Pasifika New Zealanders

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Pasifika New Zealanders
  • Tagata Pasefika-Niu Sila
  • Fakatangata Pasifiki-Nuʻu Sila
Pacifica Mamas (GG reception) 04.jpg
Mary Ama and the Pacifica Mamas celebrating the Matairangi Mahi Toi arts residency at Government House
Total population
442,632 [1] (2023)
Regions with significant populations
Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton, Christchurch
Languages
New Zealand English, Samoan, Tongan, Cook Islands Māori, Fijian, Rotuman, Tokelauan, Niuean, Tuvaluan
Related ethnic groups
Tuvaluan New Zealander, Tongan New Zealanders, Pacific Islander Americans, Solomon Islander New Zealanders, Samoan New Zealanders, Papua New Guinean New Zealanders, Māori people, Māori Australians, Samoan Australians, Tongan Australians, Fijian Australians

Pasifika New Zealanders (also called Pacific Peoples [2] [3] ) are a pan-ethnic group of New Zealanders associated with, and descended from, the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands (also known as Pacific Islanders) outside of New Zealand itself. [lower-alpha 1] [4] They form the fourth-largest ethnic grouping in the country, after European descendants, indigenous Māori, and Asian New Zealanders. [5] Over 380,000 people identify as being of Pacific origin, representing 8% of the country's population, with the majority residing in Auckland. [4]

Contents

History

Prior to the Second World War Pasifika in New Zealand numbered only a few hundred. [6] Wide-scale Pasifika migration to New Zealand began in the 1950s and 1960s, typically from countries associated with the Commonwealth and the Realm of New Zealand, including Western Samoa (modern-day Samoa), the Cook Islands and Niue. [7]

In the 1970s, governments (both Labour and National), migration officials, and special police squads targeted Pasifika illegal overstayers. Pacific Studies academic Dr Melani Anae describes the Dawn Raids as "the most blatantly racist attack on Pacific peoples by the New Zealand government in New Zealand's history". [8]

Immigrant Pasifika families settled in the inner city suburbs of Auckland and other major cities in the country, when middle-class Pākehā families were tending to move outwards to newer, more distant suburbs. [7] Pasifika immigrants also tended to replace Urban Māori in central suburbs. [9]

By the mid-1970s, gentrification became an issue for Pasifika communities in Auckland. The cheap housing found in Ponsonby and other inner city Auckland suburbs were attractive to Pākehā young professionals, especially socially liberal families searching for a multicultural and urban lifestyle. [7] As these houses were purchased, the available rental stock plummeted, and Pasifika families who tended to rent more began to relocate to suburbs further out from the city centre. [7] The Pasifika populations in Ponsonby and Freemans Bay peaked in 1976. [7] Grey Lynn continued to have a large Pasifika population (particularly Samoan) until the mid-1980s. [7]

The umbrella term Pasifika, meaning "Pacific" in Polynesian languages, was first used by government agencies in New Zealand in the 1980s to describe all migrants from the Pacific islands and their descendants. [10] [3]

Demographics

Pacific peoples in 2018 Pacific peoples 2018 mapped.png
Pacific peoples in 2018
Pacific Islanders New Zealanders population pyramid in 2018 Pacific Islanders New Zealanders population pyramid in 2018.svg
Pacific Islanders New Zealanders population pyramid in 2018

There were 442,632 people identifying as being part of the Pacific Peoples ethnic group at the 2023 New Zealand census, making up 8.9% of New Zealand's population. [1] This is an increase of 60,990 people (16.0%) since the 2018 census, and an increase of 146,691 people (49.6%) since the 2013 census. Some of the increase between the 2013 and 2018 census was due to Statistics New Zealand starting to add ethnicity data from other sources (previous censuses, administrative data, and imputation) to the census data to reduce the number of non-responses. [11]

The median age of Pasifika New Zealanders was 24.9 years, compared to 38.1 years for all New Zealanders; 136,077 people (30.4%) were aged under 15 years, 123,828 (28.0%) were 15 to 29, 156,534 (35.4%) were 30 to 64, and 26,193 (5.9%) were 65 or older. [1]

At the 2018 census, there were 191,391 males and 190,254 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.006 males per female. The majority of Pasifika were born in New Zealand: 66.4% at the 2018 census, up from 62.3% at the 2013 census and 60.0% at the 2006 census. [12]

In terms of population distribution as at the 2023 census, 275,079 (62.1%) Pasifika New Zealanders lived in the Auckland region, 126,678 (28.6%) live in the North Island outside the Auckland region, and 40,845 (9.2%) live in the South Island. The Māngere-Ōtāhuhu local board area of Auckland had a majority Pasifika population at 60.4%, with the next highest concentrations in the nearby Ōtara-Papatoetoe local board area (48.7%) and Manurewa local board area (39.9%). Porirua City had the highest concentration of Pacific people outside of Auckland at 26.5%. The lowest concentrations of Pasifika New Zealanders are in northern Canterbury: the Kaikōura district had the lowest concentration at 1.0%, with the neighbouring Hurunui district having the second-lowest concentration at 1.3%. [1]

According to responses to the 2018 census, 91.6% of Pacific Peoples spoke English, and 37.8% spoke two languages. [13]

Ethnic origins

At the 2018 census, 59.4% of Pasifika reported belonging to a single ethnic group. [13] The largest Pacific Peoples ethnic groups – immigrants from a particular Pacific nation and their descendants – are Samoan New Zealanders (182,721 people), [14] Tongan New Zealanders (82,389), [15] Cook Island Māori (80,532), [16] and Niueans (30,867). [17]

In politics

Samoan-born Aupito William Sio currently holds the record for being the longest serving Pasifika MP, serving from 2008 to 2023 Su'a William Sio.jpg
Samoan-born Aupito William Sio currently holds the record for being the longest serving Pasifika MP, serving from 2008 to 2023

In 1993, Samoan-born Taito Phillip Field became the first Pasifika member of parliament (MP), when he won the Otara electorate seat for Labour. [18] Field was joined in 1996 by Samoan politicians Mark Gosche and Arthur Anae (the first Pasifika MP from the National Party), and by Winnie Laban in 1999. In 2008, Field left the Labour Party and formed the New Zealand Pacific Party, a short-lived political party aimed at representing conservative Christian Pasifika communities. [19]

For the 2008 New Zealand general election, Samoan-born Sam Lotu-Iiga was elected as MP for Maungakiekie, and was joined by Labour list MPs William Sio and Carmel Sepuloni, who was the first MP of Tongan heritage. In 2010, Kris Faafoi entered parliament by winning the 2010 Mana by-election, becoming the first MP of Tokelauan descent. In 2011, Alfred Ngaro became the first MP of Cook Island descent by winning the Maungakiekie electorate. Further Pasifika MPs entered parliament in the 2010s: Asenati Taylor for New Zealand First (2011), Christchurch East MP Poto Williams (2013), Manukau East MP Jenny Salesa (2014) and Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki (2017).

The 2020 New Zealand general election saw the largest cohort of Pasifika MPs entering parliament: Terisa Ngobi, Barbara Edmonds, Tangi Utikere, Neru Leavasa for the Labour Party, and the first Pasifika MP from the Green Party, Teanau Tuiono. [20] [21] 2023 saw Efeso Collins, formerly a member of the Auckland Council, joining as a member of the Green Party. [22]

The Auckland Council has had three Pasifika councillors since its founding in 2010: Alf Filipaina and former National MP Arthur Anae representing the Manukau ward since 2010, and Efeso Collins in 2016, replacing Anae's for the Manukau ward. In 2022, Collins unsuccessfully ran for the 2022 Auckland mayoral election. [23] [24] Collins entered parliament in 2023 as a member of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, serving until his death in February 2024. [22]

See also

Notes

  1. Note Pasifika does include indigenous peoples originating from other nations in the Realm of New Zealand, namely Niue, the Cook Islands and Tokelau; see § Ethnic origins.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Islander</span> Person from the Pacific Islands

Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oceania or any other island located in the Pacific Ocean.

Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group comprising closely related ethnic groups native to Polynesia, which encompasses the islands within the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Southeast Asia and are part of the larger Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, with an Urheimat in Taiwan. They speak the Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic subfamily within the Austronesian language family. The Indigenous Māori people form the largest Polynesian population, followed by Samoans, Native Hawaiians, Tahitians, Tongans, and Cook Islands Māori.

Arthur Anae is a New Zealand politician who served on the Auckland Council. He was an MP from 1996 to 1999, and again from 2000 to 2002. He was part of the National Party, being its first Pasifika MP.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Māori people</span> Indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Media Network</span> Radio station

The Pacific Media Network is a New Zealand radio network and pan-Pasifika national broadcasting network, currently owned and operated by the National Pacific Radio Trust and partly funded by the Government. It includes the PMN 531 radio network, PMN News and Auckland-only broadcast station PMN NIU combined are accessible to an estimated 92 percent of the country's Pacific population. The network targets both first-generation Pacific migrants and New Zealand-born people with Pacific heritage. As of 2009, it was the only specifically pan-Pacific broadcaster in New Zealand.

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The dawn raids were crackdowns in New Zealand from 1973 to 1979 and then sporadically afterward on alleged illegal overstayers from the Pacific Islands. The raids were first introduced in 1973 by Prime Minister Norman Kirk's Labour government, who discontinued them in April 1974. However, they were later reintroduced and intensified by Rob Muldoon's Third National government. These operations involved special police squads conducting often aggressive raids on the homes and workplaces of overstayers throughout New Zealand, usually at dawn and almost exclusively directed at Pasifika New Zealanders, regardless of their citizenship status. Overstayers and their families were often prosecuted and then deported back to their countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanaki Prescott-Faletau</span> Tongan-New Zealand performer and director

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