Celebrating 'Cultural Visibility' #1: Te Wiki O Te Reo Māori Language Week

This week our school celebrated Te Wiki O Te Reo Māori Language Week.  We have been entrenched in Haka Waiata preparations for our end of week assembly where will see each house compete for the Top House Award. I enjoyed helping a few of the different whanau groups behind the scenes to get ready.  I also had the honour of videoing the event below.

The fact that the Reo empowered our students to be part of something great is quite something to see.  I was so proud of some of my year 9 boys who were centre stage and I made sure that next time I had them for class, I elevated their involvement to the next level.

 

Celebrating 'Cultural Visibility': Samoan Group performing at our Manaiakalani Teacher's only day

Today our small Samoan Group got to perform in front of our staff gathered from our Manaiakalani cluster.  It was important to acknowledge and celebrate the language week as Samoan is one of the three most widely spoken languages in New Zealand behind English and Te Reo Maori.  

Our group is a diverse group with a mix of Samoan, Tongans, Cook Islanders, Burmese and European and many of these students were excited to see some of the teachers that had once taught them in their primary school days.  

This year, their head tutor Alby Tuuga-Stevenson wanted them to be involved in as many school wide and community wide opportunities as they could.  He understood that being part of the group was not just about dancing but learning and nurturing the values like respect and service that come with the Samoan way of life or fa'a Samoa.  Some of these students are entrenched in their Samoan culture at home and in church, which is enhanced when they are part of the group but for many, being in our Samoan group is their only connections to understanding who they are and where are they from.  It is only right that we provide an avenue to make those connections and to connect them with their identities.  They may not know their language but their language knows them.

Fa'afetai Manaiakalani for allowing them the opportunity to perform.

Staff PLD Talanoa Ako: "When our languages thrive, our people thrive".

Today we had the honour of having Nafanuatele Lafitaga Mafaufau come speak to us as part of the Talanoa Ako PLD our staff has been learning about.  She shared some interesting and relevant information with regards to our Pasifika students and the risks of not teaching a Pacific language in the future. Below are some key points:

• U.E Approved languages:  Samoan, Tongan and Cook Island and offers literacy credits/standards.
• We Part of the Te Tiriti as Tagata Whenua 
• Pacific Languages are not currently thriving.

When it's Polyfest season, why is attendance 100% the opportunity to engage with their language, culture and identity and it's values.  The Ministry of Pacific people's work with communities is far-reaching.

Auckland Girls had the highest achieving NCEA results because students were thriving in their language and culture.

It's that mindset, that a language is easy, just as vigorous as valuable as.  Introduction of Pacific Studies, History, Geo and Sociology, is going to be university approved 

What kinds of career pathways - careers have not even been created for our people with languages, academies, eg. Director of Languages implementation.

When our languages thrive, our people thrive.

Have to encourage the Ministry, keep pushing.  Correspondance school.  School Priority. Survey the community. One class.