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FALE NEWSM a y 1 8 t h , 2 0 1 2

Warm Pacific Greengs!!We were recently honoured to host Naonal List MP

Alfred Ngaro who endorsed to Clyde and the PECteam the Governments commitment to educaonal

success for all Pacific people. During his visit Alfred, of

Cook Islands ethnicity, reiterated the important role

that Pacific languages, cultures and heritage play in

achieving that vision

Alfred is pleased with the progress being made in Pa-

cific educaon. Nearly 90 percent of all 2010 Pacific

school leavers achieved the NCEA level 1 literacy and

numeracy requirements with that number expected

to rise this year. The number of Pacific teachers is on

the rise and parcipaon by Pacific people in earlychildhood educaon is connuing to improve.

Although these are just a few of the many posives

happening Mr Ngaro believes there is sll room for

improvement, parcularly around the areas of Pacific

literacy, numeracy and academic achievement.

In the Naonal-led Government, List MP Alfred Nga-

ro is a member of both the Social Services SelectCommiee and the Jusce and Electoral Select Com-

miee. He is also a member of the newly formed Na-

onal Party Pacific Affairs Caucus Commiee and

Chairman of the Pacific Friendship Group of Parlia-

ment.

Temukisa Lemoa, Alfred Ngaro, Clyde Young,

Beverly Manetoa and Malianive Atkinson

Liing educaonal achievement of Pacific people is a

priority for the Ministry of Educaon. This is outlined in

the goals and acons of the Governments current Pasi-

fika Educaon Plan 2009-2012.

These focuses and goals include building strong founda-

ons for learning at the Early Childhood level (ECE), ac-

celerang literacy and numeracy achievement at the

Primary and Intermediate level and ensuring our Pacific

Secondary students are leaving school with appropriate

NCEA qualificaons. At the Terary level the focus is on

enabling Pacific people, parcularly our young adults, to

parcipate in and reach higher levels of Terary educa-on

Some of the successes yielded by the current plan in-

clude the following

- Raised levels of ECE parcipaon: an increase of

24.9% in the last 6 years which is the largest increase

of all ethnicies other than Asian.

- An increase in the number of Pacific students leaving

High School with NCEA Level 2

- Aer Asians, Pacific students stay in school longer

than any other ethnicity

- One fih of all students in the Youth Guarantee

Scheme are Pacific aged 16-17 years of age

Pasifika Education PlanCommunity Consultation

As the current plan is coming to an end the Ministry is

developing a Pasifika Educaon Plan for the period 2013-

2017 and is teaming up with the Ministry of Pacific Island

Affairs to hold Community Consultaon Fono to allow

parents, educators and communies to have input into

the upcoming plan. The Ministries want to hear your

opinions, parcularly what you feel is working well, what

needs to change and what needs to be improved. One of

the focuses for the 2013-2017 plan is an emphasis on the

importance of Pacific idenes, languages and cultures.

If you are in the South Auckland area and wish to aend

one of these Fono please note the details below. If youcannot make it to one of these dates there is also an op-

on to provide feedback via an online form at the follow-

ing linkhp://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducaon/EducaonPolicies/

PasifikaEducaon/PEP2013Consultaon/

HaveYourSay.aspx#jump2

Tuesday 22 May, 5:00pm-7:00pm, Otahuhu Col-

lege, 74 78 Mangere Road, Otahuhu

Wednesday 23 May, 5:00pm-7:00pm, Finlayson

Park School, 85 John Walker Drive, Manurewa

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Samoan Language Week 2012Sunday 27th May to Saturday 2nd of June is Samoan Lan-

guage Week. This is a week to celebrate the Samoan

language and culture and promote the teaching and

learning of it. With over 130,000 Samoans in New Zea-

land they make up the 4th largest ethnicity and the Sa-

moan language is the 3rd most commonly spoken lan-

guage in NZ aer English and Maori. The theme for Sa-

moan Language Week this year is O le Vfealoaiwhich means Strong and Respecul Relaonships.

Since 2007 Samoan Language Week, oen abbreviated

to SLW, has been celebrated in New Zealand and, more

recently, in Australia and the USA as well as other Sa-

moan communies around the globe. Many of these

communies have set up their own Facebook pages

including the official SLW Facebook page, administered

by the NZ Human Rights Commission.

Pasifika Educaon Centre is partnering with the Human

Rights Commission, Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs

and Te Puni Kkiri to launch a campaign to increase

awareness of the Samoan Language. This will include a

Movies Day at PEC screening a selecon of Samoan-

related movies. (See flyer below)

2012 is also the 50th anniversary of Samoa Independ-

ence and New Zealands connuing relaons with Sa-

moa through the signing of the Treaty of Friendship.Both these anniversaries will be celebrated throughout

2012 culminang with Samoas Independence Day on

Friday 1st June and the signing of the Treaty of Friend-

ship 1 August.

If you would like to parcipate in one of the many

events celebrang SLW 2012 or Samoas 50th Anniver-

sary celebraons visit the Samoan Language Week Fa-

cebook page or www.samoa2012.co.nz to find one

near you.

Learn some basic Samoan phrasesTlofa lava - Hello

O mai oe? - How are you?

Manuia faafetai - Im well thank you

O lou igoa o - My name is

Ou te sau mai - I come from...

Ou te nofo i - I live in ...

O lou tam o - My father is...

O lou n o - My mother is...

Faafetai [tele lava] - Thank you [very much]

Tf soifua - Goodbye

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Sa amataina le aoga faa-komipiuta i le Ofisa o le Pasifika

Educaon Centre i le aso 13 Fepuari 2012. E toa 24 ta-

gata sa resitaraina o latou suafa i lea mataupu. O lou

iloa i soifua o nei tagata ua resitala i nei mataupu, o isi

ua ova ma le 60 le soifua ae o le laiii o le tagata o lea

vasega, pei o se mea i le 18 le soifua. E faagaeea ai le

loto auauna ma tautua i o tatou tagata o le Pasefika, i

le naunau o o tatou tagata i nei mataupu e le aumaua,

au e leai se tupe a le tagata aoga o totogiina, au o loo

faatupeina uma e le mlo.

Sa ou vaaia le usu vave mai o nisi o tam ma n ao lei

tatalina le ofisa, ona o l latou naunau tele e fia iloa le

faaaogaina o le komipiuta.

O le ofisa o le Pasifika Educaon Centre, e tatala i le

9:00am i le taeao. Ae e tele ina usu mai tagata o le fale-

faigaluega, ua leva ona faatalitali atu nai nei tam ma

n mtta i le taimi e matala ai le faitta.

E faaoso lagona fiafia ona o lota vaavaai atu i le finau

tele o nai nei tamalii ma failauga, faletua ma tausi, ma

alo foi ma fanau o le Pasefika ua aumau i Niu Sila nei, i

le fia malamalama i le faaaogaina o nei masini faa-

komipiuta, aua foi le fesootaiga ma aiga i auala faa-

tenekolosi ua mafaia ona tatou faaaogaina i nei ona po.

Vasega Faa-KomipiutaO le tele o tagata o loo aveina lenei matupu, o ni taga-

ta e lei faaogaina muamua le komipiuta, ao isi e ii le

silafia ae ua toe fia faalauteleina.

O le taimi nei, o loo faamalolosi mai pea nei tam ma

n mtta, faapea foi alo ma fanau talavou o loo ao

tauina i lenei mataupu.

This month marks the end of the 2nd

year that Pasifika Educaon Centre has had a presence on Facebook.Although membership started off slowly we are 4 likes away from reaching our 300

thmember!

One of our roles as Pasifika Educaon Centre is to inform the Pacific communies of opportunies within

Educaon and to keep them abreast with news and developments that relate to Pacific Educaon and

Pacific language and culture.

Follow us on Facebook

The PEC Facebook page is one avenue

we use to achieve this objecve, en-

suring our page is updated every sin-

gle day of the working week.

We also maintain a website

(www.pec.ac.nz) and each month we

release our newsleer, appropriately

named Fale News.

If you have any noces, events or ser-

vices that are relevant to our Pacific

communies feel free to post them

on our Facebook page

Find us on Facebook at

hp://www.facebook.com/

PacificEducaon

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Dr Fiva Faalau: Pasifika Health and Social ServicesUpon entering the Mt Albert premises of Pasifika

Health and Social Services Incorporated, my first im-

pression is that Ive walked into a Family Doctor Prac-

ce. The shiny wooden floor of the converted villa, the

connotaons dished up by the name of the place and

the fact that Im here to meet with a Dr Faalau all con-

tribute to that impression. I quickly learn though that

Pasifika Health and Social Services Inc., or PHSS, is not aregular General Praconer service. Rather, it is a fami-

ly-oriented organisaon that advocates a holisc and

culturally appropriate philosophy to work towards

healthier, safer communies and a violence-free socie-

ty, parcularly for our Pacific people.

Founded in 1988 the centre achieves this vision by

offering counselling to parents and families and deliver-

ing workshops and awareness campaigns for health

issues that affect our Pacific communies such as Dia-

betes and Cervical screening.

General Manager Fiva Faalau holds the tle of Doctor

due to having recently been awarded a PhD from Mas-sey University for her research with Samoan teenagers

along with their family structures and the style of par-

enng they received. She leads a team of Social work-

ers and counsellors that work with families whose is-

sues and needs range from as simple as assistance to

communicate with a Housing New Zealand or WINZ

Case Manager to as serious as solving domesc vio-

lence and child neglect within a family.

According to Fiva, The issues never occur in isolaon,

theres always a diversity of needs just as there are

different levels of families. She shares a hypothecalexample where a family might suffer physical or verbal

abuse at the hands of an aggressive father whose ac-

ons may not necessarily be caused by alcohol or drug

abuse but might be triggered by other underlying prob-

lems such as housing or immigraon problems or work-

related stress.

Quite oen, we provide an amount of advocacy even

before we get to the counselling stage Fiva adds.

Being the General Manager of PHSS is a far cry from

washing dishes as a kitchen hand which was Fivas first

job when she came to New Zealand as a 20 year old

with an educaon equivalent to our Year 11 (5 Form).

Fiva, whose family roots are from Vailele, Upolu, can

now add Doctor of Philosophy to an academic tran-

script that already boasts a Bachelors and a Masters

degree in Social Anthropology. Add to that her secondary

schooling at Apias Maluafou College, short courses in

ESOL, typing, office administraon, Maori leadership and

a few years working in Policy Analysis and consultancy

and this has been a long journey.

But according to Fiva the rewards are great and many,

Personally, my highlight is to see my staff geng out-comes for the work they are doing, to see their families

maintain the posive changes and not revert. When fam-

ilies are happy, thats what really makes this work worth-

while

By Selwyn Tupou

Safe Kids New Zealand are hosng

a Pacific Safety Workshop on Friday

15 June 2012, from 9:30am-1:00pm at

the Otahuhu Town Hall, to increase

awareness of safety and injury pre-

venon methods, updates and re-

sources. Call Moses Alani on (09)631 0725 for informaon .

There is also a Free Breast Screening

Service at the same Otahuhu loca-

on, Monday-Thursdays 8:30am -

4:00pm. To take advantage of this

free health check call 0800 270 200

for more details.

West Fono Health Trust in Hender-

son is a leader in providing innova-

ve, affordable healthcare and

social services for Pacific people in

the West Auckland area.

Stay tuned for a story on West

Fono in our next issue.

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On Tuesday and Wednesday 3rd

& 4th

of April

2012 PEC staff members Moananu Tyrone Lau-

renson and Evelyn Stanley aended the

Growing Pacific Soluons For Our Families Na-

onal Fono which was hosted by Le Va, Pasifika

within Te Pou at the Waipuna Hotel and Confer-

ence Centre. The conference is the first ever con-

ference aimed specifically at addressing mental

health, addicon and disability issues within New

Zealands Pacific community.

Beginning with the whakatau and the liing of

the tapu by Nga Whatua led by Mr Joe Hawke,

responses from the manuhiriwere made by Pasi-

fika elders in the various languages of the Pacific.

As Dr Monique Faleafa, Naonal Manager of Le

Va, prepared to introduce Hon. Turia Tariana as a

keynote speaker, sand arst Marcus Winter car-

ried out a story, all created with sand and chore-

ographed to music, which told the story of pa-

cific migraon to New Zealand.

As part of her keynote address Co-Leader of the

Maori Party Hon. Turia Tariana reinforced the

theme of family making reference to a state-

ment made by Head of State of the Independent

State of Samoa, His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Ta-

masese Efi:

I am not an individual. I am an integral part of

the cosmos. I share divinity with my ancestors,

the land, the seas and the skies. I am not an indi-

vidual because I share my tofi [an inheritance]

with my family, my village, and my naon. I be-

long to my family and my family belongs to me. I

belong to my naon, and my naon belongs to

me. This is the essence of my belonging.

Dr Jeremy Stanley, Niues first ever orthopaedic

surgeon also spoke as a keynote speaker empha-

sising the role of support and sacrifice that par-

ents and family need to invest in their childrens

educaon. Jeremy talked about his own educa-

onal journey which included aending a decile

1 local school to progressing to Auckland Gram-

mar School to Auckland University and Medical

School and the many years of learning. A former

Le Va Conference: Growing Pacific Solutions

All Black and son of the legendary Smokin Joe

Stanley, Dr Stanley also stressed his desire to suc-

ceed and the balancing act between parcipaon

in high level sports in a number of codes and at

the internaonal level and the pursuit of his stud-

ies. He spoke about the taste of failure both in

sports and in his studies and the bierness he felt

when he was required to repeat a set of examina-

ons.

On Day 2 of the conference Hon. Hekia Parata,

Minister of Educaon and Minister of Pacific Is-

land Affairs addressed the audience and offered

four key ingredients as the recipe for success: first

Family, second Identy, third Educaon and

fourth and final Aspiraon

Other keynote speakers at the conference includ-

ed Dr Faafetai Sopoaga, first Associate Dean Pa-

cific at the University of Otagos Medical School,

Ms Melbournemockbacoupdetalei (Melbourne)

Mauiliu-Wallis, Student Liaison at the University

of Otagos Pacific Island Research & Student Sup-

port Unit and Dr Joseph Betancourt, Associate

Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical

School.

During the Conference dinner almost $1.7 million

in scholarships was awarded to 222 successful Pa-

cific recipients who will use the money to cover

100 per cent of their tuion fees for health-

related study in areas including medicine, nursing,

oral health, and midwifery, mental health and/or

addicon.

Dr Jeremy Stanley presenng his keynote address

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Is there a Doctor in the Fale?

Saleimoa Sami is the Co-President of MAPAS at The

University of Auckland. The Maori and Pacific Admis-

sion Scheme (MAPAS) is available to Faculty of Medical

and Health Science applicants with indigenous Maori or

Pacific whakapapa/ancestry. MAPAS provides both

admission into and support during study within the Cer-

ficate in Health Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy Medicine

and Health Sciences programmes of the faculty. MAPAS

seeks to provide a supporve environment where stu-

dents, their whanau/aiga and staff accept a commit-

ment to academic achievement within a Maori/Pacific

context.

A 3rd

year Faculty of Medicine student with family con-

necons in Upolus Saleapaga and Lepa and Auala in

Savai'i, Saleimoa shares with us some of his thoughts

from his journey en route to becoming a doctor.

I never pictured myself becoming a doctor back in my

high school days. I was a typical Samoan boy just trying

to please mum and dad by going school. So a powerful

movator for me is my parents -their struggles have

always been my movaon. The success that I have pro-

duced and will encounter I fully aribute to my parent's

humility, fa'asmoa culture and determinaon.

My High School teachers were a huge influence on me,

helping me to realise my potenal. As a seventh former

at Waitakere College I studied Biology, Physics, Chemis-

try, English and Calculus - all important subjects in work-

ing towards a career such as medicine but as I said, I

never had medicine as a lifeme goal. I just knew that I

was good at the sciences. English, on the other hand,

was something I struggled with and considering it was

my second language, I had to work really hard at it. To

my amazement, I was given the top scholar for Englishin my class.

MAPAS has offered me a wide range of support. They

have created an environment where it is culturally ap-

propriate, comfortable and safe. I come from a very

busy Samoan household so it can be hard to study at

home. MAPAS offers spaces to study during the night

and they also provide food! Therefore, MAPAS is defi-

nitely a big factor in keeping me in my studies. I repre-

sent the student body of MAPAS as the Co-President. As

such, we advocate for MAPAS students, create eventsand ideas and also network with other contacts in and

out of the University.

No one in my family has aended university before. I

have no relaves who are doctors or of any such profes-

sions. In general, my family have a very strong "blue

collar" background. My mother was a cleaner and my

dad connues to work in the trucking industry so it was

very hard to try and understand what university was.

Through my upbringing, I always had this thought that

university was for palagis only. I remember the firstme I discussed with my mother the idea of going to

university she said "It might be too hard for you". So

overall, it took some me to overcome my family's idea

of what university was. But through my strong involve-

ment with the university, my family have created an

environment of understanding, humility and paence. I

have also learned that the career that I have chosen

requires sacrifice. Time with friends, church, family etc.

can all be hard to balance but when the me comes you

Saleimoa Sami(Photo courtesy of The University of Auckland website)

(continued over page)

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have to make the choice to dedicate me to your studies, its just knowing when to sacrifice.

As a health professional I would love to work in the cardiothoracic unit as a surgical consultant. I also

find orthopaedics a great possibility too but one of the other things that I really want to get involved in is Pacific

health. It would be great to have a balance of clinical pracce and a research role in Pacific health.

From my educaonal experience, I have learned that you dont have to be strong academically, as long as you

have a good work ethic and always priorize your life, you can definitely succeed at whatever you do. I also

learned the importance of involving your family in your career planning - especially if you are one of those ones

breaking from the norm. When you involve your family in your goals and the path you take to get there it can

make the whole process that much easier and enjoyable.

To those intending to study at terary level, use every source of help that is available. Iniaves, support services

and scholarships are all out there for Maori and Pacific people. Its just up to you to use them. Obstacles fly at you

always so ulise the support networks around you; whether it is your family or your friends.

So stay strong to your goals. Involve your family in the pathway to your goals and remember where you came

from; your culture and your beginnings.

Ia manuia le soifua,

Saleimoa Sami

(continued from previous page)

UPDATE: Earlier this year we ran a story about George Cook, a young Tongan studying the Cerficate of

Health Science at The University of Auckland. George is pictured here (yellow shirt, front right) with

some of his fellow classmates at their graduaon. Well done to George and his friends and Good Luck

for the next stage of their studies!