Distinguished Professor Steven Ratuva has added yet another first to his long list of accomplishments, becoming the University of Canterbury’s first Te Amorangi, or pro-vice-chancellor Pacific.

The university’s Tumu Whakarae vice-chancellor Professor Cheryl de la Rey has confirmed the appointment of Dr Ratuva, director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, to UC’s senior leadership team, a UC News statement said.

“It is an honour to have an outstanding scholar appointed to this new role, solidifying our commitment to increasing visibility and outcomes for our Pasifika students and staff,” Professor De la Rey said.

Distinguished Professor Ratuva’s appointment was made in alignment with the university’s Pasifika Strategy, which was endorsed by the UC Council in 2018.

The strategy aspires to ensure Pasifika students realise a strong sense of belonging and are supported to develop academic goals of success, with the richness of their cultural heritage enhanced, valued and nurtured.

In recent years, Distinguished Professor Ratuva’s work has been recognised with a UC Research Medal (2019) — the university’s highest honour — and the Royal Society of New Zealand-Te Apārangi’s Metge Medal (2020), the country’s highest award in social science research excellence.

Dr Ratuva, originally from the Suva-based University of the South Pacific, was the first Pacific person and foreign national to win both of the esteemed and highly contested awards.

In 2021, he became the first Pacific person to be named a distinguished professor.

“It is gratifying to designate a Pacific representative of such calibre to the university’s senior leadership team, and I look forward to working alongside Distinguished Professor Ratuva on the strategy for Pacific development, and its implementation,” Professor De la Rey said.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand-based Fijian academic Professor Steven Ratuva says that if the coalition government is strong, resilient and lasts, “this will reflect well as a future model for coalitions in Fiji”.

“It’s a learning process for a new government and a new democracy and we expect teething problems in the beginning and hopefully we settle down quickly and move on,” said the director of the University of Canterbury’s Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies.

However, he said that if it collapses, it would “signal a rather dark future of political instability for the country”.

Professor Ratuva said failure would “send out a negative message to investors, tourists and the rest of the world”.

“Thus it is imperative to make sure that the coalition works and for this the politicians need to be politically smart, strategic, humble and empathetic in their dealings and approaches with each other for the sake of the country, beyond the narrow political party agenda,” he said.

Professor Ratuva was referring to recent claims by Sodelpa general secretary Lenaitasi Duru that senior party members were unhappy with the lack of Sodelpa appointees to government statutory boards by the coalition government.

However, Sodelpa leader Viliame Gavoka said the party remained committed to the deal it struck with the People’s Alliance (PA) and National Federation Party (NFP) that resulted in the formation of the coalition Government.

‘Vast majority’ in support
He said the “vast majority” of the Fijian people wanted the coalition government to prevail.

Professor Ratuva said Sodelpa would need to innovatively address its internal issues as a party while ensuring that the coalition government worked for the sake of the country.

“Fiji’s current coalition experiment has great implications for the future of Fiji’s democracy because governments in the foreseeable future under our constitutionally-prescribed proportional representation (PR) system will most likely be in the form of coalitions,” he said.

He said a large number of countries which used the PR system had coalition governments.

“Thus we have to make sure that this coalition works by being strategic and smart about having a watertight agreement between the coalition partners as well as making everyone happy through give and take compromises.

“This is challenging, especially when you still have fractures and differences within Sodelpa, an important partner.

Need for innovation
“Sodelpa will need to innovatively address its internal issues as a party while ensuring that the coalition works for the sake of the country.”

The PR system was introduced by the Bainimarama-led regime which overthrew the democratically elected Laisenia Qarase government in December 2006.

The 51 members of Parliament after the 2014 General Election were elected from a single nationwide constituency by open list proportional representation with an electoral threshold of five percent.

The seats were allocated using the d’Hondt method.

Felix Chaudhary is a Fiji Times journalist. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

When the Polynesian Panthers (PPP) activist group began calling for an apology for the Dawn Raids two years ago, we went into the process with eyes wide open. Government lobbyists seldom get everything they ask for, but our intent was honest and real and fuelled by our Panther legacy and love for the people.

We believe that the apology was, and is, a necessary step towards the healing and restoration of trust and relationships between the Pacific peoples and families who were adversely affected by government actions during the Dawn Raids and the Aotearoa New Zealand government.

The prime minister’s emotional ritual entry into Auckland’s Great Hall and her address to Pacific people and communities assembled there last Sunday drastically relived the shameful and unjust treatment of Pacific peoples by successive governments during the Dawn Raids era of the 1970s, when police, hunting for immigrant overstayers and armed with dogs and batons, would burst into the homes of Pasifika families in the early morning hours.

These experiences and the subsequent deportations have created layers of intergenerational shame and trauma for Pacific victims and families in New Zealand and in the homelands. Studies have since shown that Pacific people made up only 30 percent of the overstayers, and yet almost 90 percent of the deportations.

