Standing for local school board of trustees...

Pic Source: Pixabay

 Today, I handed in my 400-word brief and nomination form for a local school's board of trustees elections as it's the closing date for candidate's expressions of interest to be voted on for upcoming elections.

Over the years I've been on several schools boards of trustees ranging from primary, intermediate and full school campus. At one time I had put my name into three schools that my children and sister were attending and the unthinkable happened and I was given the opportunity to stand on all three boards.

Suffice to say that it was a quick learning curve in being a chair in one, a vice chair in another and a member in the third. It was a crazy juggle as I had to manage my monthly board meetings around my family activities, work and studies. This time around, I've decided to stay with the one and will see if I am successful.

For me, the importance of being on a school board is about staying abreast of what is happening in the education sector especially with the upcoming changes and to hold the school accountable for various budget considerations, the annual reporting and the list goes on. 

It also gives me an insight into how the power relations work within the school as I keep an eye on my child's learning and how things are going for the students in the school for all students but particularly for Pacific and Maori and minority and/or vulnerable students.

It's important to keep an ear to the ground on what's happening in the school and to challenge any questionable situations or actions that might negatively affect the learning of students. On more than one occasion I've had to challenge or call out questionable negative attitudes of some educators but by in large those are few and far between as we have many dedicated and ethical teachers out there, who care about doing the best practice in their classroom. 

Prof Rangi Matamua ' Living by the stars'...

Prof. Rangi Matamua in Manukau speaking on 'The Gathering of Matariki

Last week I had the privilege of attending an evening community event, with some members of my class, to listen to eminent Professor Rangi Matamua discuss his understandings of Matariki (the constellation) with Maori cosmology and understandings of astronomy, it's origins and storying.

It's a New Zealand and Australian Roadshow called 'The Gathering of Matariki' which is in partnership with the Royal Society (Te Aparangi) and Marsden Funding (Research) to share his indigenous Maori knowledge on Matariki with 20 different venues booked solidly for this event all over New Zealand and Australia.

It was so fascinating to listen to and the fact that he was funny and obviously was used to speaking at local community events. It was refreshing, entertaining and well worth the wait. It wasn't at all academic, although many of the concepts were interesting in the depth of understanding that one would have in having studied the stars for some two-plus decades.

The things that I took away from the talk was that there was a depth of knowledge in the Maori narratives that he shared around Matariki and the obvious blending with European stories about the nine-star clusters. I also made me consider that this information would have been passed on from one generation to another and that it would have taken centuries for this body of knowledge to have informed earlier generations on planting, harvesting, fishing, trapping etc. in local knowledge of the environment and the seasonal and lunar cycles that appear every year.

Two other things that stood out for me was his statement that 'we' are conduits of information from our ancestors and then passing it on to the next generations which is why he is sharing this information openly with communities, for free, and that we should do similarly.

He also reminded me that we should 'look up' in meaning that often we forget that there is a huge universe out there and the stars that are able to guide for some, encourage for others or inspire etc. I know that whenever I go to Samoa or American Samoa, I only have to look up and see the roadmap that my ancestors would have used those many centuries ago and now I can see those same stars too...

Community Food Hubs: from garden to table...

Food Hub menu at Papatoetoe

I love the idea of having community Food hubs like the one out in Papatoetoe, where people can go to learn about growing fresh veggies either in their own back yard or in local community gardens.

With the concept of 'garden to table' so that you are able to grow your own veggies and then take it straight to the table after cooking rather than store-bought food. This is like going back to basics when food was sourced locally for consumption, like back in the islands.

This is a concept that has recently been promoted in schools for the past few years and it's encouraging to see children growing veggies in small school garden plots and then learning to turn those into meals with food to share for friends and family.

The added bonus of our local Papatoetoe Food Hub is that not only is the food grown locally but a cafe has been set up so that those who may not have the time to cook are then able to purchase well made, healthy foods for a fraction of the price that they might do in a restaurant. Group meetings can also be had at the venue and it has a nice atmosphere for friends to get together either indoors or outside.

I've also heard that in some church communities, community gardens have become a source of food for sharing with local communities through shared meals or soup kitchen outreaches. This then brings families from the community into shared spaces to share weekly meals together and to get support if needed.

Yesterday, I enjoyed the veggie soup meal with my beloved enjoying the various curries at the Papatoetoe Food Hub and found out that next week they are opening from Monday to Thursday from 10 am to 2-3 pm.

