Malo e lelei and warm pacific greetings.

Today I have the privilege to share with you my cultural background. I am a New Zealand born Tongan and was raised in Dunedin since the age of 6. Moving from Auckland to Dunedin was pretty hard. I was known as the ‘new brown girl’ in primary school. This didn’t really make sense at the time but as I have grown I have gained an understanding of what it meant.

To me the change was pretty shocking as there weren't many students who looked like me. I learnt that I couldn’t be too brown at school and I couldn’t be too white at home. Merging my western life with my cultural life together was definitely the most challenging part of it all. I have noticed that people like to ‘look’, they paint a picture of who they think you are in their heads and try to project that onto you. In the years I've lived in Dunedin I adapted to leave my cultural identity at the school gates.

Coming to Queen's was also very different. In Year 9, I was hanging in the wrong crowd. I felt like I had to do what they were doing so I ‘looked cool’. I felt like, because there weren’t many P.I students in my year, I was trying so hard to fit in that I lost my cultural self. Looking back now I regret my action. I hid my true self, and I was lost. To the girls whose elders migrated here for a better life, to the girls whose ancestors fought hard for their land, and to the girls who try so hard to fit in, you can make a change. I have been there, I understand and so has every single person on this stage.

My experience at Queen's as a Pasifika student has been tough but knowing that there are more students who look like me is what strengthens me to carry on. I have come to the realization that it’s not just your own who support you but the teachers and staff of this school as well. This school has given me the opportunity to express, learn, achieve and be my better self. I am thankful and grateful for this opportunity. Some of you guys may be thinking that your teachers are just your teachers but, to me they are the key to my future. Everything I have been taught, down to the heating up of an oven, has given me the knowledge to share with you all today.

I have had a tough journey throughout my life but I have now grown and gained the confidence to not be afraid of who I am and where I'm from. I am proud to be Tongan and I hope you are proud to be who you really are.

Soana Pole