The world’s largest indigenous education conference has kicked off in Auckland, bringing with it thousands of indigenous educators from around the world.

About 3000 people were welcomed by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei for the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education 2025 (WIPCE) with a pōwhiri at the city’s waterfront on Sunday.

Around 3800 delegates are expected to attend the conference at the Aotea Centre over the week.

• READ MORE: Thousands gather for WIPCE 2025
• Other WIPCE reports

Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is hosting the event which is set to be the largest academic conference hosted in New Zealand this year.

WIPCE 2025 co-chair and AUT vice-chancellor Damon Salesa said it was an honour to host such an extraordinary range of speakers.

“Each kaikōrero brings their unique perspectives and knowledge. This conference is an opportunity to listen, learn and be inspired by those who continue to lead and shape Indigenous education across the world,” he said.

The four-day conference features keynote presentations from a number of Māori academics including educator Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, linguistic and cultural revilitalists Professor Leonie Pihama and Raniera Proctor, legal academic Eru Kapa-Kingi and Māori movie star Cliff Curtis.

There are also a number of break out sessions, guest speakers and panels discussions featuring academics from around the world.

WIPCE 2025 co-chair Meihana Durie said the gathering came at a pivotal time for indigenous education and indigenous rights.

“We are immensely grateful for the pōwhiri yesterday hosted by iwi manaaki, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, which highlighted the sheer importance of those themes within the unique dimensions of Indigenous ceremony, language and ritual.”

“WIPCE is the only educational platform designed specifically for native peoples from around the world to come together to share our stories, our challenges and our successes with each other.” he said.

Outside of the conference is the Te Ao Pūtahi, a free, public festival with live performances from Māori artists inlcluding kapa haka rōpu Ngā Tūmanako, Sons of Zion, Corrella, Jackson Owens and Betty-Anne and a number of food and gift stalls.

Twenty-one cultural excursions named Te Ao Tirotiro will also be held across the city, including an onboard waka sailing demonstration and a hāngi.

The conference ends on Thursday.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie was honoured with Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) at the weekend by the Governor-General, Dame Cindy Kiro, in an investiture ceremony at Government House Tāmaki Makaurau.

He was one of eight recipients for various honours, which included Joycelyn Armstrong, who was presented with Companion of the King’s Service Order (KSO) for services to interfaith communities.

Dr Robie’s award, which came in the King’s Birthday Honours in 2024 but was presented on Saturday, was for “services to journalism and Asia-Pacific media education”.

• READ MORE: Decolonisation, the climate crisis, and improving media education in the Pacific — Global Voices
• Investiture ceremony – video link, 24 May 2025

His citation reads:

Dr David Robie has contributed to journalism in New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region for more than 50 years.

Dr Robie began his career with The Dominion in 1965 and worked as an international journalist and correspondent for agencies from Johannesburg to Paris. He has won several journalism awards, including the 1985 Media Peace Prize for his coverage of the Rainbow Warrior bombing.

He was Head of Journalism at the University of Papua New Guinea from 1993 to 1997 and the University of the South Pacific in Suva from 1998 to 2002. He founded the Pacific Media Centre in 2007 while professor of journalism and communications at Auckland University of Technology.

He developed four award-winning community publications as student training outlets. He pioneered special internships for Pacific students in partnership with media and the University of the South Pacific. He has organised scholarships with the Asia New Zealand Foundation for student journalists to China, Indonesia and the Philippines.

He was founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review journal in 1994 and in 1996 he established the Pacific Media Watch, working as convenor with students to campaign for media freedom in the Pacific.

He has authored 10 books on Asia-Pacific media and politics. Dr Robie co-founded and is deputy chair of the Asia Pacific Media Network/Te Koakoa NGO. 

In an interview with Global Voices last year, Dr Robie praised the support from colleagues and student journalists and said:

“There should be more international reporting about the ‘hidden stories’ of the Pacific such as the unresolved decolonisation issues — Kanaky New Caledonia, ‘French’ Polynesia (Mā’ohi Nui), both from France; and West Papua from Indonesia.

“West Papua, in particular, is virtually ignored by Western media in spite of the ongoing serious human rights violations. This is unconscionable.”

Dr David Robie’s investiture.       Video: Governor-General’s blog

Ongoing wars and conflict around the world expose how international law and norms can be co-opted. With the US pulling out again from the Paris Climate Agreement, and other international commitments, this volatility is magnified.

And with the intensifying US-China rivalry in the Pacific posing the real risk of a new “arms race”, the picture becomes unmistakable: the international global order is rapidly shifting and eroding, and the stability of the multilateral system is increasingly at risk.

In this turbulent landscape, the Pacific must move beyond mere narratives such as the “Blue Pacific” and take bold steps toward establishing a set of rules that govern and protect the Blue Pacific Continent against outside forces.

• WATCH: The authors discuss this issue at an ANU Department of Pacific Affairs seminar on 5 March 2025
• Other Pacific geopolitics reports

If not, the region risks being submerged by rising geopolitical tides, the existential threat of climate change and external power projections.

