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Pasifika o Te Puna Wai o Waipapa

Vaega Pasifika —

Kia Orāna kōtou kātoatoa! Noa’ia! Ni sa bula! Mālō e lelei! Faka’alofa lahi atu! Fakatalofa atu! Gude! Talofa lava! Kia ora koutou! Warm Pacific greetings, even in this chilly week!

Last week we celebrated Te 'epetoma o te reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani Cook Islands Language Week. The Cook Islands community are the second largest Pacific ethnic group in New Zealand making up 20% of the Pacific population (Census 2013). In the 2018 New Zealand census, 80 532 people identified as Cook Island Māori, with 1,992 people of Cook Islands heritage living in Christchurch. Our Pasifika group listened to the Cook Islands national anthem on Monday as the flag flew aloft the main building. Thursday saw raranga and jewellery classes combining to make stunning ei, as you can see in the photos below. For the school, along with some phrases and info in the daily notices, we had a midweek language quiz question and ended the week with a selfie challenge.

That hasn’t been the only thing happening however… Since our last newsletter, we had our Term 2 fono. As well as giving a chance for families to connect with each other, we wanted to focus on building connections to external agencies and supports within the school. It was a real privilege to hear Diane Fenika, from the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, and to welcome representatives from Ministries of Education and Social Development, Ara Institute of Canterbury and the University of Canterbury, to be able to foster further connections between these organisations and our aiga and akonga. One memorable impromptu moment was when Fuetanoa Kose Seinafo from MOE spoke about Hagley being one of the founding schools of Polyfest in Canterbury – we’re looking to rekindle that involvement in 2022. Thank you to those staff who were able to attend, and of course to our students and families who made the night!

With that in mind, we have booked in Thursday, September 9th, for our Term 3 fono, so please – to our Pacific families – save the date in your calendar and keep an eye out for the invitation next week.

This week we were grateful for the opportunity to be part of Hagley’s Performing Arts Windows at The Piano showcase. It was a great opportunity for our Pasifika Siva Crew to perform with other talented artists at a beautiful city venue. They joined Kapa Haka on stage for the siva, in uniforms that have themselves been a feat of collaboration and teamwork: a big thank you to the many staff involved and especially to Chantelle, Vicki and Fa’atu’s raranga class for hemming and sewing. Huge thanks also to Pale Lemanu for being our drumming maestro.

Since the previous newsletter, we have completed the funding provision for the first tranche of Pacific Education Innovation Fund support that we received from the Ministry of Education, and for which we’re so thankful. This generous resourcing has allowed us the opportunity to have dedicated Pasifika Liaison hours, build face to face connections as a community, and to start to embed some structures for this kaupapa going forward. We are looking forward to staff PLD sessions beginning next week with Daisy Lavea-Timo, of Cross-Polynate, linked to this initiative and the Pacific Education Plan. We were successful in securing some further PEIF funding, and we are looking to see how we can make this rewarding work sustainable.

Back to our youth-focused Te reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani language week theme to finish: ‘Ātuitui’ia au ki te Oneone o tōku ‘Ui Tupuna which means connect me to the soil of my ancestors.

Meitaki.

Vaega Pasifika