It's definitely an initiative that I'm supporting and hoping that we get to see develop all over Auckland...

New book - a labour of love ...

Cover of our latest edition to our historical series 

During Samoan language week celebrations from 26 May to 1 June, we'll be launching our latest book called 'The 1918 deadly epidemic in Samoa' on 31 May 2019 at Papatoetoe War memorial library.

It's been a labour of love, since 2016, when I became aware of the 100 years commemoration of this event that devastated Samoa's people at the time and also affected my aiga (family) through the sudden death of my great grandfather in Fale'ula.

So over the last couple of years, I read reports, eye witness accounts and as much material that I could get my hands on to begin to write the story with as much detail as I could to give a view of what occurred to bring about this fatal disease to Samoa.

One thing that was so evident was that a captain of the ship purposely continued on his travels with sick passengers on board perhaps not realizing the devasting effect that it would have on three nations: Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa with thousands dying at each of the ports that they called into.

The really sad part for me was in realizing that it was avoidable with American Samoa closing its borders during that time with no ships coming in or out of the port. As a result, no lives were lost on the American Samoa islands but their cousins and family on the Islands of Upolu and Savaii lost many.

I also got to take my family to view the site of the mass graves in Vaimoso and to pay a silent tribute to those who had passed on. I also continue to take my children to visit the grave of their maternal great, great grandfather in Fale'ula in passing on this story.

So that as we come to launch this book and celebrate Samoa's language week, we also think of those who lost their lives untimely and those who have left a legacy for the new generations to come. It wasn't a story that I learned about in school or at Uni but in my family and one that needs to be told...

Happy mother's day to our beautiful mothers ...

 I had such a neat mothers day with my family and especially with my mom yesterday who flew in from Samoa earlier on in the week. It's so special to be able to share such a special day with my mum of whom I have been blessed with from above and have learned so much from and who has shaped my life since birth.

Some of the things that I learned from her was her strong work ethic in growing up watching her multi-tasking and cooking some wonderful meals with love. Although my mum's fairly shy in not liking public speaking, she made up for it in her creativity. She taught me handcrafts such as to sew, crochet, knit etc. and we enjoyed creating blankets, scarves, jumpers etc. growing up.

She was creative and an exacting seamstress as when she was much younger she would not only sew dresses for us (including my intermediate and high school uniform) but she also helped me with my ball dress and 21st birthday dress and sewed dresses for other ladies although she preferred to keep it as a leisure time event.

My mum has always been supportive of my different pursuits, a behind the scenes cheerleader, supporting me to start my first Master's degree although I wasn't sure about it. She helped me to look after my children in their formative years and they too have a very special relationship with her as well.

I hope that I can be as patient, supportive and caring as my mother has been with me, with my own children. I hope that I can inspire and encourage as much as she has to me and I can pass that on to my own too...

American Samoans in Alaska and around the world ...

Photo credit: Pixabay

This week I had the pleasant opportunity of meeting an educator from Alaska who was on a research trip to New Zealand with an interest in Pasifika resources for school libraries in Alaska.

She had contacted me with a particular interest in our books in the ancient Samoan stories series and with our new Samoan historical series.

Having been a teacher librarian in a high school library many, many years ago, I remembered how I had tried to make the library more user-friendly for Maori and Pasifika students and how it was important to get books, CDs, posters, magazines and other resources that were relevant and appropriate for them to use in having been a high user of libraries growing up.

This reminds me of the fulfilment of a wish to share our indigenous Samoan stories with our next generations in remembering how privileged I'd felt when I first learnt about these stories outside my compulsory education years and now sharing them with our current generation to pass these important stories on.

And as a diaspora (having being brought up away from the motherland) Samoan, I know how difficult it is to find Samoan language or even English resources about Samoa. Therefore, it has become important for us to consider the important stories that we are able to share and then to print resources and send them out.

In my travels, I've found Samoans in:

• USA: Seattle, California (Compton, San Francisco, Los Angeles) etc.
• Hawaii: Oahu (Laie) etc.
• American Samoa
• Samoa
• Australia: (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane) etc.
• New Zealand: (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch) etc.

Although I know that Samoans lived all around the world having met my husband who's lived in India, Asia and Indonesia and with family in Europe, Germany, etc. wherever we go, we take a part of our culture with us.