For years, the US and its allies have framed the Pacific within the “Indo-Pacific” strategic construct — primarily aimed at maintaining US primacy and containing a rising and more ambitious China. This frame shapes how nations in alignment with the US have chosen to interpret and apply the rules-based order.

On the other side, while China has touted its support for a “rules-based international order”, it has sought to reshape that system to reflect its own interests and its aspirations for a multipolar world, as seen in recent years through international organisations and institutions.

In addition, the Taiwan issue has framed how China sets its rules of engagement with Pacific nations — a diplomatic redline that has created tension among Pacific nations, contradicting their long-held “friends to all, enemies to none” foreign policy preference, as evidenced by recent diplomatic controversies at regional meetings.

Confusing and divisive
For Pacific nations these framings are confusing and divisive — they all sound the same but underneath the surface are contradictory values and foreign policy positions.

For centuries, external powers have framed the Pacific in ways that advance their strategic interests. Today, the Pacific faces similar challenges, as superpowers compete for influence — securitising and militarising the region according to their ambitions through a host of bilateral agreements. This frame does not always prioritise Pacific concerns.

Rather it portrays the Pacific as a theatre for the “great game” — a theatre which subsequently determines how the Pacific is ordered, through particular value-sets, processes, institutions and agreements that are put in place by the key actors in this so-called game.

But the Pacific has its own story to tell, rooted in its “lived realities” and its historical, cultural and oceanic identity. This is reflected in the Blue Pacific narrative — a vision that unites Pacific nations through shared values and long-term goals, encapsulated in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.

The Pacific has a proud history of crafting rules to protect its interests — whether through the Rarotonga Treaty for a nuclear-free zone, leading the charge for the Paris Climate Agreement or advocating for SDG 14 on oceans. Today, the Pacific continues to pursue “rules-based” climate initiatives (such as the Pacific Resilience Facility), maritime boundaries delimitation, support for the 2021 and 2023 Forum Leaders’ Declarations on the Permanency of Maritime Boundaries and the Continuation of Statehood in the face of sea level rise, climate litigation through the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and a host of other rules-based regional environmental, economic and social initiatives.

However, these efforts often exist in isolation, lacking a cohesive framework to bring them all together, and to maximise their strategic impact and leverage. Now must be the time to build on these successes and create an integrated, long-term, visionary, Pacific-centric “rules-based order”.

This could start by looking to consolidate existing Pacific rules: exploring opportunities to take forward the rules through concepts like the Ocean of Peace currently being developed by the Pacific Islands Forum, and expanding subsequently to include something like a “code of conduct” for how Pacific nations should interact with one another and with outside powers.

Responding as united bloc
This would enable them to respond more effectively and operate as a united bloc, in contrast to the bilateral approach preferred by many partners.

Over time this rules-based approach could be expanded to include other areas — such as the ongoing protection and preservation of the ocean, inclusive of deep-sea mining; the maintenance of regional peace and security, including in relation to the peaceful resolution of conflict and demilitarisation; and movement towards greater economic, labour and trade integration.

Such an order would not only provide stability within the Pacific but also contribute to shaping global norms. It would serve as a counterbalance to external strategic frames that look to define the rules that ought to be applied in the Pacific, while asserting the position of the Pacific nations in global conversations.

This is not about diminishing Pacific sovereignty but about enhancing it — ensuring that the region’s interests are safeguarded amid the geopolitical manoeuvring of external powers, and the growing wariness in and of US foreign policy.

The Pacific’s geopolitical challenges are mounting, driven by climate change, shifting global power dynamics and rising tensions between superpowers. But a collective, rules-based approach offers a pathway forward.

Cohesive set of standards
By building on existing frameworks and creating a cohesive set of standards, the Pacific can assert its autonomy, protect its environment and ensure a stable future in an increasingly uncertain world.

The time to act is now, as Pacific nations are increasingly being courted, and before it is too late. This implies though that Pacific nations have honest discussions with each other, and with Australia and New Zealand, about their differences and about the existing challenges to Pacific regionalism and how it can be strengthened.

By integrating regional arrangements and agreements into a more comprehensive framework, Pacific nations can strengthen their collective bargaining power on the global stage — while in the long-term putting in place rules that would over time become a critical part of customary international law.

Importantly, this rules-based approach must be guided by Pacific values, ensuring that the region’s unique cultural, environmental and strategic interests are preserved for future generations.

Sione Tekiteki is a senior lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology. He previously served at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in three positions over nine years, most recently as director, governance and engagement. Joel Nilon is currently senior Pacific fellow at the Pacific Security College at the Australian National University. He previously served at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat for nine years as policy adviser.  The article was written in close consultation with Professor Transform Aqorau, vice-chancellor of Solomon Islands National University. Republished from DevBlog with permission.

New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) awardee Professor David Robie has called on young journalists to see journalism as a calling and not just a job.

Dr Robie, who is also the editor of Asia Pacific Report and deputy chair of the Asia Pacific Media Network, was named in the King’s Birthday Honours list for “services to journalism and Asia Pacific media education”.

He was named last Monday and the investiture ceremony is later this year.

• READ MORE: 50 years of challenge and change: David Robie reflects on a career in Pacific journalism – RNZ Pacific
• King’s Birthday Honours: Journalist reflects on work in the Pacific – PMN News
• Other reports

The University of the South Pacific’s head of journalism Associate Professor Shailendra Singh told Wansolwara News: “David’s mountain of work in media research and development, and his dedication to media freedom, speak for themselves.

“I am one of the many Pacific journalists and researchers that he has mentored and inspired over the decades”.

Dr Singh said this recognition was richly deserved.

Dr Robie was head of journalism at USP from 1998 to 2002 before he resigned to join the Auckland University of Technology ane became an associate professor in the School of Communication Studies in 2005 and full professor in 2011.

Close links with USP
Since resigning from the Pacific university he has maintained close links with USP Journalism. He was the chief guest at the 18th USP Journalism awards in 2018.

He has also praised USP Journalism and said it was “bounding ahead” when compared with the journalism programme at the University of Papua New Guinea, where he was the head of journalism from 1993 to 1997.

Dr Robie has also co-edited three editions of Pacific Journalism Review (PJR) research journal with Dr Singh.

He is a keynote speaker at the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference which is being hosted by USP’s School of Pacific Arts, Communications and Education (Journalism), in collaboration with the Pacific Island News Association (PINA) and the Asia-Pacific Media Network (APMN).

The conference will be held from 4-6 July at the Holiday Inn, Suva. This year the PJR will celebrate its 30th year of publishing at the conference.

The editors will be inviting a selection of the best conference papers to be considered for publication in a special edition of the PJR or its companion publication Pacific Media.

Referring to his recognition for his contribution to journalism, Dr Robie told RNZ Pacific he was astonished and quite delighted but at the same time he felt quite humbled by it all.

‘Enormous support’
“However, I feel that it’s not just me, I owe an enormous amount to my wife, Del, who is a teacher and designer by profession, and a community activist, but she has given journalism and me enormous support over many years and kept me going through difficult times.

“There’s a whole range of people who have contributed over the years so it’s sort of like a recognition of all of us, especially all those who worked so hard for 13 years on the Pacific Media Centre when it was going. So, yes, it is a delight and I feel quite privileged.”

Reflecting on his 50 years in journalism, Dr Robie believes that the level of respect for mainstream news media has declined.

“This situation is partly through the mischievous actions of disinformation peddlers and manipulators, but it is partly our fault in media for allowing the lines between fact-based news and opinion/commentary to be severely compromised, particularly on television,” he told Wansolwara News.

He said the recognition helped to provide another level of “mana” at a time when public trust in journalism had dropped markedly, especially since the covid-19 pandemic and the emergence of a “global cesspit of disinformation”.

Dr Robie said journalists were fighting for the relevance of media today.

“The Fourth Estate, as I knew it in the 1960s, has eroded over the last few decades. It is far more complex today with constant challenges from the social media behemoths and algorithm-driven disinformation and hate speech.”

He urged journalists to believe in the importance of journalism in their communities and societies.

‘Believe in truth to power’
“Believe in the contribution that we can make to understanding and progress. Believe in truth to power. Have courage, determination and go out and save the world with facts, compassion and rationality.”

Despite the challenges, he believes that journalism is just as vital today, even more vital perhaps, than the past.

“It is critical for our communities to know that they have information that is accurate and that they can trust. Good journalism and investigative journalism are the bulwark for an effective defence of democracy against the anarchy of digital disinformation.

“Our existential struggle is the preservation of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa  — protecting our Pacific Ocean legacy for us all.”

Dr Robie began his career with The Dominion in 1965, after part-time reporting while a trainee forester and university science student with the NZ Forest Service, and worked as an international journalist and correspondent for agencies from Johannesburg to Paris.

In addition to winning several journalism awards, he received the 1985 Media Peace Prize for his coverage of the Rainbow Warrior bombing. He was on a 11-week voyage with the bombed ship and wrote the book Eyes of Fire about French and American nuclear testing.

He also travelled overland across Africa and the Sahara Desert for a year in the 1970s while a freelance journalist.

In 2015, he was awarded the AMIC Asian Communication Award in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Geopolitics, climate crisis and decolonisation
Dr Robie mentions geopolitics and climate crisis as two of the biggest issues for the Pacific, with the former being largely brought upon by major global players, mainly the US, Australia and China.

He said it was important for the Pacific to create its own path and not become pawns or hostages to this geopolitical rivalry, adding that it was critically important for news media to retain its independence and a critical distance.

“The latter issue, climate crisis, is one that the Pacific is facing because of its unique geography, remoteness and weather patterns. It is essential to be acting as one ‘Pacific voice’ to keep the globe on track over the urgent solutions needed for the world. The fossil fuel advocates are passé and endangering us all.

“Journalists really need to step up to the plate on seeking climate solutions.”

Dr Robie also shared his views on the recent upheaval in New Caledonia.

“In addition to many economic issues for small and remote Pacific nations, are the issues of decolonisation. The events over the past three weeks in Kanaky New Caledonia have reminded us that unresolved decolonisation issues need to be centre stage for the Pacific, not marginalised.”

According to Dr Robie concerted Pacific political pressure, and media exposure, needs to be brought to bear on both France over Kanaky New Caledonia and “French” Polynesia, or Māohi Nui, and Indonesia with West Papua.

He called on the Pacific media to step up their scrutiny and truth to power role to hold countries and governments accountable for their actions.

Monika Singh is editor-in-chief of Wansolwara, the online and print publication of the USP Journalism Programme. Published in partnership with Wansolwara.

Tui Rererangi Walsh O’Sullivan, 4 July 1940 — 20 May 2023

Kia ora koutau katoa. Kia ora mo o koutou haerenga i te ahiahi nei. Kia ora mo o koutou aroha, o koutou karakia mo Tui i te wa o tona harenga ki te rangi.

I whanau mai a Tui, kei Kaitaia, hei uri o Te Rarawa, i te tau kotahi mano, iwa rau, wha tekau.

Tui was born in Kaitaia in 1940 — exactly 100 years after her great-great grandfather, Te Riipi, signed the Treaty of Waitangi. She was descended, too, from a Scotsman, John Borrowdale who named his boat Half Caste — after his children. Such was the mystery of race, life and family in 19th century Northland.

• READ MORE: Tui O’Sullivan: Lifetime of devotion to Māori and Pacific student success

Tui was the last born child of Jack and Maata Walsh, and sister of John, Pat, Rose and Michael. Maata was Te Rarawa, from Pukepoto. Tui lies alongside her at Rangihoukaha Urupa in Pukepoto. She was named Tui Rererangi, the flying bird in the sky, in honour of her uncle Billy Busby — a World War II fighter pilot.

Maata died when Tui was two years old. She and Rose and their brothers were raised by their father, Jack Walsh, his mother Maud and his sister Lil. Maud was born in Townsville. Her father was a lacemaker from Nottingham who emigrated, with his wife, firstly to Australia and then to the far North of New Zealand.

Jack was born in Houhora and died when Tui was 23. Jack’s father emigrated from Limerick.
Early in the next century, the writer Frank McCourt described Limerick, just as it had been in Timothy Walsh’s time, “It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”

It was a better world these people sought, in and with, Te Rarawa.

Tui’s story — almost 83 years — spans a time of rapid social, political and technological development in New Zealand and the world. Her contribution was transformative for the many, many, people she encountered in her professional, social and family lives.

Tui’s schooling began at Ahipara Native School. Transcending the government’s official purpose of the Native School, of “lead[ing] the lad to be a good farmer and the girl to be a good farmer’s wife” — Tui left primary school with a Ngarimu VC and 28th Maori Battalion Scholarship to St Mary’s College in Ponsonby.

Some of her friends from St Mary’s are here today, and her granddaughter, named in her honour, started at the school this year.

Disrupting social orthodoxy was Tui’s life. On leaving school, she enrolled at the University of Auckland, completing a degree in English and anthropology part-time over the next 20 years. During these years she trained as a primary school teacher, working in Auckland, Wellington, Cambridge, Athens and London.

In the past week, we took a phone call from somebody Tui had taught at Kelburn Normal School in the 1960s. Such was Tui’s impact.

I was born in Hamilton in 1970. Deirdre in Cambridge in 1973. We moved to Northcote Point in 1975 and, in 1977, Tui became the first woman and the first Māori appointed to a permanent position at what was then the Auckland Technical Institute. I remember her telling me she was going for a job interview and coming into this Church to pray that she would be successful. Deirdre and I did our primary schooling here at St Mary’s.

Being a working single parent in the 1970s and 80s was hard work. It didn’t reflect social norms, but the Auckland University of Technology, as it’s become, provided Tui, Deirdre and me with security and a home – a home that has been Tui’s since 1978.

At AUT, she developed the first Women on Campus group. She helped establish the newspaper Password, a publication introducing new English speakers to New Zealand society and culture.

She taught courses on the Treaty of Waitangi when the treaty was a subversive idea. She contributed to the change in social and political thought that has brought the treaty — that her tupuna signed — to greater public influence. The justice it promises was a major theme in Tui’s working life.

Tui was interested in justice more broadly, inspired by her Catholic faith, love of people and profound compassion. These values stood out in the memories of Tui that people shared during her tangihanga earlier in the week at Te Uri o Hina Marae.

On Twitter, like them all, a social media that Tui never mastered, a former student, some 40 years later, recalled “the sage advice” given to a “young fella from Kawerau”. As Tui remembered, for a Māori kid from the country, moving to town can be moving to a different world.

In a media interview on her retirement, she said: “Coming from a town where you didn’t know names, but everyone was Aunty or Uncle, Auckland was by far a change of scenery”.
In Auckland, Tui knew everybody. Always the last to leave a social function, and always the first to help people in need.

