Podcasts about tagata pasifika

For our weekly catchup with the ACT Party's Simon Court, producer Evie spoke to Simon about mining and comments he made on X, formally Twitter, about the University of Canterbury pro-Palestine encampment. She also spoke with Spokesperson for Students for Justice in Palestine Canterbury, Matt, about the University of Canterbury encampment. For our weekly catchup with, Te Pāti Māori's Takutai Kemp, News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to Takutai about Māori wards and Kāinga Ora. They spoke to Senior Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Canterbury, Matthew Hobbs, about a study he led that demonstrates that most vape retailers are in the country's most deprived areas. They also spoke to Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Auckland, Jude MacArthur, about the concern with charter schools and assisting students who have a disability and/or are neurodivergent. Producer Ezra spoke to Senior Lecturer of Education at the University of Auckland, Dr Analosa Veukiso-Ulugia about the soaring Pokie machine profits in South Auckland. And he also spoke to Curator of I-M.S Arts, Iokapeta Magele-Suamasi, about her “South-Versed” exhibition and its exploration of diaspora for Tagata Pasifika and Tagata Ahia in Aotearoa.

Neueli Mauafu is of Samoan descent. He is a Journalist and reporter for Tagata Pasifika and a writer for TP+ (Tagata Pasifika Plus) An advocate for Samoa participating in sports worldwide Neueli is also the content creator for Sideline Samoa on Instagram. Follow Sideline Samoa here: https://www.instagram.com/sidelinesamoa/⁠ For more WesWes Network podcasts click here: https://linktr.ee/weswesnetwork --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/backofthe135/message

Over the weekend, Tagata Pasifika shared the story of Luka Gibb, the victim of a coward punch in April earlier this year.  Luka is currently staying at a rehabilitation centre, learning to walk & talk again, having suffered a brain injury. Luka, along with his wife Gene, share their experience with Brian on Pacific Days.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Pulu is a Tongan presenter and reporter for TVNZ's Tagata Pasifika, and for Pacific Media Network. None of his comments should reflect either company or brand. I'm kidding. He is a true servant of the Pacific community and has a real passion for keeping our community updated and well informed with the correct information. I apologise in advance this podcast has many laughs as it is nearly impossible to stay serious for more than 5 minutes. We talk about many different things and are eating lu sipi which is lamb that has been cooked in coconut cream and taro leaves. Thank you for your time bro, thank you for all you do for our Pacific people. Enjoy.