And as a teacher and educator, I can't but help to share some of the knowledge that I have gained from our fa'aSamoa so that others can have a deeper appreciation of that 'measina a Samoa' the treasures or things of beauty of Samoa to encourage our contemporary generations to pass it on...

Re-claiming, Re-history-ing our past...

The sign at the entrance of the Kingitanga exhibition

 This last weekend I was able to combine my class with other colleagues to visit the Auckland War Memorial Museum whilst on our noho marae or weekend of learning staying overnight at a local marae called Te Mahurehure Marae in Pt. Chev.

This particular visit we were able to attend the last days of an exhibition that celebrated 160 years the Kingitanga movement that started up in the 1800s as a response to the rising tide of unrest in New Zealand over England's people wanting for more Maori land through the confiscation of lands, land grabbing, illegal selling of land etc.

We were told, by the guide, that after sending some tribal chiefs to seek an audience with Queen Victoria, at the time, she refused to see them and they returned with the thought of setting up their own Maori equivalent royal family as a response for two sovereign nations to meet.

Not all iwi or tribes agreed to this or to the Treaty of Waitangi that was signed by some chiefs of various iwi with the Crown through her government representatives and still many Maori do not recognise the Kingitanga movement as theirs.

In fact, since joining the Wananga o Aotearoa in 2009, firstly as a student, I began to learn about another side of New Zealand history that I had no previous idea about as I had learnt US and British history in high school but very little of NZ.

So in my studies, I learnt that there had been an 1835 signing of the declaration of independence by some Maori chiefs prior to signing the treaty of 1840 and there were large amounts of Maori land that was confiscated through legal means that disadvantaged Maori since those early days and still continuing today.

It's a different historical account that we now teach in reclaiming indigenous spaces and drawing from information and sources other than the standard textbooks that got it so wrong during my high school days.

And it's also encouraging in now being more aware of historical events and important Maori leaders and figures who made a difference in re-historying our nations past and giving a more balanced view for future generations to learn about...

Food Hub - Papatoetoe with $6 meals...

Picture credits: Food Hub - Papatoetoe (Facebook page)

Yesterday, I got invited to have lunch with a friend at the new Food Hub at Papatoetoe which is just opposite the new New World store in old Papatoetoe and was delightfully surprised by this neat space and place to dine for our communities.

So if you haven't been in the area for a while, it used to be the old Papatoetoe bowling club that I used to drive past, back in the day, when I used to be a member of the Allen Brewster Papatoetoe Gym.

It's now been refurbished with a place for dining as well as an outdoor space and if you've been around long enough, you might even  recognise the White Lady, a long food caravan that I remember being around when I was at Uni and if you needed a bite to eat in the city and it was late at night when all the food places had closed (before it became 24/7).

There's also a community networking component with food education programmes for community groups, schools etc with the concept of 'food to table' of having community gardens etc. and the food is just simply divine and for $6 a meal - it's probably the best bargain out there. It's presently open only on Wednesday and Thursdays from 10 am to 2 pm and they're soon to be trialing being open on Fridays as well.

So yesterday I had a vegetarian curry (and I didn't even realize that it was vegetarian) with beautifully aromatic spiced rice and a lovely yogurt sauce and then today I took my beloved to have a taste in having lived in Indian for a few years and he absolutely loved it and gave his excellence rating and even had a second serving as it tasted genuine, with a lot of love for all those curry lovers out there.

I decided to have the pumpkin soup with a soup and it was hearty with lots of veggies and a swirl of possibly cream? and with a hotly buttered scone was absolutely filling. We topped it up with a Berry Nana smoothie $3 (small) or $5 (large) and they were healthy servings and took home their $1 afghans that were crunchie and lovingly homecooked.

I have no hesitation in recommending this to our community for a neat day out of the office as there's space for office team meetings/hui or just to take some family and friends for lunch out that is at a reasonable cost that supports our community initiatives with some time out.

The Food Hub has been open since late last year for a trial period of some 18 months hopefully it continues to grow giving further support to local social enterprise and other community initiatives that support our whanau and NGOs (non-government organizations) as well as those working for our communities in government initiatives and education.

Give it a go, you'll definitely be back for more...

Avengers Endgame - the final? ...

Last weekend I watched the much-anticipated movie 'Avengers Endgame' with my family who are avid fans of the movie franchise with its 22 movies to date in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This series of American superheroes are based on the comic Marvel series that predates the movie franchise.

