Pacifika

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Pacifika languages of New Zealand:

I have been in Auckland, New Zealand for a month and a half now. I have been staying with my sister and her husband in Papakura, a suburb in the south of Auckland. Whilst here I am attending the Papakura Wesleyan Church and community centre and have discovered far more cultures than I was aware existed here.

The term 'Pasifika' is used to describe all the different people from the surrounding islands in the South Pacific. Living in New Zealand are, besides the Maori, Samoans, Cook islanders, Tongans, Tuvaluans, Fijians, Niueans, Tokelauans and Kiribatians. Most Pasifika languages, Rob Finlay, previously the Adviser Pasifika in Services to Schools in the National Library of New Zealand, tells me, are Polynesian (Austronesian).

Here is an informal 'Hello' in all the Pasifika languages mentioned above: (from http://www.mpp.govt.nz/language-culture-and-identity/pacific-language-weeks/)

In Samoan: Talofa!
In Cook Island Maori: Kia orana!
In Tongan:M alo e lelei!
In Tuvaluan: Fakatalofa atu!
In Fijian: Bula!
In Niuean:Fakaalofa atu!
In Tokelauan: Malo ni!

In February every year the Pasifika Festival takes place. where performances and traditional meals are prepared to celebrate the diversity and richness of the Pasifika cultures. I am told, if I am in Auckland in February, not to miss it.

My source of information, Rob Finlay, is a historian, so he is not interested merely in the languages but the development thereof, so he has given me a historical insight into the development of the people and their languages. Over a span of more than 3,000 years these Pasifika languages developed:

Earliest settlers: Fijian
Around 3000 years ago: Tongan and Samoan (Western Polynesian languages, the two base Pacific languages)
After some time: Cook Island Maori and Tahitian languages
About 800 years ago: Hawaiian, Easter Island and New Zealand Maori
About 600 years ago: a group of Maori who moved to Chatham Island developed the Moiori and Pacific languages

Germany colonised Samoa between 1880 and 1914 when a New Zealand force occupied Samoa in the first territory gain in the first World War, Rob shares, which is why it is possible for people from the Pacific islands to have German ancestry, and why perhaps I as a German may have Samoan ancestry. Interesting.

To give you an idea of where all these islands are, here is a map:


The Pacific languages are mostly Polynesian (Austronesian), some are Micronesian (Kiribati), and some Melanesian (Fijian is part Melanesian and part Polynesian). Check out this map for details:


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