Tongan language week celebrated

Transcript

The Tongan language is being celebrated all over New Zealand this week, by a diverse range of groups from pre-schoolers and churches to those in prison.

There are 60,000 Tongans living in the country making them the third-largest Pacific population in New Zealand.

Indira Moala has more.

This year's theme "Fakakoloa 'o 'Aotearoa 'aki 'a e Faiva 'a e Tonga" means enriching Aotearoa with Tongan arts. To celebrate the theme, Otahuhu's Fairburn Primary School hosted a rare Tongan speech competition that included finalists from 13 other Auckland schools. The school's principal, Frances Nelson, says a third of the school population is Tongan, and many of them started school knowing no English.

FRANCES NELSON: Our first language is talking about who we are and about our culture and ethnicity which are deeply ingrained in us. First language is very very important to us.

One of those students, Tonga-born Shakana Halaholo, says having Tongan teachers in her school has really helped her.

SHAKANA HALAHOLO: It feels really great because if you don't know what it actually means you can ask your teachers.

Tongan student Lisia Pau'u appreciates the Tongan teachers for a different reason.

LISA PAU'U: Recently I've just been learning how to speak Tongan because I'm not really fluent in Tongan. So I've just been learning off all the Tongan kids and teachers. It feels really good that people can understand where I'm coming from that I can't speak Tongan but they can help me out.

Despite the growing Tongan population in the country, the number who can speak fluent Tongan has decreased by five percent according to the 2013 Census.

Labour MP Jenny Salesa, is the first Tongan-speaking MP in the New Zealand parliament.

JENNY SALESA: Given the fact that more Tongans live overseas, here in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Hawaii, then the population of 100,000 in Tonga, it is really crucial that we encourage and support the language overseas. Because there are more Tongans born and raised overseas than there are back home.

Kaliopasi 'Akolo, the Manager of the Tongan early childhood education organisation Loto'ofa, says their home-based groups help New Zealand-born Tongans continue to learn the language.

KALIOPASI 'AKOLO: Probably 99 percent of our curriculum is all in Tongan. So we would like to teach the culture and all our upbringing in Tonga to our children. We'll just keep emphasizing our culture and values of our Tongan heritage.

Kalolo Fihaki, from the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, says prison staff also celebrate different language weeks as a way of exposing inmates to different cultures.

KALOLO FIHAKI: Quite a lot of them don't know how to speak in Tongan, but posters help them quite a lot and they had the whole day learning new words. And I hope that they are very positive words. And it was, it was a very good activity for them yesterday.

Mr Fihaki says with Auckland being the largest Polynesian city in the world, exposure to Pacific languages is valuable for New Zealanders.

KALOLO FIHAKI: Even for myself, and I'm here, I can speak three Pacific languages fluently. It's an awesome experience to have and I guess having to know one or two words in a different language - it's an awesome experience for you to have that.

Other events around the country this week include tapa cloth making workshops, combined church services and poetry sessions.