Just in case you're not aware of this billion dollar earning franchise, they gave us the Superhero characters such as Spiderman, Ironman, Thor, Captain America etc. and the female superhero characters of Black Widow, Captain Marvel etc.

There'll be no spoiler alerts in this blog but suffice to say that it was a fitting end to the movies series (although I hear that there may still be some more in the making) and quite unexpected in the ending with much to consider in the three-hour long movie finale.

One of the interesting considerations, for me, was the protagonist's claim of saying "I am" which is considered a biblical reference to saying that he was God as he considers his victory. However, when things don't quite go as he had wanted it to go, his nemesis says the same but the consequences are different.

It definitely had a nostalgic feeling to the movie with references to past movies and characters, and so for those who weren't aware of those connections then the final movie may not be as meaningful unless you knew the relationships that were forged in prior movies.

Enough said, this Marvel superhero series reminds us that although there are no intergalactic superheroes (that we are aware of) in reality we can be those superheroes in the lives of those who count most to us by making those decisions that count for our families, in caring enough to call out bullies etc and working as a team to make things happen for the greater good. That's what I learnt from this movie series. Over and out...

Life Conference 2019

This is the second year that our family will be attending the Annual Life conference which started last night from 23 - 26 April 2019 with the theme or focus on Here - Now.

This time it's being held in our new Central campus with Masterclasses spread out over the city with some at Auckland Boys Grammar school, at the different church rooms and other venues close by.

I'm really encouraged with the different conference venues for Adventures kids which has a primary and preschool programme and also an Epic teens conference with a no parents allowed policy (ha ha).

There are four Masterclasses focus as: church, community, business, and kingdom. Last year I attended the community Masterclasses with my beloved and learned a lot and so decided to attend this year again although I may be able to skip into some other Masterclasses as well.

I think the neat thing about this conference is that last night we were reminded about focussing on the Here - Now in understanding that we can learn from our yesterdays and anticipate our tomorrows but that what counts is what we're doing Here and Now. I

n fact, that was the message last night by our Senior Pastor Paul de Jong who has done some miraculous things in having our campuses realigned and relocated in Central and in South Auckland with so many volunteers and donors making it happen. A truly blessed vision for the city and the nation.

I'm looking forward to the messages over the next couple of days in helping me to realign the things that I need to do with the purposes before me. Family, church family, the books, studies, work, creativity etc. all need to align with God's purpose for me with more to come ...

Celebrating Easter ...

Concert at Life Central with Kim Walker-Smith (Easter Friday night)

 Our Easter holiday celebrations were quite special in starting at our local Life church on Thursday night with "The Watch" reflective space and on Easter Friday we watched a "Jesus" movie as a family during the day and at night we attended a celebration concert at our Life Central campus with Kim Walker-Smith, an American Christian singer/songwriter and worship leader with a powerful voice.

On Saturday we rested, for me as an observation of the Jewish Sabbath and then yesterday we attended our morning service at Life South church with Easter messages about a man called Jesus (God, the son in human form) creating the most significant event in Earth's history of living, dying, resurrecting and then his transfiguration into heaven.

After the service, we also were served with cute Easter eggs and morning tea with Easter hot crossed buns and it certainly had a celebratory feeling with all the messages about how Jesus' life story gives us hope that there is life after death and hope for a better tomorrow.

This week we also have our Life Conference 2019 event from 23 - 26 April of which we as a family attended last year and decided to pay in advance a year ahead (early bird special) to attend again this year as a family with an extra ticket for a friend.

This year, the event will be hosted at our Life Central campus and am looking forward to attending the 3 days and a 4th evening event with many other people arriving from national and international communities. Time worth spending and learning ...

"The Watch" Easter reflections ...

Last night I attended our annual Easter reflective evening at our local Life church in South Auckland, called "The Watch" with my family.

Last year was the first year that I attended and enjoyed it so much that we decided to attend it again, as a family, on the Eve of Easter.

It's a time that individuals, couples, families and groups can come together to church and reflect at different stations about the true meaning of Easter.

In my younger days, I had a Catholic friend who introduced me to the 'stations of the cross' one Easter where we attended a church which had several visual images in various areas around the church that depicted the different stages of the Easter story and the journey that Jesus took on his last days on earth.

