station 531pi were specially acknowledged for 30 years of broadcasting.

The station exclusively plays Pacific music and airs language programmes that cater to first- and second-generation Pacific migrants.

Pacific Media Network board chair Saimoni Lealea said 531pi had come a long way.

“This was a key service in the 1980s and 1990s,” he said.

‘Culture and tradition’
“It wasn’t just an opportunity to air our music, it was also about communicating with our community and communicating with the government.

“Communities in the Pacific don’t do things to be recognised or to be awarded because much of the things that they do are part of everyday life. 531pi is a medium through which the culture and tradition is transmitted, relived, strengthened and enhanced.”

Taking out the Best Pacific Female Artist and Best Pacific Language award, Olivia Foa’i said continuing the legacy of previous winners in the language category was ‘nerve-wracking’.

“You want to get it right,” she said.

“Sometimes as an artist you feel like the weight is on your shoulders and you put out a song and maybe you’re not representing well enough, and people hear it and you’re like, ‘oh what have I done?’.

“I think for me, I always feel that I’m repping the ones who maybe struggle a little to claim their language or who were brought up far from their communities. But it’s a really beautiful thing, there’s so much depth in connecting to the words or the vocabulary of your ancestors.”

‘Love Again’
R’n’B artist Sam V — real name Sam Verlinden — won Best Pacific Soul and RnB Award for his songs “Come Through” and “Love Again”.

Sam V said the Pacific Music Awards promoted Pasifika artists and brought exposure to their music.

He criticised Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown for proposing budget cuts to social, arts and cultural services — a move which prompted an outcry among many artists in South Auckland.

“Why is he trying to cut the funding everywhere?” Verlinden questioned.

“Bro’ should focus less on his tennis and more on looking after the young ones.”

Samoan/Maori rapper Melodownz took out three awards for Best Male Artist, Best Music Video, and Music Album.

Upon receiving the award, Melodownz told the audience that it was a duty for Pasifika artists to give back to their communities.

‘Huge for Hawai’i’
Overseas artists were also acknowledged and this year, Hawai’i’s Josh Tatofi was named as the winner of the Best International Pacific artist award.

Receiving the award on behalf of Tatofi was his manager Tana Tupai, who said that Tatofi was among a bevy of musicians from Hawai’i such as Iam Tongi and George Veikoso aka “Fiji” who have gained fans all over world.

“It’s huge for Hawai’i who have this massive wave of artists being acknowledged at such a global stage and Josh is happy to play his part, inspiring and connecting music from Hawai’i and the Pacific Islands across the globe.”

2023 Pacific Music Awards winners

Auckland Council Best Pacific Female Artist: Olivia Foa’i – Sunlight

NZ Music Commission Best Pacific Male Artist: Melodownz – Lone Wolf

Flava Best Pacific Group: Deceptikonz – In Perpetuity

531pi Best Pacific Gospel Artist: Punialava’a – Tagi Le Atunu’u Pele

Matai Watches Best Pacific Hip Hop Artist: Poetik – Hamofied Tre

Best Pacific Soul/RnB Artist: Sam V – The one, the lonely EP, Come Through, Love Again

Best Pacific Roots/Reggae Artist: Three Houses Down – The Dream, She Loves Me

Niu FM Best International Pacific Artist: Josh Tatofi – Prisoner of Love, Sweet Loven, Landslide, Still the One, Pua Ahih’I, Good Morning Beautiful, Tomorrow

MPG/SAE Best Producer: Mareko x Ricky Paul – Untitled: ACT 1 (Producer: Ricky Paul Musik)

NZ On Air Best Pacific Music Video: Melodownz – Pray For More ft Lisi, Mikey Dam (directed by Connor Pritchard)

APRA Best Pacific Song: Victor J Sefo – 685 (Written by Victor J Sefo, Ventry Parker, Elijah Tovio)

SunPix Best Pacific Language: Olivia Foa’i- Sunlight

Recorded Music NZ Te Pukaemi Toa O Te Moana Nui A Kiwa | Best Pacific Music Album Award: Melodownz – Lone Wolf

