'Unstoppable' boom in Pasifika graduates

The number of Pasifika students graduating from the University is predicted to soar from just over 100 this year to around 500 in 2020.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Maori and Pasifika) Professor Sir Mason Durie told the special ceremony to honour 36 Pasifika graduates in Manawatu yesterday that they were part of an unstoppable movement. "That will see your numbers magnified several times over in the next decade," Sir Mason said.

A decade ago, fewer than 20 students of Pacific Island origin graduated from Massey, he said. Given that 107 will have graduated this year across the University's three campuses, he was confident the number could expand to 500 in the next decade due to excellent role models, strong academic leadership focussed on encouraging more Pacific research, and strong Pasifika communities and families who are supporting and encouraging students.

"We want to have Pasifika graduates who can foot it with the best in the country and internationally, and who are making a difference to their communities at home and across the globe."

Guest speaker was former All Black Va'aiga Tuigamala, who told the audience it took courage to undertake university study. From a large family that emigrated from Samoa to Invercargill in the early 1970s, Mr Tuigamala said: "I never passed anything at school except a rugby ball, but I'm proud of who I am."

His father worked for the railways and his mother at the local freezing works. When his father died aged 48, his mother bought three sewing machines and taught her children to sew, instilling in them a list of "Ps" to guide them through life, including purpose, preparation, patience, perseverance, people and prayer. Mr Tuigamala said being the first full-blooded Pacific Island All Black was a huge personal achievement and a source of pride, and was his way of giving back to his people.

The University's Pasifika Director, Professor Sitaleki Finau, urged graduates to think immediately about what they can do for their communities. "Don't wait till you get to the top before working for Pacific people," he said.

Lyric tenor Benjamin Makisi, a Wellington-born Tongan introduced as "the Pacific Island Pavarotti", received a standing ovation for his performance of Nessun Dorma, from Puccini's Turandot.
He also sang Somewhere, from the musical West Side Story.

University Chancellor Dr Russ Ballard and Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey awarded certificates to the graduates, of whom just over half gained postgraduate qualifications. Graduates were from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga and Tuvalu, and received degrees from the Colleges of Business, Education, Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences.