Pacific peoples are a very diverse population who currently make up 8% of the total New Zealand population [13].
Most Pacific peoples in New Zealand identify themselves as Samoan (49% of Pacific peoples), Cook Islands Māori (21%), Tongan (20%) and Niuean (8%), although Fijians have been the fastest growing Pacific ethnic group in recent times [13].
Almost two-thirds of Pacific peoples are now born in Aotearoa [13] and Pacific peoples are also a youthful population, with a median age of 23.4 years [13].
There are several models in Pasifika mental health and addictions, public health, primary health, education literature and social services. Some are pan-pacific approaches and several are ethnic-specific approaches. There are also documents like Le Va’s Youth Guidelines [14] and Ministry of Pacific People’s Yavu [15] and Lalanga Fou [16], which are positive assertions promoting Pasifika youth voice.
To date, we have not identified a specific model or framework of Positive Youth Development that explicitly represents a comprehensive Pasifika contextualised worldview purposely adapted to youth work in the research literature. This is an area of research that needs developing in Aotearoa.
“Fofola e fala kae talanoa e kāinga”
Roll out the mats so the family can dialogue
In lieu of not having a specifically Pacific Youth Development model to reference, we rolled out the fala/mat and invited Pacific youth workers in Canterbury to a fono to talanoa about their practise, and the following examples give some context behind the context - the spheres of social relationships within communities. If as leaders we can understand that, we will be able to navigate working with Pacific young people and their families better.
The Vā
Many of the Canterbury Pacific youth workers talked about the Vā when dealing with multiple stakeholders: young people, parents, grandparents, schools, churches, government, and community in the context of their youthwork.
Va — or vā, va’a, vaha — can be translated as a spatial way of looking at the spiritual and secular dimensions of relationships and the ordering of these relationships, that enables both collective and personal wellbeing. To ‘teu le Vā’ is to value, nurture and look after these relationships in order to achieve the best outcomes for all stakeholders [17].
The Vā emphasises the integral connections to identity across:
- Personal: subjective self - who I am;
- Social: who I am with others and wider civic values;
- Environment: where I am in context of time and place, our biographical -socio-geographical sense of place and responsibilities within it; and
- Spirituality: our relationship to creation narratives, cosmologies of origins, genealogies, and affiliation with religious institutions and traditions and beliefs and experiences with the supernatural.
One Canterbury Pacific youth worker gave an account (case study one) and this exchange is an example of how the Sāmoan self is reliant on the relationships that occur in the Vā -the space between. In order for an optimal outcome, any individual agenda is transformed into valuing, nurturing and protection of a mutually respectful relationship, for the good of the young person and their family.
Taufe’ulungaki (2004) refers to how in the Tongan culture, ‘relationship’ is described by the concept ‘Vā’- which literally means ‘space’[18]. In Tongan communities, the space between any two individuals, groups or communities are defined by the context in which the interaction occurs. When the context changes, so too does the relationship, and it is important to cherish and nurture the Vā’.
The second case study is an example of how a Canterbury Tongan youth worker set aside time to value and nurture the Vā in diverse contexts, in order to strengthen her relationship with this family.
