SPECIAL REPORT: By ABC Backstory editor Natasha Johnson

When Tahlea Aualiitia talks about hosting the ABC’s new Pacific-focused news and current affairs TV programme, The Pacific, her voice breaks and she becomes emotional.

Personally, it’s a career milestone, anchoring her first TV show after a decade working mostly in radio, producing ABC local radio programmes and presenting Pacific Mornings on ABC Radio Australia. But it’s also much more than that.

Aualiitia grew up in Tasmania and is of Samoan (and Italian) heritage. She has strong connections to the country and the Pacific Islander community in Australia.

What moves her so profoundly about The Pacific is that the 30-minute, weekly programme is being broadcast across the Pacific on ABC Australia, the ABC’s international TV channel, as well as in Australia (on the ABC News Channel and iview), and is produced by a team with a deep understanding of the region and features stories filed by local journalists based in Pacific nations.

“For me, it’s representation and I think that is really important,” she says.

“I’m probably going to cry because for so long I feel that in Australia and on mainstream TV, Pacific Islanders have been, at best, under-represented and, at worst, misrepresented.

“Given the geopolitical interest, there is more focus on the Pacific but my hope for this show is that it will highlight Pacific voices, really centre those voices as the people telling their stories and change the narrative.

‘The ABC cares’
“It shows the ABC cares, we are not just saying we decide what you watch, we’re involving you in what we’re doing, and I think that that makes a difference.”

Aualiitia’s father was born in Samoa and moved to New Zealand at the age of 12, then later to Australia. Her mother’s brother married a Samoan woman, so Samoan culture was celebrated in her immediate and extended family.

She recalls a childhood shaped by Samoan food, dance and song, and the importance of family, faith and rugby. But from her experience, “the narrative” about the Pacific in Australia has tended towards being negative or patronising.

“I think people tend to see the Pacific as a monolith and there are a lot of stereotypes about what a Pacific Islander is, especially in view of the climate change crisis — there’s this idea everyone’s a victim and they should all just move to Australia,” she says.

“There’s a lot of stuff you carry as a brown journalist. When I hear a story on the news about a Pacific Islander and a crime, I brace myself and think about what that might mean for my day, is it going to make my day at harder when I walk out onto the street, will it make my day at work harder?

“I’ve had people say to me when they learn I have an arts degree, ‘oh, your parents must be so proud of you because you’re the first person in your family who has gone to uni’. And that’s not true, my dad has a PhD in chemistry.

“It’s indicative of ideas that people have of what you’re capable of, what you can do, and that’s the power of the media to shape those narratives and change those narratives.

Facebook ‘reality’ check
“When I started presenting Pacific Mornings, I would interview people from across the Pacific and people would find me on Facebook, message me, saying, ‘I didn’t know any Pacific Islanders were working at the ABC’.

“I was just doing my job, but they said they were proud of me, of the visibility and that it was a good thing that it was happening. So, I hope this programme re-frames things a little bit by showing the rich diversity of the Pacific, its different cultures, resilience, and the joy of being Pacific.”

The Pacific is being produced by the ABC’s Asia Pacific Newsroom (APN), based in Melbourne, with funding from ABC International Broadcast and Digital Services.

While the scope of the ABC’s international services has fluctuated over the years, depending on federal government funding levels, an injection of $32 million over four years to ABC International Services allocated in the 2022 budget has enabled this first-of-its-kind programme to be made, among a suite of other initiatives under the Indo-Pacific Broadcast strategy.

“The APN has been a trusted content partner for the ABC’s International Services team for many years and already has deep Pacific expertise,” says Claire Gorman, head of international services.

“We have been working with the APN to produce our flagship programmes Pacific Beat and Wantok for ABC Radio Australia and have been wanting to produce a TV news programme for Pacific audiences for some time, but until now have not have the funding for it.

“The Pacific is the first of many exciting developments in the pipeline. We believe it is more important than ever before for Australians and Pacific audiences to have access to independent, trusted information about our region.”

Pacific-wide team
Joining Aualiitia on air is long-serving Pacific Beat reporter and executive producer Evan Wasuka and journalist Johnson Raela, who previously worked in New Zealand and the Cook Islands.

Correspondent Lice Movono, based in Suva, Fiji, and Chrisnrita Aumanu-Leong in Honiara, Solomon Islands, are contributing to the programme as part of a developing “Local Journalism Network”, also funded under the Indo-Pacific Broadcast strategy, to use the expertise of independent journalists located in the region.

Behind the scenes are APN supervising producer Sean Mantesso, producers Gabriella Marchant, Dinah Lewis Boucher, Nick Sas and APN managing editor Matt O’Sullivan.