NZ On Air Radio Airplay Award: SWIDT ft Lomez Brown – Kelz Garage

NZ On Air Streaming Award: Savage ft Aaradhna – They Don’t Know

SunPix People’s Choice Award – Best Pacific Artist: Wayno

Phillip Fuemana Award – Most Promising Pacific Artist: Teo Glacier

Creative New Zealand Award: Lady Shaka

Ministry for Pacific Peoples Special Recognition Award: 531pi

Ministry for Pacific Peoples Special Recognition Award: Mark Vanilau

Arch Angel Independent Music Award: Victor J Sefo

Manukau Institute of Technology Lifetime Te Pukenga Achievement Award: Toni Williams

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A ni-Vanuatu and Melanesian advocate in New Zealand says the country’s Pacific ministry has overlooked Melanesian communities in its language strategy.

In an opinion piece in E-Tagata, Leina Isno said from the consultation to the launch the 10-year Pacific Languages Strategy was a “major cultural blunder’.

The government’s Pacific Languages Strategy, launched in September, has lacked input from other Melanesian groups except Fiji.

Isno said she understood that bigger Pacific groups such as Tonga and Samoa had been the pioneers of language revitalisation in New Zealand, but said the ministry needed to be across all Pacific groups.

“I feel that despite the strategy being comprehensive and really well laid out, I felt that it was lacking in diversity,” she said.

“When you talk about the Pacific, you talk about the real true representation of what the sub-regions mean and so in a document as such you need to include the other sub-regions so that it’s a true representation of the document.”

There are nine Pacific languages identified in the strategy with three key objectives, one of them being to recognise the value of Pacific languages across Aotearoa.

However, West Papuan advocate and student Laurens Ikinia said the strategy only seemed to value the Pacific languages that were most spoken.

“One of the arguments is that it focuses on the numbers of speakers of the language who are currently living in Aotearoa New Zealand but as a Pacific islander you cannot ignore other fanau,” he said.

Government supports Melanesian communities, says minister
However, Minister Aupito William Sio said the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) had given more than NZ$260,000 to the Melanesian communities to support their language initiatives.

He added that it was the first time the government had delivered such a strategy and that all Pacific communities should refer to it to determine what actions they needed to take before they approached the ministry.

“It’s no good standing outside the tent and throwing stones – you’ve got to engage and now with the Pacific languages strategy you have the opportunity, develop your actions, engage with the Ministry for Pacific Peoples so that the ministry can continue to fund the initiatives that they see as important for their communities.”

Isno said it was the ministry’s responsibility to understand the communities needs.

“The minister had mentioned that the communities need to organise ourselves better,” she said.

“There has been the lack of the ministry recognising the needs of smaller communities to work better with them by providing key focus people so we can better our relationship.”

• The nine Pacific languages recognised in New Zealand are Cook islands Māori, Fijian, Kiribati, Niuean, Rotuman, Samoan, Tokelauan, Tongan and Tuvaluan.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Concerns are being raised about the future survival of the iTaukei (Fijian) language as a threat of extinction looms despite its everyday use among its people.

A language and culture scholar in Fiji, Dr Paul Geraghty, said a growing generational gap within the iTaukei language had been detected and caused concern.

Dr Geraghty said the extent of knowledge of iTaukei vocabulary and its diversity through the different dialects had reduced significantly over the years.

“Young people of today, especially in urban areas, do not speak as well as their parents or grandparents. They don’t have the same vocabulary knowledge, so that is something to be concerned about,” he said.

“People are losing their distinctiveness. The language is becoming what I would call standard Fijian or Fijian of the urban centres.”

Dr Geraghty added that the loss of richness within the iTaukei language was rooted in Fiji’s long colonial history.

“The peculiar colonial history that we have is to a large extent to blame not only for the loss of indigenous languages in Fiji or the reduction of the knowledge of Fijian language but also perceptions are an essential thing.”