A nationwide research project has begun looking at low literacy and numeracy for Tagata Pasifika called "The Expression, Experiences & Transcendence of Low Skill for Aotearoa New Zealand". The research seeks to find out what types of learning programmes target Pacific people regarding literacy and numeracy & their effectiveness. do they work, why and why not?  Dr Betty Ofe-Grant is a NZ-born Pasifika lecturer and academic who works at AUT University, Management department and teaches Diversity, HRM, Co-operative Education and researches cultural issues regarding Tagata Pasifika and work. She is the project lead for the Pasifika component. To take part in this research project please contact Dr Betty on betty.ofe-grant@aut.ac.nz  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We know the voice and the face as a presenter on the Pasefika weekly tv show Tagata Pasefika and the Tongan language show right here on 531PI as well as on social media.  We here at Pacific Media Network call him the Mayor of Otahuhu.  But who is the man behind the aura that is  John or Sione Pulu?    John Pulu is from Holopeka – Ha‘apai & Kolomotu‘a – Nuku‘alofa, Tongatapu. John caught the bug for the industry since working with TAGATA PASIFIKA in 2005.  Since then, he continued on to study at Auckland University of Technology graduating in 2009 with a Bachelor of Communication Studies degree majoring in Television. John is particularly passionate about utilising the media as an outlet to convey the rich culture and heritage of Pacific people. This inspired his documentaries “Kava Commune” and “The Modern Afo of Tonga” which is influenced by his strong Tongan roots. Whilst completing his degree, John has worked as a part-time reporter covering news items for the Tongan community on T-News and also Pacific radio.  This earned him the Spasifik Prize and Storyboard Award for diversity Journalism in 2010. “I’m a firm believer that Pacific people deserve to be served by and represented in the media, highlighting social issues affecting their community.”    This is a goal that John aims to work towards since joining TAGATA PASIFIKA. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alistar Kata has been a reporter for Tagata Pasifika since 2016.  She is Cook Island/ Maori (Ngapuhi), hailing from the villages of Vaipae and Tautu in Aitutaki. Alistar found her love for journalism at high school, fascinated with the way media shapes and influences its audiences.   She graduated with a Bachelor of Communication Studies at AUT in 2013, then spent her Honours year studying media in Aarhus, Denmark. In 2015 she was the recipient of both the Spasifik Magazine Prize and Storyboard Award for Diversity Reporting, and the Radio New Zealand International Award for Asia-Pacific Journalism.  Alistar also worked as the producer of Pacific Media Network’s 531pi breakfast show in 2018. She has a particular interest in reporting on the social issues affecting Pacific people in New Zealand, delving into stories about housing, health, climate change and poverty.  This year she joined the team at Fair Go and we have the pleasure of having Star on the show with us. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oscar Kightley has brought his writing and performing talents to stage, television and the big screen. Along the way he has been a key player in bringing Pasifika stories into New Zealand's mainstream.Born in the Samoan capital, Apia, as Vai To'elau Osa Isa'ako Mase, Kightley emigrated to Aotearoa at age four, after the death of his father. He grew up with an aunt and uncle, one of eight children in the West Auckland suburb of Te Atatu.At primary school, Kightley was "one of the shy kids", a keen reader who "had a rep as a smart-arse, kind of wise-cracking class clown. But I was never one of the performing kids". By age 15 Kightley he knew he wanted to be involved in comedy. Early influences included Eddie Murphy and John Clarke, "the first New Zealander that cracked me up".As a reporter at The Auckland Star, Kightley was encouraged to change his name from Osa to Oscar. His four years at the Star and The Sunday Star-Times provided  "a university education on what Kiwis are like". After short stints in radio and as a TV3 publicist, he headed down to Christchurch in his 1969 Valiant, to start his first ongoing television gig: co-presenting teen magazine show Life in The Fridge. A trip back to Samoa in this period proved potent — it reminded him that Samoans could be doctors and lawyers, as opposed to the Samoan cleaners he knew back in New Zealand.Theatre was also entering the picture: he got "invaluable comedy training" acting as part of Christchurch-based Pasifika group Pacific Underground. Much of their material was issues based; but the group ensemble discovered that "the shortest distance between two people is laughter".Through the rest of the 90s, Kightley's career continued to combine stage and television. On TV, he was developing his writing and performing talents on Gibson Group sketch shows Skitz, Telly Laughs and Newsflash. Kightley was invited to write for Skitz after producer Dave Gibson saw one of his plays; Kightley soon began writing himself into sketches.In-between TV gigs, "the master of self-deprecating immigrant humour" (as Diana Wichtel called him) was honing his storytelling skills on a series of plays that explored Pacific Island characters, usually as they adjusted to life in New Zealand. His first play, 1993's Fresh off the Boat (co-written with Simon Small, and starring David Fane) was performed in Australia and Samoa. In the same period Kightley wrote and directed family tale Dawn Raids (not to be confused with documentary Dawn Raids), and won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award.That same year Kightley launched The Naked Samoans, with original members David Fane, Mario Gaoa and Shimpal Lelisi. The group of New Zealand-raised Pacific Islanders mined comedy from their experiences of growing up brown and misunderstood, in the world's largest Polynesian city. Kightley argues that they had a devil may care, "kamikaze approach. We weren't the polite Polynesian group". Extended excerpts from the group's live shows (plus interviews) feature in this Tagata Pasifika episode, while this Living Room episode catches them at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 1999 Kightley was invited to work as a storyliner on Shortland Street, an experience that proved helpful when animated series bro'Town began, five years later. Shortland Street "gave me the discipline of writing stories and helped so much in the mechanics of writing 30-minute episodes. There are no schools that teach you those skills."After watching many Naked Samoan shows, Kightley's ex Auckland Star colleague Elizabeth Mitchell decided that the group's portrayal of polynesian teens might work as an animated TV series. bro'Town's portrait of un-PC Pasifika and Māori kids proved a major hit, spawning five seasons. Kightley played Vale Pepelo, brother to Shimpal Lelisi's character, and the most studious member of the five. Kightley shared the script table (and the recording booth) with Mitchell and fellow Naked Samoans Lelisi, Fane and Gaoa. Kightley calls Mitchell the show's "forgotten hero", who kept the team motivated and the machinery of an animated show on track. He talks in detail about bro'Town (and the complications of being expected to represent a minority) in this extended interview, shot for 2019 TV series Funny As. Midway through their bro'Town adventure, The Naked Samoans ventured onto the big screen with 2006 hit Sione's Wedding. Centred around four 30-something males with an urgent deadline to find a girlfriend, Sione was another breakthrough for Pasifika characters on screen; Kightley remembers appreciative audiences ranging from a Polish film festival, to a Pākehā student from a high decile Christchurch school. Sione's Wedding quickly became the most commercially-successful Kiwi comedy released on home soil (at least until the 2010 rise of Taika Waititi's Boy).Aside from being asked to co-write Sione with James Griffin, Kightley appeared on-screen as the bumbling but sensible Albert. "Oscar didn't want to be anyone, and had to be kind of slapped around a bit before he fell into Albert," says Griffin. "He was always destined to be Albert in my mind." According to Kightley, the character's naiveté means that he needs everything explained to him "in triplicate, with memos ... including which girl likes him, and which girl he likes ... if I knew I would be playing him I would have made Albert much cooler. I would definitely have given him better clothes." Sione's 2 - Unfinished Businessbecame a rare Kiwi sequel when it was released in January 2012.Kightley followed it by starring in gritty 2013 police drama Harry, which he co-wrote with director Chris Dudman and real life detective Neil Grimstone. Kightley plays a troubled Samoan-Kiwi detective dealing with a meth-fuelled crimewave, while raising a teenage daughter. To those questioning why he'd taken on such a serious role, Kightley maintained that he "got work in comedy because that was the work I was offered, but I'm quite a serious person generally". Calling the show great, gritty and grimy, The NZ Herald's Paul Casserly praised its lead actor. "Kightley is believable ... You buy him."After co-directing a video ('Just Roll') for hip-hop musician PNC in 2006, Kightley went on to helm video 'Walk Right Up', for rising talent Ladi6. In 2013 he wrote and directed short film Tom's Diary, which follows a Bob Marley-mad Samoan teenager in 80s-era West Auckland. It was nominated for four Moa awards, including Best Film, Script and Actor (for Mac Kaisuva). A movie version is in development. Kightley directed the second season of Madeleine Sami comedy Super City. In 2019 it was announced that he would direct feature-length documentary Dawn Raid, about the Otara-born, Polynesian music label of the same name.As a presenter, Kightley has fronted up for Elizabeth Mitchell directed Rooster Rooster Dragon Rat - Oscar's Guide to the Chinese Zodiac, in which he interviewed defenders and attackers of the zodiac. In 2019 he toured New Zealand in the path of American author Mark Twain, for TV series Following Twain. Other broadcasting gigs include TV3 rugby coverage, playing an old lady on comedy show Radiradirah, and breakfast presenting on Nui FM. Kightley has also been a frequent partner in crime to ex-Ice TV presenter Nathan Rarere. The two co-presented DNA-tracing documentary Made in Taiwan (which he talks about in this interview), sports show Sportzah, and quiz show Snatch Our Booty.In 2016 movie hit Hunt for the Wilderpeople, he won laughs as a bumbling policeman. He was part of the voice cast of Aroha Bridge in its second season, before joining the cast of 2020 Taika Waititi movie Next Goal Wins. A 2006 Arts Foundation Laureate Award winner and Qantas Award-winning journalist, Kightley was made a member of the NZ Order of Merit in 2009 for services to theatre and television, and a Senior Pacific Artist at the 2016 Arts Pasifika Awards. In early 2020 he began a three month Fullbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency in Hawai'i.