The bulk of the migrants who overstayed their visas were from the US and UK. Since the apology was announced there has been a flood of victims’ stories –- stories no longer silenced by the guilt, shame and trauma of the raids and random checks.

What was missing from Sunday’s apology was a list of concrete actions the government will take in addressing the injustices. Instead, what was delivered were four “gestures”: some national and Pacific scholarships, and two other educational “gestures” that were really already in place — a publication about experiences of the Dawn Raids and the provision of resources to those schools already teaching about them.

Why has the government remained silent about setting up a legacy fund to allow education about the Dawn Raids — as requested in the petition signed by more than 7000 people and presented to Parliament by Josiah Tualamali’i and Benji Timu — to prevent future generations of New Zealanders from carrying out the same or similar racist actions?

Educate to Liberate
The only programme currently addressing this is an unfunded one run by the PPP for 50 years and more specifically for the past 10 years with their Educate to Liberate programmes in schools.

This was a far cry to what the Panthers were calling for.

In its submission for healing and restoration to the government in May, the Panthers were clear about what they wanted: an apology as well as 100 annual scholarships, and the overhaul of the current educational curriculum to include the compulsory teaching of racism, race relations, the Dawn Raids and Pacific Studies and the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi as the cornerstone of harmonious race relations in Aotearoa New Zealand, across all sectors, and assessed as “achieved standards” across appropriate non-history subjects.

If what we Panthers called for was granted and acted on, it would provide a clear message to all Pacific peoples and communities and to all New Zealanders that the government was ready for a truly liberating education and a world-leading pathway to the best race relations — Kiwi-style — in the world.

Alas, what the apology delivered was a watered-down version of what the Panthers called for. By perpetuating a myopic view of our long-term educational needs, the short term gestures outlined in the apology will not be enough to grow a truly liberated and informed youthful leadership for the future.

This oversight suggests a rocky future for the New Zealand government and the va (the social and sacred spaces of relationships) with Pacific peoples. The Polynesian Panther demands to annihilate racism in New Zealand might seem too revolutionary and drastic, and will probably fuel anti-Pacific sentiments, but is this really the absolute maximum that the government can do?

What we were given in this apology did little to dismantle systemic racism. Much more work needs to be done to decolonise and re-indigenise our education system. Why is the teaching of the Dawn Raids only optional and not compulsory? The Panthers platform of peaceful resistance against racism, the celebration of mana Pasifika and a liberating education is as relevant now as it was in the era of the Dawn Raids.

If the changes the Panthers have fought for over the last 50 years don’t materialise, then we have no alternative but to — as Māori scholar and activist Ranginui Walker puts it — “ka whawhai tonu matou [we will continue the fight]”.

Dr Melani Anae is a foundation member of the Polynesian Panthers and an associate professor and director of research at the Centre for Pacific Studies, Te Wananga o Waipapa, University of Auckland. Her books include The Platform: The Radical Legacy of the Polynesian Panthers (2020), Polynesian Panthers: Pacific Protest and Affirmative Action in Aotearoa NZ 1971–1981 (2015), and Polynesian Panthers (2006). This article first appeared in The Guardian and has been republished here with the author’s permission.

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

The next step in the Samoan crisis is to see where the police land and to get a sense of who is going to line up on which side and who will get “the social licence” to be the legitimate government, says a leading New Zealand academic.

Associate professor of Pacific studies at the University of Auckland Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa told RNZ Morning Report today that the police seemed to be waiting for clearer signals, however, so far they had acted appropriately because there was calm in Samoa and they did not want to take any action that would threaten that.

“It’s right for people to stay on the sidelines until there’s clarity delivered either politically or legally that can be taken forward into the transition of government.”

It was unlikely that Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi would concede but this was the real problem and it was needed for a peaceful transition.

Those working in the public service had been appointed by either his party or him.

“Samoa’s had no practice at transitioning power. This is not a position that any of these public service heads have been in …we’re asking a lot of these public service heads but they need to deliver,” he said.

The courts had been “heroic” in the last fortnight and had shown a real commitment to upholding the law by coming out of the courtroom and walking up to Parliament yesterday, Toeolesulusulu said.

Asked if other Pacific nations had a role to play, he said it was not the Pacific way to interfere in the domestic concerns of other nations but Tuila’epa had made some enemies in the region.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By RNZ Pacific

A leading Samoan academic from Auckland University of Technology has been appointed to a key role at New Zealand’s branch of United Nations culture agency UNESCO.

Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop, foundation professor of Pacific studies at AUT, is well known for her research and training in development and family issues across the region.

She has been appointed NZ’s next Commissioner for Social Sciences with Unesco’s National Commission.

“In my eldership, you have time to do or devote more attention to things where you can indulge in what you want to do and so, yes, as a commissioner of social science with UNESCO will be another little avenue,” she said.

Prior to AUT, Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop was the inaugural director of Va’aomanu Pasifika at Victoria University in Wellington.

She has also been the president of PACIFICA, a network for Pacific women in New Zealand, served on numerous committees and received a number of awards and recognition for her work.

-Partners-

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz