This year being leaders of a Council has been particularly challenging due to the circumstances of Covid, however we have made sure to persevere and encourage those around us to get involved with our Avonside Pasifika community.

We as a Council have gotten over the hardships of a worldwide pandemic and managed to bring our Pasifika community together as one. Our Council has had the opportunity to be a part of many events, celebrations and projects which are primarily student led. There have been many more significant events that have been an honour to be a part of such as adding a Pasifika alternative to the school uniform, hosting Fiafia nights, planning language weeks and so much more.

This year, our Council has been given the opportunity to design an ie for our school as a uniform option which our Pasifika students can choose, an ie is similar looking to a lavalava. Pasfika students within the school have been able to express their thoughts for the design and many amazing ideas were brought to the student Council to discuss. Throughout the first three terms, we came together to decide on the most practical and fitting design. This is to be introduced into the school uniform range in 2023 which is very exciting for our current and future Pasifika students.

Throughout the first three terms, we had many Council meetings to discuss matters within our school and to organize events such as fiafia nights, language weeks and school activities. We held our meetings fortnightly on a Thursday lunchtime in our Pasifika landing space in the HPE area of our school.

This year, our Council were able to create what we call our “landing space” for the Pasifika students housed in our HPE area. This project was approved at the beginning of Term 1 so that we as a collaborative group, were able to come together and create a safe space for all Pasifika students by decorating the space with island flags, ie/lavalavas and cultural patterns. The purpose of this is for our Pasifika students to hangout, socialise and hold meetings such as Council meetings. As it has been introduced so recently, our hopes for the landing space is that it is more widely recognised throughout the entire school as a place welcome to everyone who would like to celebrate and acknowledge Avonside’s Pasifika staff and student community.

The Pasifika Council organised and ran a fa’a fiafiaga in term three. This event was held to welcome our Year 9 students into our school as Covid initially delayed this from term one. Fa’a fiafiaga was primarily run and presented by our juniors and featured Avonside’s Poly group at the end. This was a great opportunity to properly welcome our Year 9s and acknowledge our junior school whilst also providing the opportunity for all whānau to attend. We have also held a Fiafia night in Term 4 which acknowledged our seniors of the school along with our graduating Year 13’s. This event featured two performances, a graduation PowerPoint for our Pasifika leavers and a shared kai after the event.

29 May to 4 June was Samoan language week this year. At the beginning of the week we had a couple of students go to staff briefing in the morning to teach and encourage our Avonside staff to use phrases and greetings in Samoan. On Thursday students from our Poly group taught a small piece of dance to our students and staff and they all danced in the Shared Courtyard. It was a wonderful time, and everyone enjoyed learning the dance moves and watching them perform it so gracefully. On Friday, students could wear their cultural attire and it was nice to see them in their beautiful outfits.

4 – 10 September was Tongan Language Week and the seniors were on study leave for practice examinations. Our juniors stepped up to create some school centred events to celebrate Tongan culture.

31 July to 6 August was Cook Island language week and on the Thursday our Pasifika students came together to make Cook Island doughnuts. We booked our student kitchen in the cafeteria and started preparing and cooking the doughnuts from Period 3 and at lunch the students gave out the doughnuts for free as an act of kindness. We had a long line of excited students ready to try out the doughnuts and they seemed to really enjoy them.

One of our most memorable events from term three was Gala Day. Gala Day was the opportunity for different Councils to host games, sell food and interact with the students and staff at school. The Pasifika Council used this opportunity to sell panekeke (Samoan pancakes) to raise money for the Council. The members within our council (Mercy and Aki) helped out with this, including setting up the table with ie/lavalava, a whiteboard advertising our stall and counting money. This was a huge success as we had an amazing turn out and sold out of our food. Many people who had never tried panekeke really enjoyed trying it.

Throughout this year, Poly has been a key event within our school Pasifika community. Our Poly leaders, Mercy, Jodie, Rya and Samantha did an awesome job running practices and teaching dances, despite the circumstances of covid at the time which sadly resulted in the main Canterbury Polyfest event being cancelled. However, this did not stop our Poly group from performing. Avonside and Shirley hosted their very own showcase along with two other local Christchurch schools. This was held at the start of term three, which allowed the students to perform as a group and in front of an audience with their families to recognise the hard work and effort put into preparing for Polyfest.