New Zealand’s influence on Fijian education
Dr Geraghty explained that until 1930 all education was in the vernacular, either iTaukei, Hindi (Fiji’s second largest spoken language) or Rotuman, until it was no longer sustainable and colonial law makers began to look to the region for assistance.

“The New Zealand government began teaching in Fiji, and its education system was not inclusive towards teaching Māori, which is not the case today. But that culture was brought across to Fiji and children were punished for speaking in their native languages.”

The lasting impacts of this event were still actively practised in Fiji, added Dr Geraghty.

“We look up to English as a superior language and make jokes about people who don’t speak English well. That is not funny — English people don’t make jokes about people who can’t speak French. The most important thing in a child’s education is learning to speak their language well.”

Dr Geraghty has advocated the importance of incorporating native language into the education system as a scholar of language.

History has always been a leading guide to the future, and learning not to repeat the past, is what linguists advise.

Importance of sustaining iTaukei language
Dr Geraghty said that multilingualism was vital for a child’s education as it stimulated the mind and opened many other possibilities.

“Bilingualism and multilingualism — speaking two or more languages should be encouraged as it will increase the beauty of diversity in the world and our knowledge of this world and our position in it.”

A call for the Fijian Ministry of Education to act now and implement the compulsory learning of iTaukei and Hindi in schools was paramount.

Dr Geraghty added while the Fijian government and universities had started incorporating vernacular into the curriculum, more needed to be done.

Fijian Language Week celebration

The Fijian community has launched a week-long celebration of the Fijian language, traditions and culture with events across Aotearoa.

The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, marked Macawa ni Vosa Vakaviti — Fijian Language Week, welcoming this year’s theme of nurture, preserve and sustain the Fijian language.

Aupito acknowledged the enduring strength and sustainability of Vosa Vakaviti and its importance as the Fijian community navigated its recovery from the covid-19 pandemic.

“Fiji has been hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic and climate change’s ever-increasing impacts,” he said.

“Yet, while it faces a road to recovery, the Fijian people can always rely on their language, traditions and values to sustain them.

“Now more than ever, the Fiji language, culture, and identity is important to uphold both in Aotearoa and Fiji.”

Aupito said the Fijian community in Aotearoa, New Zealand, should be applauded for their tireless efforts in advocating for and strengthening Vosa Vakaviti.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

“Pacific Studies” has been included in a raft of new proposed NCEA achievement standard subjects in New Zealand, now up for public consultation. It is proposed with Vagahau Niue and Gagana Tokelau as part of the government’s NCEA upcoming reforms — the biggest shakeup of the qualification.

The option of learning Pasifika histories has provided hope to students like i-Kiribati Naumi Teinabo (Maiana, Nikunau), who has never learnt a Pacific strand once in her social studies classes.

The Mahurangi College Year 13 who only this year started learning about New Zealand histories, said the social studies curriculum has not served Pasifika learners.

Auckland University Pacific studies scholar Hollyanna Ainea said: “It comes into a loss, sort of like identity, in like our place as Pasifika in New Zealand. So we’re focusing on more European history and stuff instead of what’s actually important to us.”

She said learning about the Mau movement in Year 12 helped form her identity as a tama’ita’i Samoa – that would later challenge an older, white male-dominated space in academia.

But she said should Pacific studies be offered in New Zealand schools, that teachers must be culturally competent.

“It also comes down to the different resources that teachers are offered as well because you know, they’re already time restricted and they’re also having to find different ways to educate students on different topics,” she said.

Willingness to research
“But it also comes down to their willingness to research and know how to handle these different conversations regarding Pasifika history, Māori history.

“There’s this massive disconnection between understanding how we as tagata o le moana or tagata o le whenua, perceive our oral histories, our connections with the land, connections with the sea and that also kind of contributes to our ignorance to how these different inequities have come about over time because even though these are events that have happened in the past, they still affect us today.”

Ainea said all students who enrolled in Pacific studies would use the learning everywhere they go, with everyone, every day.

She said Pasifika students would especially benefit from a subject that helped them grow in their identity.

Ben Curtis is a history teacher at De La Salle College with a predominantly Pasifika school roll.

He admitted as a Palagi man, his teaching was not founded in lived experience. However, he had only ever taught Māori and Pasifika topics, which he said was received better by his predominantly Pasifika students.

He said topics like the Dawn Raids and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, had been important in reminding students of where and who they come from.

Engagement of young people
“The engagement of young people when they learn about Māori history through a Māori context and worldview is a lot more powerful than learning history that’s really disconnected with any cultural identity that you know, New Zealanders have, and particularly Māori and Pacific students.”

With the help of some teachers, Teinabo recently began lunchtime tutorials for Pasifika students with a yearning to learn about their heritage.

The tutorials have proved a hit with small Pasifika student community. So far, they’ve discussed the destruction of Banaba and the Mau.

Teinabo said she would tell her Year 9-self that being i-Kiribati was nothing short of beautiful and was something to share with her classmates.

“Just remember myself as I am is enough… I should be able to appreciate and want to want to show my culture and be strong in my culture’.”

Pacific studies along with Vagahau Niue and Gagana Tokelau, are a number of proposed new subjects which form the government’s NCEA reform, the biggest shakeup of the qualification since it began in 2002.

Ākonga, kaiako and extended whānau can provide feedback through an online survey, which closes on August 11.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

“No matter how we come to be in Fiji, or how long we have been here …we all part of the land. It is the land of our birth or land of our adoption, the land to which we belong” – The late archbishop Petero Mataca.

When a New Zealand youth, an eighth generation Indo-Fijian, recently spoke out against education policies that exclude some Pacific Island people from Pasifika programmes and scholarships as unfair, he did not realise he was opening a thorny debate that goes back to 1879.

That was the year Indian indentured labourers were introduced to the Pacific with the first forebearers being brought aboard the Leonidas and their descendants have become part of the diaspora, or in the case of Aotearoa New Zealand become part of the double diaspora.

Between 1879 and 1916, 87 voyages were made by 40 ships by the British bringing in the Girmityas or the people of the ”Agreement”.

As the venerable Professor Vijay Naidu of the University of the South Pacific in Suva attests to that: “Indo-Fijians or Fiji Indians or Fijians of Indian descent are descendants of the 60,500 British Indian indentured labourers who were transported between 1879 and 1916 to establish and work on the plantations of sugar, coconut, banana, tea, and rubber and sugar mills owned the Australian Colonial Sugar Refining Company”.

As he says these Girmityas lived in “lines” comprising of single rooms and worked in atrocious conditions in which has been called a new system of slavery, and “narak” or hell.

“In Fiji their roots lay in cultivating the land as small holder tenant farmers in mainly indigenous Fijian owned land. There has been more than a century of this relationship with i’Taukei, mostly cooperative and beneficial, and occasionally conflictual,” as Professor Naidu points out.

Reinforcing their culture
Through the 100 years and more they managed to reinforce their culture and religions while doing away with the caste system and gone too were dhowry for marriages.

Indo-Fijians have migrated to other countries such as Aotearoa NZ, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States all for a better life.

However, so too have the indigenous i’Taukei, all in search of new opportunities using both military service and rugby as a means to settle abroad.

But it is the better of two pursuits that makes for a good Fijian – i’Taukei or Indo-Fijian.

As children’s book author Ryan Gounder believes, all young people need role models to look up to.

Gounder, who was born and raised in Fiji and now lives in Aotearoa NZ, is writing a new series, starting with Rugby Superheroes Volume One, published in Fijian with English translations this year.

In Fiji, rugby players are like superheroes for many children and the lessons they teach us can strongly impact children in the community, Gounder says.

Developing ‘tangible resources’
“We need to develop more tangible resources for our young Pacific people that resonates with their identity as Pasifika people, and which will empower them and help develop resilience to be the ‘best versions of themselves’ – a famous phrase often using within the Rugby Sevens circles in Fiji,” says Gounder, whose first name resonates with Ben Ryan, the coach of the winning Rugby sevens team in Brazil in 2016.

The irony of Ryan Gounder is that he is a recipient aof the Languages Innovation Fund set up by the Ministry of Pacific People, despite being an Indo-Fijian. I will come back to that later in this article.

However, the i’Taukei, in the process of seeking better opportunities for their children and themselves too have lost their identity as they pursue the dollar.

While language remains one of the strongest senses of identity, so to are culture and religion that makes a person know where his or her Turangewaewae (standing place) is.

“In the Fijian community, it is often discussed at our annual gatherings how language is being lost,” Gounder says of the more serious discussion around the kava bowl.

It is not just the loss of language but traditional culture that displaces the I’Taukei and the Indo-Fijian, who has had to adopt new ways to cope with being in a new environment.

While the proponent of the coups in Fiji in 1987, which caused thousands of Indo-Fijians to emigrate, making them a minority in Fiji once more, Sitiveni Rabuka tried to reconcile with a democratic constitution review with joint sponsorship of the bill with Opposition Leader Jai Ram Reddy in 1997.

Constitution ‘unfortunately unilaterally revoked’
“It was unfortunate that the 1997 constitution was unilaterally revoked in July 2009 by the [Voreqe] Bainimarama-led military regime,” Rabuka wrote in a column in The Fiji Times in the lead up to the 2018 election.

“For me personally I have three reservations about the adoption of the 2013 constitution of “Fijian” as our common name.

“Firstly, the people were never consulted. It was imposed just like the Bainimarama regime’s repudiation of the 1997 constitution and the abolition of the Great Council Chiefs (GGC) – the Bose Levu Vakaturaga – in 2012.”

His second reservation was the allowing of dual nationality which he said diluted patriotism even if it paved the way for the reversing of the brain drain which took place after his 1987 coups.

The third reservation was most concerning for him was that which ignored the group rights of the indigenous I’Taukei and Rotuman people.

To him it was unacceptable that the 2013 constitution presumed there was no differentiation between the people.

“For an indigenous i’Taukei to be called a Fijian means more than being a Fijian citizen. It means being registered in the i’Taukei Vola ni Kawa Bula (VKB) as a member of a customary landowning Mataqali. (Traditionally, each Fijian villager is born into a certain role in the family unit or Tokatoka. Various heads of the family will administer and lead the family unit within the village community. Each chief of the village will in turn lead the people to fulfill their role to the Vanua.)

Mataqali and land rights
Each village will have several family units/Tokatoka  which are part of one clan or Mataqali. Several Mataqali will make up the larger tribe or Yavusa. Several Yavusa will belong to a certain land mass and comprise thereby the Vanua (confederation of Yavusa)..

Fiji social scientist Dr Asesela Ravuvu described the Vanua as:”The living soul or human manifestation of the physical environment which the members have since claimed to belong to them and to which they also belong. The land is the physical or geographical entity of the people, upon which their survival…as a group depends. Land is thus an extension of the self. Likewise, the people are an extension of the land. Land becomes lifeless and useless without the people, and likewise the people are helpless and insecure without land to thrive upon.”

Therein lies the dilemma for the I’Taukei who no longer recognises the Mataqali he or she belongs to in Aotearoa NZ, having been away from the family clan.

With that comes the loss of identity and a reversion and accession to the Western World and hence that brings its own problems.

As Niuean Dr Collin Tukuitonga, who left Fiji after the 1987 coup, assesses: “People feel disconnected from their social norms and traditional values, family connections are disturbed and of course that is almost an inevitable consequence that young people in particular would turn to drugs and crime. That is why I see languages as a protective element for our people.”

The impacts of the loss identity can be devastating, but HOPE party leader Roko Tupou Draunidalo, stepdaughter of the 1987 Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra, has a different take on the subject.

“I am otherwise of the view that every Fijian born in Fiji or anywhere in the Pacific or with Fijian ancestry that lived in the Pacific with Pacific cultures and interactions is Fijian and therefore a Pacific Islander,” she says with conviction.

Culture alive and well
“I’Taukei have not lost their culture, it is alive and well and you need to go any village or I’Taukei home to realise that.”

However, that is not case in Aotearoa NZ. That Ryan Gounder was recognised for his work by the Ministry of Pacific Peoples despite being Indo-Fijian is a rarity rather than the norm.

The Search for the Indo-Fijian identity will require an act of Parliament so that they are differentiated from Southeast Asian Indians.

Currently they have to tick the Indian box in the census and are not recognised by some universities as Pasifika Peoples.

As Professor Vijay Naidu explains: “In response to a letter from Lorraine Pillay in early 2000 which inquired whether Indo-Fijians were ‘Pasifika’, the then PM Helen Clark’s office responded strongly in the affirmative.”

Pillay raised this identity question when she was told in a Wellington workshop for senior teachers and principals of secondary schools that Indo-Fijians were not eligible for scholarships as they were not considered to be “Pasifika”.

In sharp contrast to this standpoint, when I joined Victoria University of Wellington, Pasifika staff and students, and the wider community welcomed me as a “Pasifika” person.

As Professor Brij Lal has stated, generations of living in Fiji have changed our identity and outlook. We are indeed children of the ‘Pacific’!”

This article was first published in Fiji Dynamics, the new magazine for the Fiji diaspora in Aotearoa New Zealand, and has been republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

It is Fijian Language Week in Aotearoa New Zealand, and to celebrate, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has launched the Fiji episode in its Pacific language video series – “Adapting to a changing world, shaping resilient futures”.

Narrated in Fijian (with English subtitles) by an 18-year-old-girl speaking to her grandparents, the video puts the spotlight on the older Pacific population and the collaborative research being carried out through the Healthy Pacific Grandparents’ project, as part of AUT’s Pacific Islands Families Study (PIFS).

PIFS director Associate Professor El-Shadan Tautolo said it was critical Pacific grandparents had the resources they needed to ensure they were well looked after.

“Our older Pacific adult population, aged 65 years and over, is growing faster than our younger population, and they’re living longer too,” said Dr Tautolo.

“There are huge challenges to face with ageing, and this project was about working with 100 of our elderly population to find out about their experiences, health and wellbeing, in order to help them develop solutions that make their lives easier as they get older.”

Key study findings:

• Working with older people as co-researchers supported them to identify challenges and develop their own strategies to address them.
• Prioritising foot care screening and maintenance for older people led to improved mobility, independence, and reduced likelihood of going to hospital, and
• There is a need to improve digital literacy of older people and identify digital tools that are helpful for them as they age.

Future video release dates:

•Niue – Sunday, 18 October 18

•Tokelau – Sunday, October 25

To watch each video as it is launched, follow the AUT Pacific on YouTube.

The Healthy Pacific Grandparents’ project is funded by the Ageing Well National Science Challenge.

The Pacific Media Centre collaborates with other AUT news sources.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

The Cook Islands episode in AUT’s Pacific language video series – “Adapting to a changing world, shaping resilient futures” – is out now.

The video is narrated in Cook Islands Māori (with English subtitles) to acknowledge the language being celebrated in Aotearoa this week.

Pacific Islands Families Study (PIFS) data in 2002, and then again in 2011, indicated that Pacific children in the study, were three times more likely to suffer hearing problems from ear diseases compared to other children.

Associate Professor El-Shadan Tautolo, director of the Pacific Islands Families Study,  said that alongside the need to understand what was driving these concerning patterns, the findings also drew attention to the importance of screening children early on for any hearing issues.

“We can’t underestimate the importance of screening,” said Associate Professor Tautolo.

“It enables us to uncover and identify a range of developmental issues that, if detected early, can be addressed and enable our Pacific children to reach their full potential.”

Release dates for future videos
To watch each video as it is launched, follow the Pacific at AUT Facebook page or follow on YouTube.

• Tonga– Sunday, September 6
• Tuvalu – Sunday, September 27
• Fiji – Sunday, October 4
• Niue – Sunday, October 18
• Tokelau – Sunday, October 25

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Simon Smith of AUT News

The Kiribati instalment in the AUT Pacific language video series – “Adapting to a changing world, shaping resilient futures” – has been released.

The video, produced by Auckland University of Technology, is narrated in I-Kiribati, (with English subtitles) to acknowledge the inaugural Kiribati Language Week in Aotearoa.

It looks at the impact of the involvement of fathers on early childhood behaviour outcomes in Pacific communities, from findings from the Pacific Islands Families Study in 2006.

READ MORE: Pacific father involvement and early childhood behaviour – Research

The research, led by the director of the Pacific Islands Families Study, Associate Professor El-Shadan Tautolo, explored the experiences of 825 Pacific fathers – which was then cross-analysed with quantitative data obtained from their children, who were also part of the study.

A Pacific father himself, of Cook Islands and Samoan heritage, Associate Professor Tautolo, says the paternal impact in a child’s upbringing cannot be underestimated.

“The research provided strong evidence that the more involved Pacific fathers are in raising their children, the more likely their children would exhibit positive behaviour.

The study also observed that where the fathers’ influence was absent or limited, around 30 per cent of Pacific children in the study had significant problem behavioural issues

Highlighted need for fathers
“Often a father’s role in a child’s upbringing may be overlooked, but these findings really highlighted the need for fathers to prioritise their involvement with their kids,” said Associate Professor Tautolo.

“In fact, by encouraging fathers to talk about and share their experiences, we can glean important insight into the factors that impact on their relationships with their children, and find ways to address issues, collectively.”

“It is reassuring that the majority of the fathers who took part in this research had strong involvement with their young ones, and over the years, since the research took place, we have seen these children do well throughout their development.”

This research, which gathers more and more data each year, is critical, as it provides the robust evidence needed to develop targeted support services for Pacific fathers in Aotearoa.

“It shows us that having clear strategies that promote and enable increased father involvement have a high chance of reducing negative child outcomes among our Pacific families.

“Supporting positive fatherhood will help contribute to solutions that provide the best outcomes for Pacific families and for their children,” said Associate Professor Tautolo.

Release dates for the upcoming videos

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By RNZ Pacific 

A range of initiatives for Pacific people was announced in the New Zealand Budget last week.

This Wellbeing Budget included increases in funding for Pacific health, education, language and economic development.

While the Ministry of Pacific Peoples has hailed it as an unprecedented support package for Pacific people, there is concern that it does not go far enough to address issues in the community.

LISTEN: Mixed reactions to NZ Budget initiatives for Pacific people

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
Porirua community leader John Fiso says considering Pacific people figure in the lowest end of health and housing statistics, and have the lowest median income in New Zealand, the budget is disappointing.

He says the government talked about providing an equity model, but it should have focused on a needs model.

“What do we mean by equity? Because if it’s based on needs [for] Pacific it falls well short. I think we’ve got to come back to the key requirements for Pasifika – it is health, it is education, it is economic development. We can talk about it all we want, but there doesn’t seem to be any resources following it.”

Fiso says while the budget is known as the Wellbeing Budget, he believes it should focus on specific issues.

“What we don’t have, is we don’t have houses, we have pay that’s $12,000 – the lowest in the country, we have the highest health statistics in terms of needs. Those are the things you can measure if you are improving on. How happy you feel – disregarding those factors and to Pacific people, are you happy? It’s a redundant question for me.”

He says there should have been an emphasis on targets that are measurable and achievable.

“If I was telling a third form group to set their goals for the future, two of those things would be measurable and achievable. I’m not sure you can achieve or measure happiness – and I’m not sure you can achieve a whole lot of these other things that are on the table. If it’s not measurable for me, then it’s almost a negative for Pacific or under-served communities because you’ve got no way of holding anybody to account.”

The Wellbeing Budget included a particular focus on improving mental health in New Zealand.

The chief executive of the Pasifika mental health organisation Le Va is Monique Faleafa. She says that from her perspective the budget’s holistic approach to Pasifika wellbeing was encouraging.

