The New Zealand construction industry is comprised of a diverse workforce with a substantial number of Pacific Island workers whose employment is more often than not precarious in nature (Lamm et al., 2010). Government statistics also indicate that Pacific Island construction workers are over-represented in...

Te Whāriki positions itself as New Zealand’s first ever Early Childhood Curriculum with an unique bicultural feature honouring the Treaty of Waitangi (signed in 1840), and the partnership between tangata whenua (Māori) and the Crown (Government). The Te Whāriki curriculum found its origins in a...

To Tālanoa, you have a personal encounter with another person in conversation. To begin this project, the process of Tālanoa is used in a respectful journalistic mode and sensibility for collecting stories of the everyday. This project enacts narratives that have been collected through everyday...

There is a growing amount of literatures and researches examining key factors that contribute to the vulnerability of Pacific youth, especially suicide. In 2011, there was a spike in the number of young Tongans in New Zealand who lost their lives to this epidemic and...

International migration for people in the Pacific has become a cultural and economic voyage in which identities are challenged and questioned. With the evolution of transport technology, the modern era has provided a more efficient form of transport. This study contributes to the theorising of...

This thesis is an exploratory study of the experiences and perceptions of a group of New Zealand-born Tongan males living in Auckland on what participation in the Tongan cultural practice of the faikava meant to them, how they valued this experience and whether they believed...

The concept of youth participation is explored in the EFKS church context where the perspectives of young Samoan people of South Auckland are explored. In the Samoan culture, children and young people are usually the unheard and quiet voices at formal settings (Simanu, 2002; Tamasese...

The purpose of this thesis was to find ways in which the current practices of Tongan culture and of the church could be modified so that any economic adverse impact they have on Tongans could be alleviated. This research is particularly significant when contextualised in...

Tonga reputably has the highest per capita number of PhDs in the world; this indicates the high value placed on formal education by Tongans. At the same time, many Tongans, especially those living in New Zealand, are amongst those seen as ‘failures’ of the education...

Obesity in childhood has physical, psychological and social consequences that impact on health and quality of life. While there is a need for obesity prevention and treatment programmes amongst all New Zealanders, the need is greatest for Pacific children and their families. Over one in...

This thesis adopts an analytical approach to Moana research from a “Pacific Studies” perspective, focusing as it does on Moana languages and Moana indigenous knowledge. From this perspective it analyses and discusses the imposition of Western paradigms in Moana research and in Moana language, both...