“The ABC has covered the Pacific for decades but largely for the Pacific audience,” says O’Sullivan.

“In recent years, that’s mostly been via Pacific Beat and increasingly through digital and video storytelling. We’ve felt for some time that there’s growing interest in the Pacific within Australia and there’s also a massive Pacific diaspora in Australia with strong links to the region.

“So, we’ve felt a need to share our content more broadly. The Pacific programme will cover the breadth of Pacific life beyond palm trees and tourism, from politics to jobs and the economy, climate change, culture and sport.”

Lice Movono has been working as a journalist in Fiji for 16 years and has previously filed for the ABC. She believes elevating the work of regional journalists across the ABC programs and platforms, through the Local Journalism initiative, will help provide more informed coverage of Pacific affairs.

“I believe it’s critical for journalists from within the Pacific to be at the centre of storytelling about the Pacific,” she says.

“A few years ago, while working in a local media organisation, I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Europe and it shocked and saddened me to find that there are people on the other side of the world who have little or no understanding of what it means to live with the reality of climate change here in the region.

“So, it means everything for me to work with the ABC, which has one of the widest, if not the widest reach in the Pacific region and to have access to a platform that tells stories about the Pacific and Fiji, in particular, to the rest of the world, to tell authentic stories through the lens of a Pacific Islander, and an Indigenous one at that, about the realities of what Pacific people face.”

While the covid pandemic and various lockdowns curbed a lot of international news gathering, it provided an opportunity to showcase the work of locally based reporters on ABC domestic channels.

“We’ve often used stringers in the region, but covid showed us the value journalists in country can offer,” says O’Sullivan.

“Because we couldn’t fly Australian-based crews into the region during the pandemic, we relied more on journalists in the Pacific telling their stories, for example during the 2021 riots in Solomon Islands.

“We are now building on that foundation of local expertise and knowledge by establishing the Local Journalism Network of independent journalists to report for the ABC.

“We’ve had producers doing training with them, teaching them how to shoot good TV pictures and we’ve provided mobile journalism kits that enable them to quickly do a TV cross.

“In filing for the ABC, they can tell stories local media often can’t but the challenge for us is protecting them.”

Support and protection from the ABC has been welcomed by Movono. Renowned for her tough questioning, she has endured personal threats and harassment over the course of her career, but the country is now moving into a new era of openness with the newly-elected Rabuka government repealing the controversial Media Industry Development Act that was introduced under military law in 2010 and has been regarded as a restraint on media freedom.

In an international scoop, Movono landed an interview with the new Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, for the first episode of The Pacific.

“When I knew that there was going to be a segment of The Pacific where we could Talanoa with leaders of the Pacific, it was important for me to position the ABC as the one international organisation that Rabuka would do an interview with,” she says.

“I knew, with the new government only weeks into power, it was going to be a challenge. The government is dealing with a failing economy, a divided country, high inflation, high levels of poverty, the ongoing recovery from covid and trying to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“But he has made progress as a Pacific leader, as the leader of a country just coming out of a military dictatorship, and he’s done some significant work in the region. So, it was a very significant interview, probably one of the most important assignments of my career.”

In addition to new content and engagement of local journalists, ABC International Services is also expanding the FM footprint for ABC Radio Australia and enhancing media training across the region.

As she prepared for the first episode of The Pacific to go to air, Tahlea Aualiitia was keen to hear the feedback from the audience and — with some trepidation– from family and friends in Samoa.

“I think that’s the part that I’m most nervous about,” she says.

“I know that they will lovingly make fun of my struggling to pronounce Samoan words properly, given I grew up in Australia, but I know they’re already proud of me because of the work I’m doing here.

“Having said that, my brother is a doctor, so I don’t think I’ll ever reach that level of family pride but I’m getting closer!”

The Pacific premiered on ABC Australia last Thursday. This article is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

SPECIAL REPORT: By ABC Backstory editor Natasha Johnson

When Tahlea Aualiitia talks about hosting the ABC’s new Pacific-focused news and current affairs TV programme, The Pacific, her voice breaks and she becomes emotional.

Personally, it’s a career milestone, anchoring her first TV show after a decade working mostly in radio, producing ABC local radio programmes and presenting Pacific Mornings on ABC Radio Australia. But it’s also much more than that.

Aualiitia grew up in Tasmania and is of Samoan (and Italian) heritage. She has strong connections to the country and the Pacific Islander community in Australia.

What moves her so profoundly about The Pacific is that the 30-minute, weekly programme is being broadcast across the Pacific on ABC Australia, the ABC’s international TV channel, as well as in Australia (on the ABC News Channel and iview), and is produced by a team with a deep understanding of the region and features stories filed by local journalists based in Pacific nations.