Tui helped establish the university’s marae in 1997. She would delight in sharing the marae with students and colleagues. Just as she delighted in her family — especially her grandchildren, Lucy, Xavier, Joey, Tui and Delphi.

She remembered Sarah Therese. Her grandchildren tell of their special times with her, and her deep interest in their lives. Last year, Deirdre and Malcolm and their children moved from Wellington to be close by. Joey and I came from Canberra for the year.

We talked and helped as we could. My job was to buy the smokes. I remember saying one day, “I’m going to the supermarket, what would you like for dinner” — “a packet of cigarettes and a bottle of wine”. That was Tui’s diet and she loved it. And it was only in the last few months that she stopped going out.

At the wake for her brother John’s wife, Maka, in November, she was still going at three in the morning. I worried that three bottles of wine mightn’t have been the best idea at that stage in life, but she was well enough to do it, and loved the company of her family as we loved being with her.

In December, she took Joey and Tui to mark their birthdays at the revolving restaurant at the Sky Tower, where she also joined in the celebration of Lucy’s 18th birthday a couple of months ago. Delphi liked to take her out for a pancake. She loved Xavier’s fishing and rugby stories.

Over the last year, she wasn’t well enough to watch her grandchildren’s sport as she would have liked, take them to the beach as she used to love, or attend important events in our lives. But she did what she could right until the end.

My last conversation with her, the day before she died, was slow and tired but cogent and interesting. We discussed the politics of the day, as we often did. She asked after Joey and Lucy, and after Cara — always concerned that they were doing well. She didn’t speak for long, which was out of character, but gave no reason to think that this would be the last time we spoke.

Her copy of my book, Indigeneity, Culture and the UN Sustainable Development Goals,  published last month, is still in the post. She didn’t know that it was dedicated to her and that I had explained, in the acknowledgements, that the reasons needed more words than the book itself.

That was supposed to have been for her to read, and for her to learn, that the dedication was also from her grandchildren. She was the immediate and unanimous choice when I asked them, “to whom should I dedicate this book”.

No reira, ka nui te mihi ki tena ki tena o koutou. Kia ora mo o koutou manaaki me te aroha.

Kia ora huihui tatau katoa!

Dr Dominic O’Sullivan, Tui’s son and professor of political science at Charles Sturt University, delivered this eulogy at her memorial mass at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Northcote, on 27 May 2023. It is republished here with the whanau’s permission. Tui O’Sullivan was also a foundation Advisory Board member of the Pacific Media Centre in 2007 and was a feisty advocate for the centre and its research publication, Pacific Journalism Review, until she retired in 2018.

Late last year, the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) initiated a process to eliminate 170 academic jobs to cut costs. The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) found AUT’s approach breached its collective employment agreement with staff and their union and ordered it to withdraw the termination notices.

Tertiary education runs on an insecure labour force in New Zealand and elsewhere. The AUT decision illustrates that even traditionally secure positions are becoming less so.

Tenure is the traditional protection for academics in the tertiary sector, but New Zealand does not have tenure at its universities.

• READ MORE: For many NZ scholars, the old career paths are broken. Our survey shows the reality for this new ‘academic precariat’
• Universities: The often overlooked player in determining healthy democracies
• Employment court orders Auckland University of Technology to scrap redundancies
• Media and academia: the intriguing case of AUT’s Pacific Media Centre

Tenure is more than a perk

A common argument against tenure is that it leads to a complacent, under-motivated university professor. These concerns are hypothetical — evidence that tenure causes productivity differences is lacking.

In fact, one of few large studies on the subject found the opposite. Good administrators should be able to manage any actual productivity issues as they do in all other workplaces.

On the other hand, lack of tenure creates risks for free societies. Tenure is common practice in other liberal democracies. UNESCO says:

Security of employment in the profession, including tenure […] should be safeguarded as it is essential to the interests of higher education.

Tenure is important, if not indispensable, for academic freedom. Academic freedom is essential to a university’s mission, and this mission is a characteristic of a democracy. As University of Regina professor Marc Spooner put it:

A country’s institutional commitment to academic freedom is a key indicator of whether its democracy is in good health.

The Employment Relations Authority has issued a compliance order to the university, requiring it to withdraw its notices of termination. https://t.co/NUvBfqS6ad

— Stuff (@NZStuff) January 5, 2023

Scholarship is not piecework
The ERA said AUT misunderstood terminology in the collective employment agreement.
The clash term was “specific position”. AUT’s position was that specific positions are identified by professional ranks (from lecturer to professor) and the numbers of each role across four particular faculties.

The ERA did not agree and concluded an essential component for identifying specific positions is the employee, being the person who is the current position holder or appointee to a position.

AUT’s assertion would be like the air force using the rank of “captain” to adjust its number of pilots. The number of captains does not tell you what each captain does, be it to fly planes or fix them.

Without tenure, a standard less than this minimum established by the ERA can be used to eliminate academics who have legitimate priorities that do not align with the administrative staff of the day, or are the victims of any other concealed discrimination. The ERA clarification makes it more difficult to inhibit intramural criticism, the right to criticise the actions taken by managers and leaders of the university.

