CORE Pasifika hosts whānau Māori
Mangere Central students discuss their Science experiment about kites.
Southern Cross Campus students Harold (student council member) and Sione with their teacher Clint Samaseia, junior/senior social studies and Spanish teacher, who is also a Virtual Professional Learning Development (VPLD) mentor. Harold taught a kaparima (Cook Island action song) while Sione taught a lakalaka (Tonga’s national dance) as part of their additional sharing with whānau Māori.
The CORE Pasifika Team had the wonderful opportunity to share their “Pasifika hearts” and open up those of our Māori whānau with a two-day hui/fono in Tāmakimakaurau last month. It was an opportunity for the Pasifika Team to share with their tuakana — whānau Māori — some important insights into how Pasifika cultures have fared in Aotearoa.
Pasifika stories were shared by experts in their field — David Faavae discussed his findings about his research on Tongan boys’ underachievement, Christine Nurminem, CEO of the Pasifika Education Centre highlighted the status of Pasifika languages as a premium, and Dr. Melani Anae navigated a journey into Aotearoa’s not-too-distant past with the Dawn Raids and the rise of the Polynesian Panthers in the 1970s.
Children from local schools also paid us a visit to share their learning experiences as Pasifika learners in Mangere Central and Southern Cross Campus.
Check out the highlights from the following video: Whānau Māori
CORE Whānau & Pasifika from manu faaea-semeatu on Vimeo.
CORE Pasifika hosts Polyfest PL
Months of planning converged into two days for Polyfest professional learning with the wider CORE staff. The biggest secondary schools event in the southern hemisphere would play host to a small group of excited adventurers from CORE, eager to absorb Pasifika cultures through the sights, sounds, and food, at the ASB Polyfest.
Roberta Kaiwai-Paterangi and Ruta McKenzie purchase some purple sei (flower adornments) to match their Feoaki uniforms
But, before the Pasifika Amazing Race activity could kick off at ASB Polyfest on Friday 14 March, the scene was set a day earlier with CORE staff divided into four teams, with the team names selected from four of the Pasifika values in different Pasifika languages, held in the Pasifika Success Compass of the Pasifika Education Plan 2013-2017: Vaerua (spirituality in Cook Islands Māori), Tautua (service in Samoan), Kaumai (belonging in Tongan) and Feoaki (reciprocal relationships in Niuean). The team members were decked out in brightly coloured ie lavalava, a uniform that matched each of the four Pasifika values from the Pasifika Education Plan 2013-2017.
Janelle Riki, Te Mihinga Komene, Catriona Pene, Merryn Dunmill, Helen Cooper, Trevor Bond and Tahu Paki form Team Vaerua
Check out the final challenge with the team chants from the day —
#COREPolyfest from manu faaea-semeatu on Vimeo.
Take-aways
- What efforts could you make to enable to become more culturally responsive to Pasifika peoples?
- How would this impact on your daily life?
- Will it make a difference to the future of education in Aotearoa?
The benefits for CORE staff in these culturally specific events have assisted all involved to be more aware of our Pasifika culture, and indeed, each other’s culture; they created awareness of the need for cultural sensitivity; and created good will. If we reflect on the Pasifika journeys of the CORE aiga, who have experienced these events, what could such an approach by other communities in the education sector do?
Aiono Manu Faaea-Semeatu
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