Report by Pacific Media Watch
The loss of language is still a major concern for Pacific communities. With another year of language week celebrations almost over, the Auckland University of Technology has produced a series of videos to promote the languages.
Community engagement manager at AUT’s Manukau campus Jody Jackson-Becerra says the series urged young people to get involved.
“In the past lots of different cultural activities are done, which doesn’t necessarily reach many people, and so doing the videos and encouraging our Pacific students to attempt to speak a language, even if they were not confident, was a great way to promote the language.”
The project also gave a way for topical issues other than languages to be addressed, like in the Tuvalu language piece.
The issue of climate change was highlighted, which sparked interest in other Pacific youth.
Reporter/Editor: Alistar Kata, contributing editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch project.
Interviewees:
Jody Jackson-Becerra
Cynthia Patali
Mabel Muller
Video clip sources:
Auckland University of Technology
Sunpix/Tagata Pasifika
Visit Auckland
(CC) Pacific Media Centre, School of Communication Studies, AUT University, Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand. www.pmc.aut.ac.nz