The authoritative review of freedom of speech and academic freedom in Australian universities singles out the importance of academic freedom for this purpose, saying:

It […] reflects the distinctive relationship of academic staff and universities, a relationship not able to be defined by reference to the ordinary law of employer and employee relationships.

The ERA clarification helps to prevent the firing of academics who are teaching, researching or questioning things administrators, funders or governments don’t want them to. But it is a finger in a leaking dyke. Tenure is a tried and tested general solution.

Health of the democracy
We only need to observe the events in the United States to recognise the importance of tenure. This benchmark country has a proud tradition of tenure. Nevertheless state governments are dismantling tenure to impose political control on curriculums. Our liberal democracy is not immune to this.

We need more than tenure-secured academic freedom to enable universities to do the sometimes dreary and at other times risky work of providing societies alternatives to populist, nationalist or autocratic movements. But as the Douglas Dillon chair in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, Darrell M. West, wrote, academic freedom is a problem for these movements.

Recognizing the moral authority of independent experts, when despots come to power, one of the first things they do is discredit authoritative institutions who hold leaders accountable and encourage an informed citizenry.

In a system with tenure, a university would have a defined stand-down period preventing reappointment to vacated positions. For example, if an academic program and associated tenured staff that teach it were eliminated at the University of Arkansas for financial reasons, the program could not be reactivated for at least five years. The stand-down inhibits whimsical or agenda-fuelled restructuring as a lazy option to manage staff.

If a similar trade-off were to be applied to how AUT defined specific positions, then no academics could be hired there for five years. It is very different to be prevented from hiring academics than it is to, say, not re-establishing a financially struggling department or program.

Herein lies the true value of tenure. It is greater than a protection of the individual. It protects society from wasteful or ideologically motivated restructuring as an alternative to poor management. Tenure is security of the public trust in our universities.

Dr Jack Heinemann is professor of molecular biology and genetics, University of Canterbury. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

An award-winning professor of sport, leadership and governance has criticised her university’s handling of recent redundancies of 170 academic staff, saying a “rethink” is needed.

Professor Lesley Ferkins, director of Auckland University of Technology’s Sports Performance Research Institute and professor of sport, leadership and governance, told RNZ Nine to Noon that AUT’s senior management had lost the trust of staff.

Interviewed by Kathryn Ryan, Professor Ferkins said that if AUT continued on its current path it would “end in absolute disaster’.

• LISTEN TO RNZ NINE TO NOON: Professor Ferkins talks to RNZ
• ERA knocks back ‘flawed’ attempt by AUT to axe 100 plus academic staff
• ‘A very callous and uncaring process’ – union organiser Jill Jones
• ‘This level of disruption and instability in our lives is just crippling’
• Other AUT academic crisis reports

She said the university needed to draw on the “collective wisdom” of the academic staff.

Professor Ferkins has kept her job in the restructure, but has written an impassioned letter to vice chancellor professor Damon Salesa and the leadership team denouncing the redundancy process as lacking in transparency sound leadership values.

Last month, Professor Ferkins was named the Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand (SMAANZ) Distinguished Service Award winner.

Returning to ERA
AUT returned to the Employment Relations Authority today as part of its plans to make 170 academic staff redundant.

Yesterday, after a legal bid by the union representing teaching staff, the authority found the university’s process for issuing redundancy notices was flawed and breached the collective agreement.

It found that volunteers for redundancy should have been called for once specific positions were identified as surplus, but this did not happen.

In a letter to staff yesterday, AUT’s group director of people and culture Beth Bundy said AUT’s view of the findings differed from that of the Tertiary Education Union (TEU).

She said the university would return to the ERA today to seek clarification and hoped to have that by tomorrow.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has knocked-back an attempt by one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest universities to axe more than 100 staff.

The Auckland University of Technology planned to make 170 academic staff redundant, but the ERA has now ruled that its process was flawed and breached the collective agreement.

Now the school may need to walk back its dismissals, and start all over again.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘A very callous and uncaring process’ – union organiser Jill Jones
• ‘This level of disruption and instability in our lives is just crippling’
• Other AUT academic crisis reports

ERA said AUT had called for voluntary redundancies too early, before the institution had even decided which positions to cull.

The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) is celebrating the ruling as a win. However, AUT says the union and the university have interpreted the decision differently and it would be seeking clarification.

Lawyer Peter Cranney, in an email to members of the TEU yesterday, said the ERA was considering a compliance order that would require AUT to withdraw all the notices it had already issued.

“Although a compliance order is discretionary, the [ERA] authority has indicated it will not decline the granting of the order it needed,” he wrote.

“The parties will now have three days to consider the matter; and if a compliance order is necessary, the AUT will need to comply within five days.”

Cranney said any compliance order would be issued by Friday.

Trust difficult to rebuild, says union organiser
TEU organiser Jill Jones said the decision meant people at risk of losing their jobs no longer were.

“It’s great because what it does show is our collective agreement has been respected by the Employment Relations Authority,” Jones told RNZ Morning Report.

But although staff members were “absolutely” thrilled with the decision of the ERA, there was a breakdown of trust with their employer and it would be difficult to rebuild it.

“Its been a long, hard road for these staff members. They’ve paid a very large price.

“These are members that really, really care about their students and the high price that they’ve paid for this bungled redundancy is that lots of things have happened.

“It’s felt as if, to them, it’s been a very callous and uncaring process and it’s going to be difficult to come back from that.”

With issues of trust and many staff feeling targeted and bullied, AUT had a “very big job” ahead to rebuild that trust, she said.

Frances* was one of the unlucky 170 to receive a redundancy letter.

“This level of disruption and instability in our lives is just crippling,” she said.

The ERA decision had not brought much comfort.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” she said. “I’m really happy that we’ve seen some justice be recognised through the court system, but I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

Frances expected AUT to withdraw her notice of dismissal, but did not expect a happy ending.

“I’m not deluded, they’re still going to come for me I’m sure, but they’ll have to start from scratch and do it properly,” she said.

“That’s all we ask, that this is done properly.”

Poor handling of the situation had destroyed staff morale, she said.

“For three months, I’ve been feeling disengaged, demotivated, angry, upset, waiting, waiting, waiting for this letter,” she said.

“This whole process has been about targeting, humiliating, and bullying people.”

AUT seeks clarification of ‘complex findings’
An AUT spokesperson said the findings were legally complex and it regretted that a “procedural issue” highlighted had made staff more uncertain.

“Although the ERA has published its findings, it has not issued orders.

“AUT’s view of these findings differs from that of the TEU. AUT is endeavouring to clarify and resolve the issue promptly.

“Given the differing views between the parties it will therefore be necessary to return to the ERA tomorrow for clarification on some aspects.”

AUT said ERA’s findings found no bad faith in how it had acted — and AUT had formed a differing view of the collective agreement.

“The ERA has noted that AUT should have identified the specific positions potentially declared surplus and, at this point, written to offer voluntary redundancy to the people in these specified positions.

“Following clarification of the procedural issue we will write to those impacted by the decision to confirm the way forward.”

* Name changed to protect identity. This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

The launch of a New Zealand project to produce more Pacific news and provide a “voice for the voiceless” on the islands has highlighted the neglect of that field by Australia and New Zealand — and also problems in universities.

The new development is the non-government, non-university Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN), a research base and publishing platform.

Its opening followed the cleaning-out of a centre within the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) — in an exercise exemplifying the kind of micro infighting that goes on hardly glimpsed from outside the academic world.

• READ MORE: Media and academia: the intriguing case of the Pacific Media Centre — Media Asia
• Future of AUT’s Pacific Media Centre under spotlight following director’s departure
• Pacific Media Centre must break free to survive
• Future of AUT’s Pacific Media Centre still up in the air
• Māori and Pacific academics at AUT concerned about impact of job cuts
• Other Pacific Media Centre reports

Cleaning out media centre
The story features an unannounced move by university staff to vacate the offices of an active journalism teaching and publishing base, the Pacific Media Centre, in early February 2021.

Seven weeks after the retirement of that centre’s foundation director, Professor David Robie, staff of AUT’s School of Communication Studies turned up and stripped it, taking out the archives and Pacific taonga — valued artifacts from across the region.

Staff still based there did not know of this move until later.

The centre had been in operation for 13 years — it was popular with Pasifika students, especially postgrads who would go on reporting ventures for practice-led research around the Pacific; it was a base for online news, for example prolific outlets including a regular Pacific Media Watch; it had international standing especially through the well-rated (“SCOPUS-listed”) academic journal Pacific Journalism Review; and it was a cultural hub, where guests might receive a sung greeting from the staff, Pacific-style, or see fascinating art works and craft.

Its uptake across the “Blue Continent” showed up gaps in mainstream media services and in Australia’s case famously the backlog in promoting economic and cultural ties.

The PMC Project — a short documentary about the centre by Alistar Kata in 2016. Video: Pacific Media Centre

Human rights and media freedom
The centre was founded in 2007, in a troubled era following a rogue military coup d’etat in Fiji, civil disturbances in Papua New Guinea, violent attacks on journalists in several parts, and endemic gender violence listed as a priority problem for the Pacific Islands Forum.

Through its publishing and conference activity it would take a stand on human rights and media freedom issues, social justice, economic and media domination from outside.

The actual physical evacuation was on the orders of the communications head of school at AUT, Dr Rosser Johnson, a recently appointed associate professor with a history of management service in several acting roles since 2005. He told the Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative (AAPMI) in response to its formal complaint to AUT that it was “gutting” the centre that the university planned to keep a centre called the PMC and co-locate its offices with other centres — but that never happened.

His intervention caused predictable critical responses, as with this comment by a former New Zealand Herald editor-in-chief, Dr Gavin Ellis, on dealing with corporatised universities, in “neo-liberal” times:

“For many years I thought universities were the ideal place to establish centres of investigative journalism excellence … My views have been shaken to the core by the Auckland University of Technology gutting the Pacific Media Centre.”

