A Tongan fine arts graduate and a marine biologist in training are among five young leaders from New Zealand's Pacific community who were recognised at a ceremony at parliament last night.
Transcript
A Tongan fine arts graduate and a marine biologist in training are among five young leaders from New Zealand's Pacific community who were recognised at a ceremony at parliament last night.
The fifth Prime Minister's Pacific Youth Awards were held to recognise achievement and encourage success for young Pasifika in the arts, business, sport, leadership, and, for the first time, science.
Jamie Tahana was there.
The conch shell opened a gathering of leaders from New Zealand's Pacific community, dignitaries, business people, and the Prime Minister, John Key, into the grand hall of parliament last night.
They gathered to recognise the achievement of five young leaders from the country's Pacific community, whittled down from more than 150 entries.
The winner of the Leadership and Inspiration category was 17-year-old Leorida Peters, an Aucklander of Samoan descent, who also wins a trip to New York to see the UN Security Council.
A member of various community and church groups, Ms Peters was recognised for her drive to inspire her community to have their voice more heard more widely on the international stage.
LEORIDA PETERS: Empowering our people to be able to know and engage global issues and to be aware of what's going on around us, not only in our own nation but on a global stage at the same time because most of the forums and the conferences that I do go to, the Pacific community is under-represented and so that's why I really want to push more people into that area.
The winner of the arts and creativity award was Sione Faletau, an artist of Tongan descent who has just completed a Masters at Auckland's prestigious Elam School of Fine Arts.
The south Aucklander says through his work, he tries to portray the complex tension he feels in balancing his Tongan identity with that of a young person in a western country.
SIONE FALETAU: Back in the islands they have their ideas and, like, us islanders born in New Zealand there's always that tension that we're trying to sort of conform back to the ways of our people back in the islands. But then, there's always that tension trying to conform over to the ways of how we do things.
This year, for the first time, saw the introduction of a science category to encourage young people into a field the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs says the community is under-represented in.
The winner was Antony Vavia, a Marine Biology student of Cook Islands and Fijian heritage from south Auckland.
Mr Vavia says not many Pasifika enter the field, but with homelands affected by climate change and other issues, it's a field of great importance and opportunity to Pacific people.
ANTONY VAVIA: That's the thing, there's so much I could take, you know; conservation, aquaculture and, you know, sort of promote the ocean's importance and with that information sort of use it to enhance our Pacific communities and, you know, give back. I really hope that, no I don't hope that, I know that good things are going to come out of this.
Jarimar Schuster won the Sport and Fitness award and Grace Ligairi won the Business award.
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Sam Lotu-Iiga, says the event keeps getting better and shows how bright the future is for Pasifika youth.
The awards were started in 2010 as a way to highlight the talent pool of New Zealand's pacific community, which makes up more than seven percent of the population.
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