Mālō e lelei, Talofa lava, Taloha ni, Kia orana, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Ni sa bula Vinaka, and warm Pacific greetings!
On Tuesday 18 June, the Pasifika Council held their first fono since COVID, gathering Pasifika families under one roof. We shared kai, connected with our peers, listened to a presentation from our council, and sourced input from our community.
We discussed our chosen theme for the year: ‘Tauhi Va’ (or Teu Le Va) – Nurturing relationships (between school, students, and family). This theme helped us understand the importance of having relationships to promote academic, athletic, and artistic achievement in our students. Going forward, we would like to continue to host fono for our students to meet, share their concerns, and provide input to be addressed. We would also like to start a study group, with student tutors, to support our students in their classes.
The fono also acknowledged some of the achievements and opportunities taken up by our Pasifika students, such as attendance at the Apollo Calculus Holiday Program for our Level 3 Maths students, the naming of students in various top sports teams (such as the First XV rugby and premier netball girls), and the recent accomplishment of several students who participated in the Samoan dance group at Polyfest.
Importantly, we also discussed our upcoming Pasifika Week. In early Term 3, we will be running several workshops and selling items to promote and acknowledge our various cultures throughout the school. This will be a great opportunity to introduce our culture to students across the school and give a spotlight to our small but strong Pasifika communities. This project has been long in the works with our council, and many of us are very excited to see it coming together. We hope to see involvement from our peers.
After receiving feedback from our students and their families, the council plans to work towards meeting the wishes and requirements of our students. We aim to have an inclusive and comforting impact during our time left this year, and the fono was just the start.
Going forward, we as a council hope to have nothing but a positive impact on the Pasifika and wider community here at Botany, creating a safe and inclusive space to promote excellence.
~ Miss Deepika Pillay, Pasifika Council