Nelson and Tasman’s “growing” Tongan community could anticipate more support and recognition after the launch of a dedicated community trust.
Trust chair Pita ‘Akau’ola says the Kainga Tonga Nelson Tasman Community Trust, which launched at Founders Heritage Park on Saturday, has 11 board members and will primarily focus on bolstering local Tongan’s access to their language and education and health services.
“We have a lot of Tongans who were born here, and we want to make sure they have access to learning and training to speak our language… then we will set up a plan for Tongan Language Week on the first week of September,” he says.
“Most of our people who live here in Nelson and Tasman mainly work in the primary industry, some of the women are working in aged care, and some of our young guys who grew up here are starting to work in areas like the trades.
“So that’s one of our purposes, to make sure that our people can have a good job, especially through education or some other training.
“We have a Nelson Tasman Pacific Trust here that we set up a few years ago and it’s mainly a service for health, but for us as a Tongan community to lead our own mission for our Tongan people, we are the ones who know how to do that best.”
Pita says there were about 100 Tongan families who call both districts home and about 800 seasonal workers annually.
“I remember when I first came to Nelson in 1992 there were already Tongan families here, about eight of them, and now we have about 100 families in the Nelson and Tasman area, so our community is growing,” he says. “Those [RSE workers] who stay here and work in Nelson and our churches are supportive of them and they support us as well, because sometimes our churches invite them for some fundraising and at the same time our church ministers visit them to support them.”
Pita says the trust received $2000 from Nelson City Council, as well as financial support from Ministry for Pacific Peoples and Department of Internal Affairs for its launch. They will be seeking further funding to develop projects to put the local Tongan community in the spotlight.
