St Joseph's Pasifika Group

‘Over the last 3 years our school - St Joseph's School - have celebrated Samoan Language Week with a special Pasifika Assembly. At this assembly each class shares the learning they have done about the different Pasifika clutures we have at our school.The classes may share a song, stories, dance, a legend, art or stories about Pasifika role models. Our parents are invited and this community event is incredibly empowering for our Pasifika families and students. It is a highlight for our school. We are lucky to have a Samoan mother Aniva Faafae who also comes to school to teach the Pasifika children a sasa or siva which the Paifika group then performs to the school. It is an absolute joy to see the pride in our Pasifika students faces when they can see their culture being valued and celebrated. As a school it is our goal to engage all our students in their learning and to also foster positive familyand school communications. Celebrating our students culture underpins this goal. It is imperative and it is very much enjoyed by all the school.

Continue embracing Pasifika languages at school through song, prayer , greetings and stories. Continue to highlight our Pasifika traditions such as learning the siva and sasa. Continue to promote and congratulate White Sunday bible verse recitals. Continue termly Pasifika fonos. Intoduce a leadership programme.

This year-2024 - is the third year that we have held our Pasifika Assembly and each year we slowly and organically grow our assembly and celebration. We have found that a number of our Pasifika families have lost touch with their Pasifika culture and do not own a lavalava or Pasifika dress. At our specal Pasifika Assembly/ Performance we have managed to dress the Pasifika group of students in borrowed lavalavas but we would love to have a set of lavalavas that our group of Pasifika students could wear. We have discussed this with our Pasifika families and they felt excited if we were able to dress the Pasifika students in a lavalava that matched our own school uniform- as this would especially generate a sense of pride. We would absolutelylove it if you were able to please fund our Pasifika Group to be able to make 35 lavalavas.’ Brigid Hindmarsh

Community Impact: Including the school - about 420

Photos by Kat Beyle https://www.wiphala.co.nz/