What assumptions do we make about them?

Where do you think she is from?What religion is she?

Mahinur Ozdemir: First Belgium MP to don the Hijab

Where do you think she is from?How would you describe her?

Jemaima Tiatia – A NZ born Pacific Islander

Karlo Mila, poet, born of Tongan, Palagi and Samoan descent.

“I am a Samoan – but not a SamoanTo my aiga in Samoa, I am a palagi [foreigner]I am a New Zealander – but not a New ZealanderTo New Zealanders, I am a bloody coconut, at worst,A Pacific Islander, at best,To my Samoan parents, I am their child.” 1

This verse encapsulates the paradox of identity for many New Zealand-born Samoans. In Samoan communities they are not ‘Samoan enough’; they are ‘fiapalagi’ (wanting to be like a European). In the wider New Zealand community Samoans have been taunted as ‘not New Zealanders’, ‘coconuts’, or ‘FOBs’ (fresh off the boat). These see-sawing perceptions may end for some in a secure self-identity, but for others in a state of confusion.

Jemaima Tiatia and Suresa GavetMany young Samoans face a conflict between the strict traditional values of respect for elders and church and their more liberal New Zealand experience. In Caught between cultures: a New Zealand-born Pacific Island perspective (1988) Jemaima Tiatia, a 24-year-old Auckland university student, wrote of this conflict after talking to 20 New Zealand-born Pacific Islanders. Here she shares a joke with her grandmother, Suresa Gavet.

•Why do Pacific Islanders come to New Zealand?•Where did they come from?•Where did they settle?

Click on these sites to check out the answers.http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/samoans/2

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/tongans/1

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/south-pacific-peoples/2