After getting a law and arts degree at Auckland University, Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa opted to pursue a career in filmmaking; he found law just a little "too exciting".  Utilising a decades worth of experience making television — including various roles on Tagata Pasifika — he wrote and directed self-funded movie Three Wise Cousins in 2015, Hibiscus and Ruthless in 2018 and Take Home Pay in 2019. Now after a challenging year for the film industry Stallone and his team have managed to complete a feature film in 30 days. Mama's Music Box will be out in cinema's on the 10th December 2020  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lisa Taouma is a Samoan New Zealand writer, film and television director, and producer.   Taouma began writing for the screen in 1996, for Tala Pasifika, specifically the episodes Brown Sugar and Talk of the Town.] She began working on Tagata Pasifika as a reporter and senior director. In 2014 she launched Polynesian online community Coconet.and produces a number of programmes for television including the popular 'Fresh TV' for TVNZ.  In 2018 she made the award winning documentary 'Marks of Mana' winning best documentary at the ImagineNative festival in Toronto 2018, Best Cinematography at DocEdge Festival in Aotearoa 2019.  And this year Lisa Taouma can add the Best Pasifika Programme which Marks of Mana won at the New Zealand TV Awards held in Auckland earlier this week.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seinafolava Sanele Chadwick has worked as a journalist for the past decade. He started in the TV3 Newsroom in Auckland as a reporter and has worked on Firstline, 6pm and Nightline. After a stint in the mainstream newsroom, Sanele left to pursue a career in long-form storytelling with the Tagata Pasifika crew in 2013. Since then he has shot, produced, directed and edited a number of television pieces and now works as a freelance content creator in Kapiti, Wellington. He is a graduate of the New Zealand Broadcasting School, where he was awarded the John Foy Memorial Award for excellence in radio news in 2011. He also has an Arts degree in film and religious studies from Victoria University. Sanele is of Samoan descent and holds the matai title Seinafolava from the village of Lano in Savai'i. He is from the villages of Afega and Lotofaga, Aleipata. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Pulu graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Communication Studies in Television from AUT University and joined the Tagata Pasifika team in 2010. While still at high school John was inspired to become a journalist through work experience on Tagata Pasifika. John has always been interested in Pacific issues and saw there was a lack of Pacific people working in the industry. “I am very honoured to represent Pasifika people and share our stories”. John is from the Kingdom of Tonga, Kolomotu‘a, Tongatapu and Holopeka, Ha‘apai with ties to Lau in the Fiji Islands.

It's been 30 years since Ngaire Fuata's remake of the 1967 Lulu hit 'To Sir With Love' stormed the NZ music charts, spending five weeks in the No 1 spot. Ngaire joins the show to discuss the one-hit wonder and how it all came about. 

It's been 30 years since Ngaire Fuata's remake of the 1967 Lulu hit 'To Sir With Love' stormed the NZ music charts, spending five weeks in the No 1 spot. Ngaire joins the show to discuss the one-hit wonder and how it all came about. 

  Marama Papau T-Pole  was born and raised in the South Island, in Dunedin, Timaru and later studying in Christchurch.  She has worked in Pacific media, including Radio531pi and Niu FM before joining the Tagata Pasifika team.     Marama presents the weekly show on TV One with John Pulu.  She's a proud Tuvaluan and lives in West Auckland with her husband and children.  She loves the arts and especially Tuvalu dance.  Her goal is to be fluent in Tuvaluan one day.   Marama T-Pole is on the line now Talofa and fa’akafetai lasi for making time for us this morning See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Moana Makapelu Lee is an indigenous reporter of Niuean, Maori and Cook Island descent.  She is passionate about Pasifika arts, culture, language and relishes opportunities to share stories.  Moana has experience in both linear (television) and photographic journalism and is confident in delivering to online platforms. She has worked for Maori TV, Cook Island News and is currently part of the team at Tagata Pasifika. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

Johnson Raela is a Broadcaster, Reporter, Media / Digital and Communications Specialist. Originally from South Auckland, Johnson is now based in Wellington. Hes worked on the TV Show What Now, hes been a host on Flava FM and has been a reporter on Tagata Pasifika. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/backofthe135/message

Today on the episode, I am joined by my cousin Alice Lolohea, who has worked in New Zealand media for 5+ years. She shares her journey from Pacific Media Works to her current job in Tagata Pasifika and her experiences as a Pasifika Woman finding her space in the media stream. She talks about her passion for film and future projects she hopes to undertake. So grab a spade, chuck on your gum boots and join us on the Thought Plantation Podcast! Malo Aupito

Star Kata is a tv journalist for Tagata Pasifika (https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/tagata-p...) and a radio producer for Radio 531PI (http://radio531pi.com/). She talks to us about how she began her career on the theatrical stage, her love of singing and her passion for giving voice to pacific island communities.