“For me, it’s representation and I think that is really important,” she says.

“I’m probably going to cry because for so long I feel that in Australia and on mainstream TV, Pacific Islanders have been, at best, under-represented and, at worst, misrepresented.

“Given the geopolitical interest, there is more focus on the Pacific but my hope for this show is that it will highlight Pacific voices, really centre those voices as the people telling their stories and change the narrative.

‘The ABC cares’
“It shows the ABC cares, we are not just saying we decide what you watch, we’re involving you in what we’re doing, and I think that that makes a difference.”

Aualiitia’s father was born in Samoa and moved to New Zealand at the age of 12, then later to Australia. Her mother’s brother married a Samoan woman, so Samoan culture was celebrated in her immediate and extended family.

She recalls a childhood shaped by Samoan food, dance and song, and the importance of family, faith and rugby. But from her experience, “the narrative” about the Pacific in Australia has tended towards being negative or patronising.

“I think people tend to see the Pacific as a monolith and there are a lot of stereotypes about what a Pacific Islander is, especially in view of the climate change crisis — there’s this idea everyone’s a victim and they should all just move to Australia,” she says.

“There’s a lot of stuff you carry as a brown journalist. When I hear a story on the news about a Pacific Islander and a crime, I brace myself and think about what that might mean for my day, is it going to make my day at harder when I walk out onto the street, will it make my day at work harder?

“I’ve had people say to me when they learn I have an arts degree, ‘oh, your parents must be so proud of you because you’re the first person in your family who has gone to uni’. And that’s not true, my dad has a PhD in chemistry.

“It’s indicative of ideas that people have of what you’re capable of, what you can do, and that’s the power of the media to shape those narratives and change those narratives.

Facebook ‘reality’ check
“When I started presenting Pacific Mornings, I would interview people from across the Pacific and people would find me on Facebook, message me, saying, ‘I didn’t know any Pacific Islanders were working at the ABC’.

“I was just doing my job, but they said they were proud of me, of the visibility and that it was a good thing that it was happening. So, I hope this programme re-frames things a little bit by showing the rich diversity of the Pacific, its different cultures, resilience, and the joy of being Pacific.”

The Pacific is being produced by the ABC’s Asia Pacific Newsroom (APN), based in Melbourne, with funding from ABC International Broadcast and Digital Services.

While the scope of the ABC’s international services has fluctuated over the years, depending on federal government funding levels, an injection of $32 million over four years to ABC International Services allocated in the 2022 budget has enabled this first-of-its-kind programme to be made, among a suite of other initiatives under the Indo-Pacific Broadcast strategy.

“The APN has been a trusted content partner for the ABC’s International Services team for many years and already has deep Pacific expertise,” says Claire Gorman, head of international services.

“We have been working with the APN to produce our flagship programmes Pacific Beat and Wantok for ABC Radio Australia and have been wanting to produce a TV news programme for Pacific audiences for some time, but until now have not have the funding for it.

“The Pacific is the first of many exciting developments in the pipeline. We believe it is more important than ever before for Australians and Pacific audiences to have access to independent, trusted information about our region.”

Pacific-wide team
Joining Aualiitia on air is long-serving Pacific Beat reporter and executive producer Evan Wasuka and journalist Johnson Raela, who previously worked in New Zealand and the Cook Islands.

Correspondent Lice Movono, based in Suva, Fiji, and Chrisnrita Aumanu-Leong in Honiara, Solomon Islands, are contributing to the programme as part of a developing “Local Journalism Network”, also funded under the Indo-Pacific Broadcast strategy, to use the expertise of independent journalists located in the region.

Behind the scenes are APN supervising producer Sean Mantesso, producers Gabriella Marchant, Dinah Lewis Boucher, Nick Sas and APN managing editor Matt O’Sullivan.

“The ABC has covered the Pacific for decades but largely for the Pacific audience,” says O’Sullivan.

“In recent years, that’s mostly been via Pacific Beat and increasingly through digital and video storytelling. We’ve felt for some time that there’s growing interest in the Pacific within Australia and there’s also a massive Pacific diaspora in Australia with strong links to the region.

“So, we’ve felt a need to share our content more broadly. The Pacific programme will cover the breadth of Pacific life beyond palm trees and tourism, from politics to jobs and the economy, climate change, culture and sport.”

Lice Movono has been working as a journalist in Fiji for 16 years and has previously filed for the ABC. She believes elevating the work of regional journalists across the ABC programs and platforms, through the Local Journalism initiative, will help provide more informed coverage of Pacific affairs.

