Academic literature on the topic 'New Zealand-born Samoans'

INTRODUCTION: Use of antibiotics is high in Samoa and this may affect the expectations and patterns of antibiotic use of Samoans in New Zealand. AIM: This study examined the understanding and reported use of antibiotics amongst Samoans in New Zealand. METHODS: In-depth interviews were held with 13 Samoans in New Zealand. These interviews were analysed and used to develop a questionnaire that was administered to 112 Samoans attending health care facilities in New Zealand. RESULTS: Many participants had little understanding of antibiotics. Less than 2% identified the correct purpose for antibiotics, and 66% thought they were used to relieve pain. Respondents regarded a wide range of medicines (including some which they regularly took) as antibiotics. They frequently attributed colds and flu to environmental conditions (96%), and regarded antibiotics as a useful treatment for them (81%). They reported stopping taking antibiotics before finishing the course. Very few (8%) were aware of antibiotic resistance. DISCUSSION: Health care practitioners cannot assume that patients share a Western scientific understanding of which illnesses are caused by microbes, or what antibiotics are or do. People may have significant confusion about the medicines they take. Samoans, whether they are born in New Zealand or not, may hold traditional Samoan views about health and illness. KEYWORDS: Antibiotics, lay knowledge, URTI (upper respiratory tract infections), Samoa, New Zealand

A recent special section on cultural diversity across the Pacific, in this journal, highlighted the need for greater alignment between human services and cultural diversity in the region. Alignment entails detailing a local context. Samoan cultural constructs of emotion, particularly anger and shame, may precede suicidal behaviours among New Zealand-born (NZ-born) Samoan youth. These behaviours can stem from perceived ruptures in family unity, as youth partly identify with majority norms. A barrier to integration faced by acculturating youth is that the young person either lives with the shame of their offence, or avoids it by taking their life. It seems Samoan cultural constructs of emotion must be considered in effective service delivery for this population. Consistent with the articles in the special section, suicide prevention should focus on developing culturally competent tools tailored for NZ-born Samoan youth, so they may communicate their feelings without fear of disrupting cultural prescriptions and expectations, as well as functioning successfully in both the Samoan and Western worlds. Although the point is discussed in relation to one special population in the Pacific region, it is consistent with an emergent theme in the special section and subsequent commentaries: the need to integrate and acculturate human services.

AIM: To scope future needs of the NZ Pacific primary care workforce. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews with key informants including Pacific primary care workers in both Pacific and mainstream primary health care organisations and managers at funding, policy and strategy levels. Qualitative thematic analysis using general inductive approach. RESULTS: Thirteen stakeholders interviewed (four males, nine females) in 2006. Included both NZ- and Island-born people of Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Fijian and NZ European ethnicities; age 20–65 years. Occupations included general practitioner, practice nurse, community worker, Ministry of Health official and manager representing mainstream and Pacific-specific organisations. Key themes were significant differences in attributes, needs and values between ‘traditional’ and contemporary Pacific people; issues regarding recruitment and retention of Pacific people into the primary health care workforce; importance of cultural appropriateness for Pacific populations utilising mainstream and Pacific-specific primary care services and both advantages and disadvantages of ‘Pacific for Pacific’ services. CONCLUSION: Interviews demonstrated heterogeneity of Pacific population regarding ethnicity, age, duration of NZ residence and degree of immersion in their culture and language. Higher rates of mental disorder amongst NZ-born Pacific signpost urgent need to address the impact of Western values on NZ-born Pacific youth. Pacific population growth means increasing demands on health services with Pacific worker shortages across all primary health care occupations. However it is not possible for all Pacific people to be treated by Pacific organisations and/or by Pacific health workers and services should be culturally competent regardless of ethnicity of providers. KEYWORDS: Pacific Islands, New Zealand, manpower, ethnic groups, Oceanic Ancestry Group, primary health care

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is considered a satellite virus that requires hepatitis B virus surface antigen for infectivity. HDV is endemic in some Pacific Island (PI) countries, including Kiribati and Nauru, with a unique genotype 1, “Pacific clade.” The aims of this study were to determine the HDV genotypes in New Zealand and investigate the link of strains to other PI countries and the rest of the world through phylogenetics. Sequencing and phylogenetic analyses were performed on 16 HDV-positive serum samples from 14 individuals collected between 2009 and 2014 at Auckland Hospital. Thirteen of 14 strains were confirmed as genotype 1 and 1 was genotype 5. Eleven of the 13 genotype 1 strains clustered with the Pacific clade. These were isolated from subjects born in Samoa, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and Niue. Another genotype 1 strain isolated from a Maori health-care worker clustered most closely with a European strain. There was an African genotype 1 and genotype 5 from African-born subjects with HIV coinfection. This study supports the probable transmission of HDV Pacific clade around the PI from Micronesia to Polynesia. The data also confirm the need to screen hepatitis B surface antigen-positive individuals for HDV.

Joan Faoagali is remembered by many microbiologists as a Director of Microbiology at Royal Brisbane Hospital from 1985 to 2006 and then Princess Alexandra Hospital from 2006. Born in New Zealand in 1940 as Joan Wilson, Joan married her first husband, Malaki Faoagali in 1964. After graduating with her medical degree from Otago University and then undertaking her junior training in Invercargill, in 1968 her young family travelled to Samoa by ‘banana boat’. Joan soon realised that an unmet need in Samoa was pathology so she returned to New Zealand in 1969 to undertake pathology/microbiology training. By 1974, Joan had been appointed as Director of Microbiology at Christchurch Hospital.

Throughout my childhood upbringing, the term Indigenous was never once used in my household. I identify myself as a Samoa, Maori woman. If someone were to ask me of my birthplace, Aotearoa would be the first name I reply with before New Zealand. My father, a proud Samoa man, who acknowledges his village of birth being Papasataua, Savaii born o n the island of Samoa; is how he introduces himself. My beautiful mother, who identifies herself as mana wahine born Manaia, Taranaki. A child of the Whakatutu, Tepania whanau line. Both of my parents never used the terms Indigenous or indigeneity to introduce who they are, or as a sentence starter to explain their connection to land, sea or people. In recent years, it has come to my attention the term Indigenous, is not only spoken often in and around my place of study; but also, printed several times within the tertiary provider’s prospectus. I begin to think; now is an excellent time to explore and look at the relevance, of the term concerning the New Zealand context, field of practice and I as a practitioner. It is with hopes my findings and personal views, help you the reader, start to think and really look at the types of words people place on you. After all, who likes being called names. Instead I, myself give the right to a name; then have a n ame give its power to define me.

I kid you not. This is a time in Pacific regional history where as a middle-aged Tongan woman with European, Maori, and Samoan ancestries who was born and raised in New Zealand, I teach students taking my undergraduate papers how not to go about making stereotypical assumptions. The students in my classes are mostly Maori and Pakeha (white, European) New Zealanders. They learn to interrogate typecasts produced by state policy, media, and academia classifying the suburbs of South Auckland as overcrowded with brown people, meaning Pacific Islanders; overburdened by non-communicable diseases, like obesity and diabetes; and overdone in dismal youth statistics for crime and high school drop-outs. And then some well-meaning but incredibly uninformed staff members at the university where I am a senior lecturer have a bright idea to give away portions of roast pig on a spit to Pacific Islanders at the South Auckland campus open day. Who asked the university to give us free roast pig? Who asked us if this is what we want from a university that was planted out South in 2010 to sell degrees to a South Auckland market predicted to grow to half a million people, largely young people, in the next two decades? (AUT University, 2014). Who makes decisions about what gets dished up to Pacific Islanders in South Auckland, compared to what their hopes might be for university education prospects? To rephrase Julie Landsman’s essay, how about “confronting the racism of low expectations” that frames and bounds Pacific Islanders in South Auckland when a New Zealand university of predominantly Palangi (white, European) lecturers and researchers on academic staff contemplate “closing achievement gaps?” (Landsman, 2004). Tackling “the soft bigotry of low expectations” set upon Pacific Islanders getting into and through the university system has prompted discussion around introducing two sets of ideas at Auckland University of Technology (The Patriot Post, 2014). First, a summer school foundation course for literacy and numeracy on the South campus, recruiting Pacific Islander school leavers wanting to go on to study Bachelor’s degrees. Previously, the University of Auckland had provided bridging paths designed for young Pacific peoples to step up to degree programmes (Anae et al, 2002). Second, the possibility of performing arts undergraduate papers recognising a diverse and youthful ethnoscape party to an Auckland context of theatre, drama, dance, music, Maori and Pacific cultural performance, storytelling, and slam poetry (Appadurai, 1996). Although this discussion is in its infancy and has not been feasibility scoped or formally initiated in the university system, it is a suggestion worth considering here. My inquiry is frank: Why conflate performance and South Auckland Pacific Islanders? Does this not lend to a clichéd mould that supposes young Pacific Islanders growing up in the ill-famed suburbs of the poor South are naturally gifted at singing, dancing, and performing theatrics? This is a characterisation fitted to inner-city Black American youth that has gone global and is wielded to tag, label, and brand urban Pacific Islanders of South Auckland. Therefore, how are the aspirational interests of this niche market reflected in the content and context of initiatives with South Auckland Pacific Islander communities in mind?

This thesis is about factors which aid and hinder successful completions for New Zealand-born Samoans. The thesis explores the proposition that educational marginalisation of minority students will be perpetuated until AUT adopts policies and procedures which enable culturally responsive educational pedagogies and practices which honour indigenous minorities. The thesis asked New Zealand-born Samoan students, what is the nature of their aiga (family) and cultural support frameworks (structures), and, further, to what extent and how and why do these students engage with such networks (processes)? This study used a qualitative approach within which six New Zealand-born Samoan students were interviewed using a semi-structured approach to gathering data. The interview data were transcribed and a thematic analysis was manually completed both within and across the six cases. The turnaround time in gaining ethics approval impacted upon the capacity of the investigator to conduct this research in what she considered to be a culturally appropriate manner and the cautious vigilance of the final ethics committee approval was perceived as a barrier to making culturally appropriate contact. It was discovered that Samoan structures, especially family, are paramount in supporting educational success because of the Fa’a Samoa processes which they engender. A further discovery was that New Zealand-born Samoans retain cultural affiliations so their lifestyle shows deep regard for Fa’a Samoa identity. Through these affiliations, meaningful life metaphors become applied. It was concluded that transforming staff so that they understand Pasifika peoples is crucial to growing Pasifika educational success. Staff development must, therefore, be planned so that meaningful understandings of Pasifika concepts and frameworks become nurtured and that is a challenge which AUT must embrace and action.

This thesis is about factors which aid and hinder successful completions for New Zealand-born Samoans. The thesis explores the proposition that educational marginalisation of minority students will be perpetuated until AUT adopts policies and procedures which enable culturally responsive educational pedagogies and practices which honour indigenous minorities. The thesis asked New Zealand-born Samoan students, what is the nature of their aiga (family) and cultural support frameworks (structures), and, further, to what extent and how and why do these students engage with such networks (processes)? This study used a qualitative approach within which six New Zealand-born Samoan students were interviewed using a semi-structured approach to gathering data. The interview data were transcribed and a thematic analysis was manually completed both within and across the six cases. The turnaround time in gaining ethics approval impacted upon the capacity of the investigator to conduct this research in what she considered to be a culturally appropriate manner and the cautious vigilance of the final ethics committee approval was perceived as a barrier to making culturally appropriate contact. It was discovered that Samoan structures, especially family, are paramount in supporting educational success because of the Fa’a Samoa processes which they engender. A further discovery was that New Zealand-born Samoans retain cultural affiliations so their lifestyle shows deep regard for Fa’a Samoa identity. Through these affiliations, meaningful life metaphors become applied. It was concluded that transforming staff so that they understand Pasifika peoples is crucial to growing Pasifika educational success. Staff development must, therefore, be planned so that meaningful understandings of Pasifika concepts and frameworks become nurtured and that is a challenge which AUT must embrace and action.

This chapter explores the family history of Ta’isi, the course of his marriage, the birth of his six children to Rosabel and the bringing into his family unit of his first born daughter, Lucy. It tracks the economic rise of Ta’isi as a businessman in the Sāmoan Islands and the prominent role he took to as an interlocutor with German administrators about the running of German Samoa. It then tracks the seismic effects of World War One and its aftermath on Sāmoa. World War One brought an abrupt end to German rule that was replaced by a New Zealand military occupation in 1914. The effects of the Great War were both enormously beneficial to Ta’isi as a businessman, but it also brought the devastating aftermath of the 1918 influenza epidemic that killed over 20% of Samoa’s population, including Ta’isi’s mother, sister, brother, sister-in-law and his beloved only son. This chapter traces these events and their effects on Ta’isi, showing how they led him into an activist role within Sāmoa.