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| Photo credits: From Ministry of Pacific Peoples |
At the beginning of the speaking engagement, Aupito Su'a William Sio spoke about how it's been drummed into him that our Pacific ancestors were once reknown for their navigation in using the environmental and other indicators to lead them through a safe passage to land.
He continued about how we, as Pasifika peoples, have entered into a different phase from the 1960 - 1980s when we were the experiencing new lands to now being into generations of Pasifika families being born in NZ and also blending our families with different nationalities in the mix. That now we need to learn about navigating a whole new world ahead of us.
It was interesting to also listen to the Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, and his 'foundational' budget which is to try and steer things at a foundational level with $ going to education, housing, infrastructure which hopefully will provide more jobs and transport also being a big money spender.
As for our Pasifika communities, I'm seeing a real urgent need at a grass roots level for our children and future generations to not be complacent with their educational goals, it's even made me more aware that the current education system doesn't cater well at all for Pasifika peoples and that we really need to look further afield than the ancient Western classrooms which have only caused few to succeed.
I think Kura Kaupapa, Te Whare Kura and Wananga are the way to go ahead with the need for our children to be able to speak at least three languages, to diversify their talents when problem solving and to be able to think laterally and creatively, giftings that a four walled classroom and a digital platform can't fathom.
It's lived experiences that make life meaningful and engaging that will assist our peoples to move forward and to not allow the negative stigma of Western paradigms to dictate what we as are people can and cannot do. After all, we came from an ancestry of brilliant navigators...
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