In the past four decades, hundreds of Tongans have adopted Oamaru as their home. Shannon Gillies talks to community leaders about the Tongan experience in North Otago.
Oamaru might be the last place you would expect to find a big crowd of Tongans.
There are hardly white sandy beaches lined with swaying palm trees, but it is small, close to the sea and there is a good, sturdy community with values akin in many ways to those of Tongan society.
Tongan families are putting down roots in the town in the belief their children have a bright future in North Otago.
Families first started coming to Oamaru in the 1970s when a local engineering company brought in some workers on short-term contracts.
Some of them settled and stayed, and since then Tongan migrants have come to Oamaru to work, play rugby or join other family members.
Some say there are as many as 1000 people who identify as Tongan living in Oamaru today.
The number of churches is growing, schools are introducing cultural programmes and sports teams are increasingly boosted by Tongan players.
Tongan is the most common first language in Oamaru, after English.
Official figures show a Pasifika population in Oamaru of around 400.
The manager of Pasifika support group Fale Pasifika O Aoraki, Ofa Boyle, suggests that is too low and says it might be because Oamaru was picked to be the electronic trial for the 2013 Census and many Tongans did not find the technology user-friendly.
Also, some may not have understood the importance of the census so did not take part.
Her group believes about 1000 of the 2000 or so Pasifika people in Oamaru now identify as Tongan.
"It’s growing so much we sometimes call Oamaru the mini Auckland, the mini Otara."
Tongan people come to Oamaru for a variety of reasons, but many initially came for rugby.
Hotili Asi, a social worker with Fale Pasifika, arrived in Oamaru in 2001 to play for North Otago.
He later left to play in Scotland and England but returned to Oamaru in 2015 to be closer to his two sons, who had rugby scholarships at Otago Boys’ High School in Dunedin.
It is a path well trod — the Oamaru Old Boys rugby club’s membership is roughly 95% Pasifika.
Mr Asi says many Tongans view coming to New Zealand to play rugby as a way to upskill so they can go back to Tonga and represent their country.
Many also see rugby as a way to stay in New Zealand and find work.
Also in the Waitaki because of rugby is Tongan-born Oamaru Pacific Charitable Trust chairwoman ‘Api Fifita, who returned to Oamaru in 2010 with her husband Tevita, who had been been playing rugby in Japan.
Mr Fifita played for North Otago in 2003 and 2004, and when Mrs Fifita arrived in Oamaru, she fell in love with the town.
She says she liked the laidback lifestyle and thought it would be a good place to raise children.
She says most Tongans in North Otago settled in Oamaru for similar reasons.
Only one or two families live outside the main centre, which appeals because its community and environment is similar to Tonga, she says.
"This is more like back home. It’s safe. It’s laidback. It’s not like Auckland. It’s close to the sea."
Accommodation is cheaper compared with other towns, though costs are on the rise.
Most Tongan men work at the Pukeuri freezing works, while women predominantly work either at the works or as carers, she says.
Ivan Docherty, operations manager at Alliance’s Pukeuri freezing says the company employs about 100 Pasifika people at the works, who make a great contribution to the culture of the plant and the local community.
"They have an outstanding work ethic and enthusiasm."
• But rapid demographic change is never easy.
The Tongan community is integrating relatively well into the rural South Island service town, though racism from some residents persists, Mrs Fifita says.
Taunts can still be heard from the sidelines at sports events, and some Tongans feel they have missed out on promotions and opportunities at work and at school, sometimes due to language barriers.
"Sometimes the slogans and labelling doesn’t come from the kids — it comes from the teachers.
"Sometimes they may not see our Pasifika kids . . . [as] smart enough in the classroom; they’re only good on the field in sports. Same in workplaces."
Some older Oamaru people, too, are still reserved in how they interact with Tongans.
"With us, we smile at people. With people here, you smile at them — they don’t smile back."
Mr Asi recalls he and some of HIS family members being targeted by racists when they arrived in town.
He woke one day to find a coconut left by his door with "go back home" scribbled on it.
"There wasn’t many Tongans here at the time and I didn’t want to disturb people.
"I just said to my wife, ‘Let’s just learn what they do here and live here,’ and after one or two years, nothing happened ... a few things happened at school with my kids, but it was calming down."
It is something families deal with as best they can, says Mrs Fifita.
Working on enhancing the relationships between Waitaki’s Tongan and Palagi (New Zealand Pakeha) communities is a new group, North Otago Tonga Engagement (Note).
Created this year by Presbyterian minister the Rev Jill McDonald, it aims to foster closer relationships by bringing people together to work on projects.
Ms McDonald and a small team, including Waitaki Tongan Community president Talanoa Palu, have been in Tonga for the past fortnight building water tanks in a small village.
That is Note’s biggest project to date but some work has also been done on a landscaping project at Friendly Bay.
In a recent newsletter, Ms McDonald said while there would obviously be a great deal of benefit for the people of Tonga from the projects, the relationships developed in North Otago were first and foremost the focus.
It is no coincidence that a church minister is leading the charge on that sort of effort.
In Tongan society, church leaders are community leaders. Church life is central to many Tongans and Tongan churches are growing apace in Oamaru — eight operate so far.
Tonga is one of the more observant Christian nations on the planet, says Oamaru Assemblies of God minister, the Rev Lawrence Lenati.
"Everywhere you find Tongans, they will always be associated with a church."
• Mrs Palu last year made a submission to the Waitaki District Council in which she pointed out that many Pasifika adults had Tongan as a first language, and asked the council to employ a Tongan speaker and make some of their communications available in the language.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said the council, in response, introduced a language translation service on the council website and was looking at creating spaces for people who had difficulty with English to ask for help or to fill in forms with the aid of translators.
The increase in the Tongan population in Oamaru is part of a general broadening of ethnicities across North Otago, he says.
While that brings challenges in some respects, it is also bringing opportunity.
People, for example, are coming to work in industries where there is an ongoing need for workers, such as at the local freezing works and the care sector.
Overall, having so many Tongans in the community is a positive thing.
"We’re now at that stage where we’re looking at how we further integrate Tongan and Pacific Islanders, and other ethnicities, into our community and make sure they’re taking part in as much we do as possible."
Local government elections are approaching, and while no-one of Tongan, or even Pasifika, descent is nominated, he believes interest from the Tongan community in local governance is increasing.
He has had some discussions with members of the Tongan community about representation and thinks it is something that will happen in time.
"And that’s great. It’s a significant part of our community and we want a council that reflects our community.
"They’re all ratepayers and it gives them a voice and ability to let us know what they want, the same as anyone else."
But that could be a while yet.
Mrs Boyle says Tongans are still finding their feet in Oamaru. Once the community feels established, it will focus on the future, meaning Tongan representation will likely be a next-generation role.