“So it’s a budget, not with just an economic and fiscal outlook, but it’s included health and welfare and even the environment. So that holistic approach we know will benefit Pasifika communities.”

But Dr Faleafa says that access to support services is the biggest issue for Pasifika people in New Zealand and this needs to be further supported by the community, alongside the funding boost.

“Now the trick is in how do we get Pacific leadership to co-design and communities, and people with lived experience, these services that are going to be more accessible. Because they’re still not going to be accessible no matter how much funding they’ve got.”

Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the budget was unprecedented in what it provided for Pacific people in New Zealand.

He says there is NZ$13.2 million specifically tagged for Pacific people, but additional funding will also be provided through a number of government initiatives.

He says that he sees it as a package that addresses issues that Pacific have faced for a long time in New Zealand.

“The package that we’ve put together is the first package ever, that in my view lays the foundation of tackling the long-term issues that Pacific peoples have always faced.”

Aupitoa says the budget aims acknowledge that well-being Pacific people is more than just in economic terms, but also is also centred around language, culture and spiritually.

• This article is published under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.
• More Pacific stories

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By RNZ Pacific

The well-being of Pacific people in New Zealand has been recognised in this year’s Budget with increases in funding for the community in education, languages, health and business.

The government said the initiatives announced in the Budget would provide Pacific peoples with more scope to lift their own well-being.

It also said that by embracing Pacific values and co-designing initiatives with Pacific peoples, equality can start to be a reality.

READ MORE: NZ’s 2019 ‘Wellbeing’ Budget – ‘Building the blocks’

Boost for Pacific education
The Budget provides NZ$27.4 million over four years to ensure Pacific students and their families have the skills, knowledge and opportunities to pursue education.

This includes Pacific PowerUP, an educational programme that aimed at actively supporting Pacific parents, families and communities to support their children’s learning.

The Budget will also provide $NZ14.5 million to the Ministry for Pacific Peoples to grow opportunities for young people not in employment, education or training.

Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio said the the funding will grow opportunities with education providers in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to place up to 2220 Pasifika young people into employment, education or training though the Pacific Employment Support Service.

Pacific Language Unit to be established
A major boost for Pacific Languages was also announced in the Budget.

It allocated NZ$20 million over four years so the Ministry for Pacific Peoples can establish a new Pacific Language Unit, with a set of language support functions to help ensure their survival.

New Zealand currently holds Samoan, Cook Island, Tongan, Tuvaluan, Fijian, Niuean and Tokelauan language weeks every year.

Many Pacific languages are struggling to survive within their communities in New Zealand and Aupito said that without action Pasifika risk losing their wisdom, culture, and sense of belonging.

Funding for Pacific peoples’ health and well-being
An important part of delivering improved health outcomes for Pacific peoples will be to increase their health workforce.

This will be done with funding of NZ$14.3 million over four years for a strengthened training pathway, from secondary school to tertiary study, work experience and work placements including increasing the number of Pacific people who are nurses and midwives.

There will also be increased investment of NZ$9.8 million over four years in developing innovative Pacific community initiatives, including some aimed at sharing evidence-based Pacific models of care.

The Budget also provides NZ$12 million in funding for rheumatic fever programmes to reduce the incidence rate among Māori and Pacific peoples and support better management of the illness.

In addition it invests $NZ1 million to research how a whānau-centred approach to primary healthcare can improve outcomes for Māori and Pacific peoples.

There was a focus on mental health in the Budget and there has been provision to fund up to eight programmes for Māori and Pacific people designed to strengthen personal identity and connection to the community.

Transforming the Pacific economy
The Budget provides NZ$11 million over four years to boost the Pacific Business Trust.

This funding will expand the delivery of business services, and support industry and community economic development activities focused on growing Pacific businesses and job opportunities.

It will also include research, monitoring and evaluation of Pacific peoples’ contribution to New Zealand’s economy.

• This article is published under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.
• More Pacific stories

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz