Warm Pacific Greetings lovely ladies of the Pacific!!! Well 2010 has been a crazily busy year for us all, but here are some of the highlights from the activities we have been involved in with our Pacific communities and the community of Hawkes Bay.
Continuing our working relationship with Tangiia Nui Branch
During this year, we have continued working with one of our sister branches in Hawkes Bay, Tangiia Nui by keeping each other informed on activities of relevance to our communities, and working together on joint events. This enables us to make sure that we can all work alongside our communities in both Napier and Hastings.
Working with Pacific Communities Adult Community Education Course, EIT, April - August 2010
At our planning session at the end of 2009, we talked about how our wider Hawkes Bay community generally does not understand the many dynamics of our Pacific communities. We decided that one of our roles is to contribute to building that understanding. At the same time we were approached by Te Manga Maori, the Maori faculty at EIT if we were interested in running any Adult Community Education courses for/with our Pacific communities.
So we embarked on our big project for 2010 which was to develop and deliver an 18 week "Working with Pacific Communities" Adult Community Education course that focused on providing students with a range of views and experiences from people from different Pacific communities, on a whole range of topics of relevance to our people.
We were delighted that within weeks of advertising the course that we had 22 enquiries, then 17 students enrolled. The students came from the health and social service sector, and were all people who were working with or wanting to work closer with Pacific people and wanted to understand our people better.
During the 18 weeks we covered topics such as:
Pacific journeys - migration stories, including why people came to Hawkes Bay
Pacific "flavours" - our humour, concepts that are important to us, impact of Christianity
Our languages
The importance of interrelationships
Characteristics of our different Pacific communities - Samoan, Tongan, Cook Islands Maori, Kiribas, Solomon Islands
The RSE scheme and its impact on Pacific communities in Hawkes Bay
Health and education issues
We brought a range of people in from our different Pacific communities to present their experiences of being Pacific in Hawkes Bay, including three Vanuatu ladies on the RSE scheme. We took the class to a local aoga amata where they were also able to spend time with a local Samoan Minister to discuss a range of issues such as money and the church.
The programme finished on 5 August with the Tangiia Nui branch joining our class to provide a session on Pacific food (of course) and interaction with the local Cook Islands community looking at crafts and traditions. The biggest point of discussion on this final night was 'when is the next course going to start'???? From the evaluations, students noted how their own world views had been broadened, and how much more they understand about all the different dynamics of our people.
We are soooooo proud of what we have been able to achieve with the course, and have some thinking to do about what we do next!
Cultural Training, NZ Police, July and August 2010
One of the spinoffs from our successful WPC course was a request to contribute to the Cultural Training for the NZ Police. We provided two sessions on different aspects of Pacific protocol, as well as providing some information on the makeup and dynamics of Pacific communities in Hawkes Bay, and what this might mean for the Police in their interactions with our families.
Supporting Community Events
Even though the course kept us pretty busy during the year, we were still able to attend and support the following community events:
- Ministry of Education Local Office Reference Group - contributing to discussions on our Pacific children and their schools
- EIT Consultation on their Pacific strategy
- Spacifically Pacific Hawkes Bay Cultural Explosion - judging the HB Secondary Schools Pacific Culture Competition
Supporting Breast and Cervical Screening
During 2010 we have contributed to the following activities to promote breast and cervical screening to our Pacific women in Hawkes Bay:
- Promoting PACIFICA at the breastscreening Mobile Unit in Maraenui, Napier, in March
- Running and participating in a Pacific Women's Health Day, in May where there were education sessions on both breast and cervical screening (15 Pacific women attended)
Member activities
Berry has continued her work as Pacific Breast and Cervical Screening Health Promoter, working with womens groups in the different Pacific churches around Hawkes Bay
Diane is off on holiday in Europe as we speak.
Caren was appointed to the Board of NZ On Air in May.
Maryanne continues her great work as mentor to our Pacific students at EIT.
Rose recently resigned as the Ministry of Education Pacific Liaison Officer and is off to pursue her career in the church.
Evangeline is due to have her first baby any minute now!!!!
So, life is busy for all of us -but never dull!!
