This year, our school’s Pasifika Council was blessed with the opportunity to coordinate our very first Pasifika Languages Week at BDSC! The week was jam-packed with many activities related to Pacific Island culture including crafts workshops, dance performances, as well as a food sale with some of our Pacific Island’s finest dishes and comforting favourites.
The Pasifika Language Week was created to recognize, celebrate and uplift our Pasifika community here at BDSC. Pasifika students make up just about five percent of the school’s population. In 2023, the Pasifika Council had recognized how Pacific Islander students were unable to celebrate heritages during respective language weeks such as Samoan Language Week and Tongan Language Week. This was due to numerous reasons. However, this year, under the leadership of Mel Vaka 13J5 and the support of the Pasifika Council members, we had a week dedicated to celebrating the beautiful languages of the Pacific nations.
Pasifika ethnicities in our school like Cook Islanders, Niuean, Tokelauans, and more also could not have the opportunity to celebrate our language weeks due to our smaller population at school. We wanted to unite and help our Pasifika students embrace their heritage more at school, as well as promote and educate others who weren’t quite familiar with our culture.
Each day of the week was allocated to the five largest Pacific Island populations at our school to be celebrated: Tonga, Niue, Cook Islands, Fiji, and Samoa. Students and teachers were encouraged to celebrate these nations by using their language throughout the day, showcasing their flags around the school, promoting their individual culture, and delivering a speech to the school using their language on the intercom every morning of the week.
Workshops unique to the Pasifika culture were hosted during lunchtimes on Monday and Wednesday. Monday’s workshop was about teaching students about tapa cloth designs, the meanings behind it and encouraging them to create their own design special to them. Wednesday’s workshop taught students how to craft their own Lolly leis (a garland of lollies). Lolly leis are a unique part of islander tradition and are also very universal among the Pacific Islands. They are mostly made to be given to someone celebrating a special occasion.
On Tuesday and Thursday, our proud Pasifika students showcased and performed dances from different island nations. This included a Siva Samoa, Tongan Ta’olunga, and Cook Island Ori. Pacific island dances are all distinguishable from other islands and tell a story through its actions. Dances hold deep significance to our culture and are usually performed for special occasions and to celebrate life.
The week concluded strong with a food sale involving all kinds of delicious and common islander cuisine. Comfort foods such as chop suey/sapa sui, panikeke, suafa’i, raro drinks, cupcakes decorated with pacific island flags, and lolly leis were sold during lunchtime.
We hope our BDSC Pasifika Community felt more heard and embraced through Pasifika Week, and we thank everyone for joining us in celebrating Pasifika Week and Pacific Island culture. The Pasifika Council deeply appreciated all the love, support and encouragement we received in making the Pasifika Language week a success.
~ Pasifika Council 2024