“I believe it’s critical for journalists from within the Pacific to be at the centre of storytelling about the Pacific,” she says.

“A few years ago, while working in a local media organisation, I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Europe and it shocked and saddened me to find that there are people on the other side of the world who have little or no understanding of what it means to live with the reality of climate change here in the region.

“So, it means everything for me to work with the ABC, which has one of the widest, if not the widest reach in the Pacific region and to have access to a platform that tells stories about the Pacific and Fiji, in particular, to the rest of the world, to tell authentic stories through the lens of a Pacific Islander, and an Indigenous one at that, about the realities of what Pacific people face.”

While the covid pandemic and various lockdowns curbed a lot of international news gathering, it provided an opportunity to showcase the work of locally based reporters on ABC domestic channels.

“We’ve often used stringers in the region, but covid showed us the value journalists in country can offer,” says O’Sullivan.

“Because we couldn’t fly Australian-based crews into the region during the pandemic, we relied more on journalists in the Pacific telling their stories, for example during the 2021 riots in Solomon Islands.

“We are now building on that foundation of local expertise and knowledge by establishing the Local Journalism Network of independent journalists to report for the ABC.

“We’ve had producers doing training with them, teaching them how to shoot good TV pictures and we’ve provided mobile journalism kits that enable them to quickly do a TV cross.

“In filing for the ABC, they can tell stories local media often can’t but the challenge for us is protecting them.”

Support and protection from the ABC has been welcomed by Movono. Renowned for her tough questioning, she has endured personal threats and harassment over the course of her career, but the country is now moving into a new era of openness with the newly-elected Rabuka government repealing the controversial Media Industry Development Act that was introduced under military law in 2010 and has been regarded as a restraint on media freedom.

In an international scoop, Movono landed an interview with the new Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, for the first episode of The Pacific.

“When I knew that there was going to be a segment of The Pacific where we could Talanoa with leaders of the Pacific, it was important for me to position the ABC as the one international organisation that Rabuka would do an interview with,” she says.

“I knew, with the new government only weeks into power, it was going to be a challenge. The government is dealing with a failing economy, a divided country, high inflation, high levels of poverty, the ongoing recovery from covid and trying to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“But he has made progress as a Pacific leader, as the leader of a country just coming out of a military dictatorship, and he’s done some significant work in the region. So, it was a very significant interview, probably one of the most important assignments of my career.”

In addition to new content and engagement of local journalists, ABC International Services is also expanding the FM footprint for ABC Radio Australia and enhancing media training across the region.

As she prepared for the first episode of The Pacific to go to air, Tahlea Aualiitia was keen to hear the feedback from the audience and — with some trepidation– from family and friends in Samoa.

“I think that’s the part that I’m most nervous about,” she says.

“I know that they will lovingly make fun of my struggling to pronounce Samoan words properly, given I grew up in Australia, but I know they’re already proud of me because of the work I’m doing here.

“Having said that, my brother is a doctor, so I don’t think I’ll ever reach that level of family pride but I’m getting closer!”

The Pacific premiered on ABC Australia last Thursday. This article is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Vodafone Events Centre in Manukau, Auckland came alive with music, glitz and glam for the first live Pacific Music Awards in two years last night.

The annual ceremony has been held online for the past two years due to covid-19 restrictions.

Fa’anana Jerome Grey was selected as the recipient of the Manukau Institute of Technology Te Pukenga Lifetime Achievement Award.

Grey’s iconic song We Are Samoa became the unofficial anthem of the country and his legacy was celebrated through a tribute performance by Brotherhood Musiq and Resonate.

Grey’s honour came at the end of the night, but up first was the Ministry for Pacific People’s Special Recognition Award, the three winners being Ngaire Fuata, Tagata Pasifika and Niu FM-Pacific Media Network.

PMN CEO Don Mann said that since its establishment in 2002, Niu FM has nurtured many well-known Pacific media personalities.

“It’s a radio station, it’s a multimedia platform but it’s more than that, it’s a gateway for Pacific people to realise their talent,” he said.

“You look at Sela Alo and Sandra Kailahi who’s had time at various media entities so it’s more than just a place than just a media outlet — it’s bigger than that.”

Topped the charts
Just over 30 years ago, Rotuman Ngaire Fuata topped the NZ music charts with her reindition of the 1967 Lulu hit “To Sir With Love”.

Nowadays, Fuata has carved out a successful career in television, particularly producing the flagship Pacific current affairs show Tagata Pasifika.

Futua said having a career in the music or television industry required focus and dedication.

“It takes determination, a determination to do a job and do it right and if I say I’m gonna do something I’m quite committed and driven to complete the job and that’s really important to me.”

