NEW ZEALAND – New Zealand’s Tongan Language Week has kicked off with a celebration of unity and culture in Wellington on Monday.

Tongan is the third-largest Pacific group in New Zealand with just over 60,000 people identifying as Tongan with most of them born in New Zealand.

More than 20 churches and community organisations were represented at the service beginning Uike Katoanga’i ‘o e Lea Faka-Tonga (Tongan Lngauge Week) , which featured numerous choral items.

A guest speaker at the event was Tailulu Lu’isa Fonua-Faeamani, clinical director of The Fono West health and social services agency in Auckland.

Dr Fonua-Faeamani says being able to speak Tongan helps her deal with many of her patients.

“They can understand, they can tell you what their needs are, rather than through a translator which is really, really important.

“We need more people in the health force who can communicate in different languages in order to provide for the Pacific people.

“They are very high need and they get all the bad statistics in terms of health so being able to communicate with them will be a step further in terms of helping them in the future.”

Dr Fonua-Faeamani says being able to speak Tongan helps people identify who they are and participate culturally.

She says she has noticed many New Zealand-born Tongan youth struggling with the language, and says it is up to older generations to help them feel comfortable at attempting Tongan.

“Parents needing to learn that they are the way to teach their children. You know, they can’t expect the children are just going to absorb it in. They have got to be involved as well so that is why you need to be addressing rom the really young right through to the old.”

Kolovula Murphy runs a weekly cultural programme and agrees that inter-generational interaction is important, saying she was proud of the children’s involvement at the Tongan Language Week event.

“Because even some of them they don’t understand yet, but they can hear the parents and also they grandparents, they are a really great help for them. That’s why they are playing around and enjoying themselves.” Nine-year-old Lisieli took part and says learning Tongan brings her extended family together.

“I get to spend time with the family. We have Tongan language school every Monday and we have celebrations there and we have lots of Tongan food.”

22-year-old Siaosi says Tongan Language week has brought the community closer together.

“We only see usually the Methodist if we are Methodist then we will just see the Wellington Methodists but for this it’s pretty much all the Tongan churches in Wellington, so it is good to see them all.”

17-year-old Falakia was born in New Zealand but schooled in Tonga. He says being able to speak Tongan means he can transition between the two countries seamlessly.

“The Tongan language stems from my culture and my country. It helps me to be Tongan because when I get to Tonga, I speak Tongan heaps.”

Kolovula Murphy says all Tongans need to work together to ensure their language and culture stays strong.

“It’s so special for all of us. Even Tongans they are born in New Zealand and those that were born in Tonga, back home. It’s a mixed culture but it’s so important for everyone to carry on the traditional inheritance, as we are Tongan.”

The week is being officially marked in Tongan communities from Auckland to Timaru in the south and ends on Saturday.

Fairfax News spoke to a few prominent Tongans to understand what their language and culture mean to them.

New All Black Ofa Tu’ungafasi lived in Tonga till he was 14 and has “a very good understanding of the culture”.

He says religion and food are very important.

“I still go to church weekly with my mum,” the former Mangere College student says. “I love my Tongan food but I can’t have it all the time. My favourite is taro leaves.”

His life as a professional rugby player keeps him busy but he recalls, “back at college was probably the only time I was involved with Tongan culture and dance, but with rugby, I’m always busy, and always away”.

“Respect,” he asserts, “is a very important value in our culture.”

Tongan language and culture has also played an essential role in the life of Manukau District Court public defence lawyer Ema Piutau.

“It has helped shape my identity and outlook on life,” the Mangere resident says. “It has provided me with values and attributes that are unique to Tongan people. This includes respect, humility, faith and treating people the way we would like to be treated.”

She says a few qualities unique to the Tongan people are “our love for celebrations and dancing, gold teeth and the wearing of mats called taovala. I am proud to be Tongan.”

Jenny Salesa is the first Tongan-born Member of Parliament, representing the Manukau East electorate and moved to New Zealand from Tonga as a 16-year-old.

She says her fluency in the language comes in handy every week in her electorate office.

“As Nelson Mandela famously said, ‘if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart’.

“Speaking Tongan helps me empathize more, understand and to listen well to this large Pacific constituency – and also in forging a modern, multicultural New Zealand that Kiwis can be proud of, which brings forth the richness that comes from our enormous diversity and celebrate it.”

- PNC sources