A Pacific home for all
Traditional fale the centrepiece of a Pasifika Village in the heart of Kirikiriroa
Amilestone almost 25 years in the making was marked with Pacific Island colour and ceremony on Tuesday with the opening in Hamilton Kirikiriroa of the K’aute Pasifika Village opposite the FMG Stadium in Mill St.
More than 1500 guests from across the Waikato, the rest of Aotearoa and the broader Pacific region gathered at the village centrepiece, a huge Pacific fale or meeting house to celebrate the completion of the first stage of the village.
Waikato has a growing Pacific population of almost 25,000. The village will provide Pasifika-focused holistic, wraparound services in Hamilton including an early learning centre, integrated wellbeing services and the iconic oval fale for community and cultural events.
The CEO of K’aute Pasifika Trust, Leaupepe Rachel Karalus, said it had been a long journey and it was humbling to see the dream come to fruition.
“What we are celebrating today is literally the physical manifestation of a community aspiration conceived by the Pacific communities that came together in Kirikiriroa 24-plus years ago.”
The efforts that grew into K’aute Pasifika were started by Rachel’s mother Peta Karalus and other Pacific Island residents of Waikato and were championed from the start by people like former local MP and Hamilton city councillor Martin Gallagher, who was amongst the many special guests on Tuesday.
Their original vision was for GP services delivered in a culturally responsive way, an early learning service underpinned by a Pacific model of delivery.
The village will provide K’aute’s existing services for all people that span health and wellbeing, education, employment, and housing, and will include new integrated GP and other clinical services.
Rachel says the driver is to improve health and well-being outcomes for the Pacific and broader communities. “The village is offering a Pacific model of care for all the community, one-third of the users of the Trust’s services are already Tangata Whenua and the Waikato Pacific community is multi-cultural with so many blended families.
“The opening is a significant milestone for our organisation and community. A time to reflect on the journey, remember our supporters and voices that are not with us today.
“Our relationship with Tangata Whenua has been key to helping us achieve this part of our vision and journey.”
Positioned in the heart of Kirikiriroa on the West town green belt, the village project was supported by Hamilton City Council which approved leasing of the former Hamilton Bowling Club site to K’aute Pasifika. The $12.5 million project included support from Kanoa, Trust Waikato, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Development, Department of Internal Affairs, Wel Energy Trust and Len Reynolds Trust
Chair of K’aute Pasifika Trust, Namalau’ulu Lale Ieremia says: “This is a development which was delivered by our community with central government, local government, philanthropic funders, and business and is reflective of an attitude that if we move together, it might take a little longer, but we will travel a lot further.”
Rachel says: “For us as a Pacific community, what we can take from today and the K’aute Pasifika Village is that we are visible, we have been seen; we have a voice – we have been heard.
“This Village is a place for us all, a place for the city and the broader region to be proud of.”
Asked about the support in the community for the role of the village, Rachel said the fact that more than 1000 guests from all walks of life arrived by 7am to be part of Tuesday’s ceremonies “speaks to the connectedness of this community, and will see us able to leverage resources to support the ongoing work of the village”.
Asked about expanding K’aute Pasifika services into other places like South and North Waikato, Rachel said: This is all in its infancy but if this first model is proof that that it works then we could be looking at places like Tokoroa and Huntly.
“Community consultation would be fundamental and I can see us having that discussion after two or three years.”
One of the keynote speakers at the K’aute Pasifika Village opening in Hamilton was the Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio who spoke of the symbolism in the journey of the original Pacific peoples who settled in the various island groups and of the arrival of various European colonial powers in more recent times.
He also touched on the even more recent journey of Pacific Islanders who came to live and work in New Zealand and their journey to be accepted in this country.
He shared stories of the support some of the early Pacific Island migrants received from tangata whenua early in the 20th century when they were in some cases banished by the British colonial government.
He was heartened to see those links with tangata whenua continuing and made special mention of the elders of Tainui who were part of the fale opening ceremonies.
As a symbolic link between mana whenua and Pasifika, the Tainui elders gifted a mauri stone from Arapuni which was interred beside a tree at the entrance to the village. K’aute Pasifika was also presented with a mauri stone from the Kingitanga which will be on display in the fale.
“I hope this fale will be a symbol of excellence for Pacific people in health, culture, language, business and sport,” Sio said.
He made reference to the serious protocols of the speeches, welcomes and ceremonies, including the Samoan ava ceremony and reciprocated in the traditional way with a gift of a fine Samoan woven mat, a Fijian kava bowl and a Tongan painting to K’aute Pasifika.
Then while still on stage at the podium he said it was time for Pacific people to be themselves and proceeded to take off his colourful printed shirt and white vest and wearing just a lavalava and showing some of his traditional Samoan lower body tatau (tattoo) called a Pe’a, stepped down amongst the gathered VIPS and broke into a spontaneous Samoan celebration dance or Taualuga.
He was soon joined on the floor by K’aute Pasifika founder Peta Karalus and at least a dozen other dancers from the assembled VIPS, to end his contribution on a light and very joyous note.