East Auckland artist Jarna Parsons, known professionally as Jarna, was awarded the Phillip Fuemana Award for Most Promising Pacific Artist.

Jarna said she was pleased she had plucked up the courage to give music a go during her teens.

“I’ve always just loved music — with family we always did karaoke and that, and I actually didn’t start until the end of high school — I didn’t think anything of it. But then I thought, I might as well give it a go.”

‘Being different is okay’
Samoan metal band Shepherds Reign took out the Creative New Zealand Award and the band members were shocked when they were announced as the winners.

However, Shepherds Reign’s Filivaa James and Oliver Leupolu said that although the majority of Pacific people did not gravitate towards metal or rock, being different was okay.

“There’s always room to do crazy things no one’s done before. I think that’s the biggest message is just don’t be afraid — do whatever you want to do, just like what we did, even our parents were against us but we still went against it, so do what you want to do.”

The inaugural Arch Angel Independent Artist Award was presented to lilbubblegum.

The 18-year-old released his debut single “af1” in 2019, and it quickly became an online sensation during New Zealand’s first covid lockdown in the autumn of 2020.

The viral hitmaker said that pursuing your dreams as a new music artist came at a cost.

“I think the biggest challenge is definitely the tall poppy syndrome, especially in New Zealand, because when you’re doing something different people want to pull you down. You might not be bothering them but they just don’t know — that’s just the way it is in New Zealand.

“I feel like it’s slowly shifting with the newer generation but there’s a few people that feel that way and it’s the hardest thing coming through as a new artist.”

Several first-time finalists won their respective categories including Anthem who were recognised with 531pi Best Pacific Gospel Artist, while Sam V and Lisi were awarded Best Pacific Soul/RnB Artist and Niu FM Best International Pacific Artist respectively.

Passion the driver for rapper
Rapper Lisi, who was born in New Zealand before moving to Australia at the age of three, said having a music career was never part of his plan.

“My dreams weren’t to be a rapper, but I always loved rapping and I guess it just shows passion gets you a lot far in life — the passion for rapping that I had it made me want to start making music and now I’m reaching heights that I’d never thought I’d reach. So yeah it’s massive,” said Lisi — real name Talisi Poasa.

For their work on The Panthers soundtrack, Diggy Dupé, choicevaughan & P. Smith were recognised with the MPG/SAE Best Producer award.

Fellow artist Kings was named for NZ Music Commission Best Pacific Male Artist, and received both the NZ On Air Radio Airplay Award and NZ On Air Streaming Award for his track “Help Me Out” featuring Sons of Zion.

Kingdon Chapple-Wilson, aka Kings, said the awards were an opportunity for him to reconnect with his both his Māori and Samoan identity.

“I think for us, especially for me, my mum was a solo mum, so for her the culture aspect – she was adopted into a Pakeha family so it was really hard for us to identify and so it’s awards like these — its events like these that help to ground somebody to ground me to ground myself into Pasifika, into Māori into who we are.”

Melodownz & Summer Vaha’akolo won NZ On Air Best Pacific Music Video directed by Tom Hern and Timēna Apa, while Kas Futialo received the award for SunPix Best Pacific Language for the album Grandmasta Kas.

Onehunga-based hip hop crew SWIDT took out three awards for Flava Best Pacific Group, Base FM & Island Base Best Pacific Hip Hop Artist and APRA Best Pacific Song for “Kelz Garage”.

Tomorrow People were honoured with One Love Best Pacific Roots/Reggae Artist as well as the Recorded Music Te Pukaemi Toa o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa Best Pacific Music Album for their album 21.

Group member Tana Tupai said that throughout the 10 years of its existence the band had had its fair share of ups and downs.

“Everyone says they don’t do the music thing for awards which is true but just like anything we just worked really really hard. I’m so proud of our team, we sacrificed so much. When I mentioned before about internal struggles they were real. We’re just really proud of the music we’ve put out there.”

Lockdown challenges overcome
Soul and RnB singer Emily Muli, who won Best Pacific Female Artist for her track “Break”, said she did not expect to win the award, despite coming from a strong musical background.

“I came from a Tongan family, I grew up in a Tongan church so it’s not like I had a choice to sing.”

Cook Islands sibling group Samson Squad took home the SunPix People’s Choice Award for Best Pacific Artist.

Tautape Samson said trying to create music during lockdown was a challenge.

“We didn’t expect anything this time around. During covid it was a very hard time for us to produce new music so with the award, with all our friends, fans and supporters really backing us despite covid and everything, I guess we’re for the people and with the people, and we just want to thank the people as well.”

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz