It was an unusual year for all of us with the lurking threat of Covid-19. But for our team at Tagata Pasifika, the show went on. We look back at some of the highs and lows of 2020.

After three years in Dunedin, Peter Latu is the sole 2020 graduate of the School of Surveying’s BSurv(Hons) programme. Peter gained his degree with first class honours, a significant achievement after moving here with his wife Salome and three young sons for study.  With a father as a surveyor, Peter’s path may have seemed inevitable, […]

A new date has been confirmed for the blockbuster showdown between Joseph Parker and Junior Fa, with the world-ranked Kiwi heavyweights now set to clash at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Saturday, 27 February, 2021. Previously scheduled for December, the bout was postponed after blood tests revealed Fa was suffering from a health issue that required the highly-rated, undefeated prospect […]

New Zealand is preparing to support its Pacific neighbours to access safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines at the earliest opportunity, Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta and Associate Foreign Affairs Minister Aupito William Sio say. “Pacific countries have worked hard to keep COVID-19 out, or to stamp it out, and New Zealand has been committed to […]

Confident Pacific children who grow up to be resilient adults is the goal of a University of Auckland project that has received $442,000 in Health Research Council funding. Dr Analosa Veukiso-Ulugia has been awarded a Pacific Postdoctoral Fellowship for her project ‘Nesian Narratives – enhancing sexuality education for Pacific communities’. The three-year initiative will involve […]

Source: RNZ Pacific Two separate cyclones developing in the Pacific are threatening to impact several countries later this week, with Fiji in particular being warned to be alert. Cyclones Yasa and Zazu were both named by authorities on Monday, the first in the South Pacific for this summer’s cyclone season. Yasa, which had intensified into […]

Champion barber Peleti Oli is the first Pacific Islander to be elected to the Hastings District Council in the Hawke's Bay region. For seven years Oli has been using his barber chair to help uplift men in his community, with the aim to tackle issues such as mental health and domestic violence. Moana Makapelu Lee caught up with him in his neighbourhood.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Mark Brown, have agreed an ‘Arrangement to Facilitate Quarantine-Free Travel between the Cook Islands and New Zealand’. Both Prime Ministers and their Cabinets have instructed officials to continue working together to put in place all measures required to safely […]

The Human Rights Commission is launching an inquiry into the pay gap between Pasifika people and the rest of New Zealand.“I am impatient, because I live in South Auckland. Hardship and poverty is in my face,” says Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Saunoamaali'i Dr Karanina Sumeo.