Samoan

Profit and his family spent a weekend in Timaru attending the Colgate Games recently. After the athletics meet, the family came back to their vehicle and realised they had a flat tyre. 

Tagata Pasifika reports in a video titled ‘NZ is just different’, Profit told his followers, “I was about to go out and change the tyre when my wife reminded me that we have roadside assistance, so we called them, and they told us they would be there in 15 minutes.

“It has been like, 10 people – literally 10 people, I’m not exaggerating – that has stopped and said ‘hey man, you need help?’

For many students, this year’s ASB Polyfest was their first chance to embrace their heritage on the grandest stage of them all.

With the Samoan and Tongan stages kicking off, it was natural some had butterflies.

"It feels good but I’m nervous at the same time," says a Year 7 St Peter's College Samoan student.

While for others, their competitive side was on show.

A Tongan student at Sacred Heart College says he joined the group to "make history, take home the dub and rep the culture".

While cultural dance performances are usually the spectacle of the show, some students opt for a much smaller component of the festival.

One of the Samoan stage coordinators Melegalenu'u Ah Sam said the idea of running a speech competition was initiated well over a decade ago and had been going strong since.

"The teachers of the Samoan language were looking at it and thought, 'how can we use the language, besides singing and dancing?' so we decided to give it a go," she said.

Deborah Sanerivi says she started writing the books with her husband Oka to help her own family, as well as others.

“I wrote the books simply so I could learn. I couldn’t find resources that were structured in a way that helped me to say the sentences that I wanted to say to my new little girl.

“As she got older and we started to incorporate more sentences and more of the language into her life, we realised there are more families like ours that don’t necessarily have the language base to help them speak our language or their language to their children.”

A police spokesperson said the arrests were for disorderly behaviour.

Police said the problems happened in the Otahuhu township between 10pm and 2am.

They said there were some major traffic issues with Tongan supporters celebrating in the streets in cars and on foot.

It was the third night in a row where there were several arrests as supporters of the two teams gathered in South Auckland.

The police were confiscating flags and flag poles and blocked off some streets.

No-one was injured.

"Talanoa: Four Pacific Plays" is the latest work from New Zealand-based Little Island Press.

RNZI reports the plays explore different aspects of Pacific people navigating New Zealand society as well as life back in the islands.

Olivia Taouma of Little Island Press also worked as a Pacific programmer for Auckland Council.

She said she helped co-ordinate a series of workshops at libraries to help Pacific writers publish and access a wider audience.