Disclaimer: All photos supplied here are to the credits of Joseph Toara from the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Mr Toara is the Vanuatu Chief Pilot Lead for our Bislama Language Programs in New Zealand while we pilot the programs and activities for two years.
How time flies!
Can you believe 2024 will be the second year that Vanuatu communities around New Zealand will launch their second piloting of the Bislama Language program?
Yes, two years of celebrating diversity through our languages – Bislama for Vanuatu!
Head to our National Melanesian News website to read through our Wan Solwara Tok Storian Newsletter through this link here. It is full of Melanesian cultural flavours and goodness! In a cultural sense – what I call a ‘Kastom Care Package” for our Melanesian Communities in Aotearoa.
It is hard to believe I first raise the alarm about the exclusiveness of Melanesian languages in September 2022. Yes, how time flies and significant progress with the advocacy has been made for most of our Melanesian communities in New Zealand.
The New Year of 2024 has started and it has proven busy for many of us in our respective work areas. The regional Ni-Vanuatu communities across New Zealand are busy preparing to launch the second pilot of the National Bislama Week in Aotearoa in July as well as the National Melanesian Festival to be held in Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland) later on in the year. These preparations include registering our communities and associations as well as fundraising to run and support the Bislama pilot week-long programs. The dates of the pilot launch are 24 – 30 July 2024 and we welcome your support to piloting this one week again. The dates will transition and align well to our Vanuatu National Children’s Day (24th) and the National Independence Day (30th), home in Vanuatu as these are significant national days of celebrations and festivities for us Ni-Vanuatus. Our Bislama Pilot Language Week theme remains the same as the year 2023 which is “leftemap Bislama – mein languis we hemi konectem ol man Vanuatu.” This translates to English as “Embracing Bislama – the main language that connect all of us in Vanuatu.” We are excited about this second pilot launch (supported by the New Zealand Ministry for Pacific Peoples) as our reflections together as a group has enabled us to build on the lessons and Bislama activities from 2023.
Our recent National Vanuatu Regional Community meeting held March 14, 2024, through the Zoom platform, involving our Regional Team Leaders across New Zealand has highlighted the need to reach out to our wider regional communities including our Ni-Vanuatu Youths and University student cohorts. It will see two new regions come onboard to the pilot celebrations of 2024: Waikato and Hawkes Bay.
We are now preparing to organise more online Zoom meetings to connect and reach out to our younger Ni-Vanuatu students and youths to be part of the Bislama pilot launch this year. it will also help prepare for the official Bislama Language launch when it happens. We are delighted with the official support given to us by the Vanuatu High Commission services in Wellington, High Commissioner and His Excellency Jimmy Nipo, to New Zealand as we build international relations together through the Bislama pilot program. The Bislama Pilot Program launch has also been extensively supported by the Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) around New Zealand, the Ni-Vanuatu seasonal workers (RSE) and our Vanuatu In-Country Liaison Officer, Olivia Fleur Zara Johnson, who is based in Queenstown.
On our Regional News front, the Bay of Plenty Ni-Vanuatu community has been busy since the New Year of 2024. We started the year with discussing and writing up our Association Constitution. We registered our Association and officially received certification for it.
Congratulations to all the members! We recently celebrated the big milestone on Vanuatu’s National Chief’s Day, March 5th, to mark the achievement and honour our Chiefs. Our Chiefs play an important role in the rural communities in Vanuatu because we often lack Police and security officers of the law’s presence to provide cultural security, law and order in most of the islands. Therefore, we hold our Chiefs in high esteem and honour which aligns with the Vanuatu Malvatumauri Council of Chiefs’ values and mandates.
We went for two fishing trips over the last four months (29th December 2023 and 18th February 2024) as part of our team building exercises. They were social events to mingle and have a laugh, but they were also important opportunities to talk Bislama, learn about the ocean, the effects of climate change and marine life at the same time.
Surprisingly, for the first time in New Zealand history, we celebrated and participated a traditional Vanuatu wedding from the island of Tanna. A “Kastom Mared” was performed March 1st where the bride and groom were dressed in the traditional attires of the Tannese kalja in the Bay of Plenty. This was followed on with a Western Style Wedding (Waet man) the next day. In the Tannese kalja, the Kastom Mared is usually performed in the evenings.
The Bay of Plenty Ni-Vanuatu Association has extended their outreach programs to helping feed the homeless at Te Puke. This is our way of acknowledging the business communities of Te Puke to providing jobs for our local Ni-Vanuatu RSE workers through the Kiwi Fruit harvesting industry. We started our fundraising initiatives for the Bislama week and other events involving our Ni-Vanuatu youths. We have also been feeding the RSE workers who are recent arrivals into the country and charge the Pack Houses $10 per head for meals as part of our fundraising efforts towards the second pilot Bislama Language launch.
Our other outreach programs also saw us provide “Kastom Care Package” to members of our own communities who have lost their loved ones. Our bereavement and death celebrations are celebrated consecutively at 5 days, 10 days and 100 days as a mark of grief, respect and loss to family members who have lost their loved ones. We were able to bring our kastom and kaljoral values to honouring Nicholson Douglas’s father-in-law who had recently passed away.
On a lighter note, we celebrated the arrival of a new born baby boy from Malekula (the second largest island in Vanuatu) where his father performed a spesel kastom ceremony to the families in New Zealand. Our community also supported the Vanuatu Beach Volleyball Women’s team as part of the Olympic Qualifying Series at the Mount Maunganui recently. They performed as far as the semi-finals which was outstanding!
The community also had the pleasure of hosting the Vanuatu High Commissioner to New Zealand, His Excellency Jimmy Nipo, to discuss important community-led initiatives in collaborations with the Ni-Vanuatu RSE workers to ensure Vanuatu’s reputation is maintained at high standards internationally.
As I reflect on how far the Ni-Vanuatu communities have embraced the social and cultural advocacy, I am deeply moved. I feel empowered that we, as a collective, have been able to action most of the criteria that the Ministry for Pacific Peoples has required of us to fulfil in two years. I look forward to when they schedule the next progress meeting with us all.
Good luck Vanuatu!
The girl who is building a museum 