Our Mission
To See Our Pasifika Children Families Flourish
Holistic-Social, Mental, Spiritual, Emotional, Physical & Wellbeing
How Do You Say Hello In Pasifika?
‘Pasifika’ is not a single culture, language, or island. It is a term that has evolved over the decades, developed predominantly by New Zealand government agencies and organisations to describe and categorise many diverse sovereign island nations.
Each island nation has their own governance, culture, language/s, social, religious, economic and political systems that are unique and independent in their own right as well as the people who come from these nations and their children wherever they may have settled. Other variations include Pacific, Pacifica, and now Pasifika is the widely used term to describe people from Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.
Sharing Our Stories
We seek to share our narratives of what success means and what it looks like. To some mainstream organisations, success may look like having the right governance and business models. Where reporting structures that are clinical and performance based, to ensure KPIs are met and maximum efficiency is achieved through streamlined approaches.
What does success look like in our Pasifika communities? The best way to find out is to ask. Some of the responses through ‘talanoa’ (a research model that privileges Pasifika narratives) have been:
People want a Pasifika service run by our people serving our people
Our Pasifika people want, a steady job, a roof over their head, their children doing well at school.
Our people want holistic services that includes their spiritual, physical, social mental and emotional health and wellbeing.
They want to be valued and recognised when entering a mainstream service provider. They want to be heard and listened to when receiving treatment:
“I want to learn to be a good father
“Why can’t I speak with someone who understands my language & my culture?”
Mums with gestational diabetes want their families to understand and support them with managing diabetes.
Our families want to live, prosper, and not die young.
Our mums want their babies to be born alive and healthy and to grow up healthy:
“I want to have the choice in how I receive treatment.”
“I want my children to learn my language and culture.”
The frameworks we use to understand our world views and life are different from many mainstream organisations. Often these differences can cause barriers to service delivery. Gaining better understanding of our perspectives and values will support improved services to our Pasifika community.
Strengths Base
We seek to share and communicate a narrative of our people that is strengths based and not based on the many negative narratives that are often portrayed in the public arena as vulnerable, poor, disadvantaged and ignorant.
Accurate Data
The narratives portrayed in health, education, justice, housing, employment are often negative and anecdotal. Currently in Australia there are no accurate statistics or data that is collected on ethnicities of Pasifika people in each of these areas. Informed policy requires accurate data collection.