For myself as a Christian, it's about putting aside some time to consider or reconsider the importance of the Christian faith in my life, of seeking a time of quietness and solace in re-engaging with the reasons for why Easter is special to me. Quite apart from the easter bunnies and easter eggs etc. it's a time to reconnect with a God who sacrificed His life for ours.

The contemplative evening that we attended last night had only three areas named as: Salvation, Communion and Prayer and as we walked into the space, soothing music welcomes us in, we were each given a card with the details of each station and thoughts to reflect on as we moved to different areas for reflection.

At the Salvation area, in a seated area, we were encouraged (through the card) to consider the time that we first made that decision to become born-again Christians, the lessons and blessings that we had learnt since that time and where we were now. On the card, we were able to write down our reflective thoughts about this which brought back many memories for me in my faith journey.

At the next station, I moved into the communion space with our youngest and read out the notes, shared a prayer and then eat a small piece of bread and drank from the small communion cup. It was a symbolic reminder of Jesus body that was broken on the cross for us and His blood that was sacrificed for us.

We then moved into the prayer space where one could pray individually, with others or one could ask for prayer from leaders who were stationed there to support. Again, it was a beautiful place to contemplate and consider where my life's journey had taken me and it allowed me time to commune with my saviour.

Upon leaving, I felt refreshed in my faith and renewed in the reminder for the real reason for the season, the transformative impact that the Easter story has had in my life, in the world throughout history and for generations to come ...

Pasifika Debate: Auckland is the best place for Pasifika ...

Today I attended a Pasifika live debate co-hosted by the Auckland City Council Development and Safety Committee and the Pacific Peoples Panel that I'm privileged to be a member of.

It was held at the Western Springs Community Hall and started at 10.30 am with many interested parties in attendance.

The moot or topic of debate was: (that) Auckland is the best place for Pasifika people to live and there were six people in the panel who argued for and against the statement.

The areas that the debaters were asked to focus their discussions on were three of the topic titles of the Auckland City Councils 10 year plan of: affordable housing, belonging and

It was really interesting because there were a mix of views on the affirmative (agreeing) team: a Fijian Indian economist who had argued that affordable housing posed an opportunity for Auckland Council to look at different models of making this possible (as in his authored book); his Cook Islands team debater discussed how her grandfather saw opportunities of living in various well to do suburbs giving his two granddaughters the opportunities to go to higher decile schools; and the final speaker was a seasoned Samoan debater who was able to tell her story of living in South Auckland and going to University despite many adversities. She discussed many neat things about living in Auckland from a strengths-based basis and that the adversities built resilience within our communities.

The negative team's first speaker is Samoan and a member of our Pacific Panel and spoke about how difficult it was to buy a house in Auckland although he was an accountant and that it was the opportunity for him to go to Switzerland that gave him the opportunity to buy a house. He also had a lot of stats that demonstrated that Pasifika people were struggling with gaining affordable housing; the second speaker was Fijian and further added about the difficulties that Pasifika people would continue to have in living in Auckland and the final speaker was Samoan and discussed that there were many different opportunities outside of Auckland like going to University in Otago and living overseas that provided other places that Pasifika people were moving too as a result of Auckland no longer being a viable place for affordable housing.

The adjudicator or rather the chair of debate was of Samoan descent a speaker of te reo Maori (language) and is a seasoned speaker and debater who was formerly a Pacific Panel member but took the opportunity to work within Auckland Council. He kept the audience laughing with his anecdotes and point scoring (or the lack thereof) and that allowed what could have been a very serious discussion, a very Pasifika flavour that allowed us to reflect upon the seriousness of the issues but also to be aware that we were in a warm cordial environment.

In the end, both sides won although most would have said that the affirmative team won due to Auckland being having the largest concentration of Pasifika people in the world (in Auckland city) and that Pasifika people had voted with their feet (as the first speaker of the affirmative discussed).

For me, it highlighted the diversity of Pasifika peoples' perspectives with knowledge that some Pasifika people were succeeding in various areas but by far many were not and it is with this in mind that many are working hard to challenge the inequities in various spaces and to discuss and plan for the future ahead of us for a growing population of Pasifika people in Auckland.

There is so much more to be said but that is for future conversations. Suffice to say that it was a hearty debate that had many people talking, with a buzz that continued into the lunch served afterwards and a lot for Auckland City Council Representatives to consider for Pasifika peoples futures ...