About+Us

=**Who are we? We are the Bilingual Leo/ Reo Pacific Coalition : Pacific Languages in Education**=

Photo Taken by @vanschaijik Some members of the executive with researchers


 * We are the cousins/ fanau of our Maori community. We just 'got off' the waka earlier.We have very strong; language, culture, history, genelogy,... links with NZ Maori fanau who came to Aotearoa. We are fanau.

Each of our Pasifika cousins have their own stories to tell. Bilingual Leo Pacific is made up of Pasifika organsations, Educators, Community Members, MPs, Parents, church and community leaders, Human Rights organisations, and other supporters from Aotearoa, the Realm of New Zealand and world wide.
 * We are 2.8% of the teaching population, 7% of total population, 22%+ of the Auckland school population, and by 2035 will be 20% of the total New Zealand population

**Our communities have given us the task of seeking greater official recognition and raising the status and use of our Pacific languages in New Zealand.**
This formal recognition by the state is required in order to have Pasifika languages available in all schools through Bilingual Education and language teaching as a genuine option for families to choose if they wish. Recognition and policy is also required to ensure that the recent decision Govt made to cut all Pasifika reading materials for students who already understand and speak a Pacific language cannot be repeated and expanded. The risk is cuts for Pasifika peoples in all areas of society may follow due to our NO SPECIAL STATUS in NZ society different from migrants from other parts of the world.This Human RIghts breach ignores the fact that the legal Realm of NZ includes NIue, the Cook Islands and Tokelau and these families are all NZ citizens with language rights under NZ law and International Conventions and Declarations. Samoans and Tongans also have special relationship rights also according to the NZ Ministry of Justice (Pacific Peoples Constitutional Report, 2000). We are part of the fabric of NZ society, here to stay.

http://www.justice.govt.nz.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/publications/publications-archived/2000/pacific-peoples-constitution-report-september-2000/publication

We welcome your interest and support so this wiki was created as a resource for our Pasefika/ Pasifika/ Pacific communities and our supporters from throughout NZ, the Pacific and the wider world to share globally what is happening here in New Zealand. We are the voice for our Pasifika families and children who live in Aoteroa and the Realm of NZ -Niue, Kuki Airani, Tokelau, Samoa and Tonga [See for example to Finlayson's Park School's research on their unit.] report on this wiki Contact Us