Conflicts over truth-telling
The “PMC affair” has stirred conflicts that should worry observers who place value on truth-finding and truth-telling in university research, preparation for the professions, and academic freedom.

The centre along with its counterpart at the University of Technology Sydney, called the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ), worked in the area of journalism as research, applying journalistic skills and methods, especially exercises in investigative journalism.

The ACIJ produced among many investigations, work on the reporting of climate policy and climate science, and the News of the World phone hacking scandal. It also was peremptorily shut-down, three years ahead of the PMC.

Both centres were placed in the journalism academic discipline, a “professional” and “teaching” discipline that traditionally draws in high achieving students interested in its practice-led approach.

All of which is decried by line academics in disciplines without professional linkages but a professional interest in the hierarchical arrangements and power relations within the confined space of their universities.

There the interest is in theoretical teaching and research outputs, often-enough called “Marxist”, “postmodern”, “communications” or “cultural studies”, angled at a de-legitimisation of “Western-liberal” mass media. Not that journalism education itself shies away from media criticism, as Dr Robie told Independent Australia:

“The Pacific Media Centre frequently challenged ‘ethnocentric journalistic practice’ and placed Māori, Pacific and indigenous and cultural diversity at the heart of the centre’s experiential knowledge and critical-thinking news narratives.”

Yet it can be seen how conflict may arise, especially where smaller journalism departments come under “takeover” pressure. It is a handy option for academic managers to subsume “journalism”, and get the staff positions that can be filled with non-journalists; the contribution the journalists may make to research earnings (through the Australian Excellence in Research process, or NZ Performance Based Research Fund), and especially government funding for student places.

There, better students likely to excel and complete their programmes can be induced to do more generalised courses with a specialist “journalism” label.

Any such conflict in the AUT case cannot be measured but must be at least lurking in the background.

What is ‘ideology’?
Another problem exists, where a centre like the former PMC will commit to defined values, even officially sanctioned ones like inclusivity and rejection of discrimination.

Undertakings like the PMC’s “Bearing Witness” projects, where students would deploy classic journalism techniques for investigations on a nuclear-free Pacific or climate change, can irritate conservative interests.

The derogatory expression for any connection with social movements is “ideological”. This time it is an unknown, but a School moving against an “ideological” unit, might get at least tacit support from higher-ups supposing that eviscerating it might help the institution’s “good name”.

What implications for future journalism, freedom and quality of media? Hostility towards specific professional education for journalism exists fairly widely. The rough-housing of the journalism centre at AUT is indicative, where efforts by the out-going director to organise succession after his retirement, five years in advance, received no response.

The position statement was changed to take away a requirement for actual Pacific media identity or expertise, and the job left vacant, in part a covid effect. The centre performed well on its key performance indicators, if small in size, which brought in limited research grants but good returns for academic publications:

“On 18 December 2020 – the day I officially retired – I wrote to the [then] Vice-Chancellor, Derek McCormack … expressing my concern about the future of the centre, saying the situation was “unconscionable and inexplicable”. I never received an acknowledgement or reply.”

Pacific futures
Journalism education has persisted through an adverse climate, where the number of journalists in mainstream media has declined, in New Zealand almost halved to 2061, (2006 – 2018). AUT celebrated 50 years of journalism teaching this week.

Also, AUT is currently in turmoil over the future of Māori and Pacific academics and the status of the university with an unpopular move to retrench 170 academic staff.

However new media are expanding, new demands exist for media competency across the exploding world “mediascape”, schools cultivating conscionable practices are providing an antidote to floods of bigotry and lies in social media.

The new NGO in Auckland, the APMN, has found a good base of support across the Pacific communities, limbering up for a future free of interference, outside of the former university base.

It will be bidding for a share of NZ government grants intended to assist public journalism, ethnic broadcasting and outreach to the region. While several products of the former centre have closed, the successful 28-year-old research journal Pacific Journalism Review has continued, producing two editions under its new management.

The operation is also keeping its production-side media strengths, such as with the online title Asia Pacific Report.

Independent Australia media editor Dr Lee Duffield is a former ABC correspondent and academic. He is a member of the editorial advisory board of Pacific Journalism Review. This article is republished with the author’s permission.

Pacific Media Centre gutted in blow to journalism on the Pacific Islands ~ Dr Lee Duffield https://t.co/lvLMm6lCmk @independentaus

— IndependentAustralia (@independentaus) December 3, 2022

Postgraduate students are petitioning Auckland University of Technology over academic staff cuts — saying it is hugely disruptive and will impact on New Zealand’s research sector.

AUT planned to cut 170 academic positions — those affected had until last Thursday to take voluntary redundancy or face a compulsory layoff.

The petition states the criteria for selecting which staff would go was based on “unjust” and “flawed” performance criteria — something backed by the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) which is taking legal action against AUT on similar grounds.

• LISTEN TO RNZ NINE TO NOON: Academic layoffs at AUT
• The reinstate AUT staff petition
• The TEU legal action against AUT
• More job cuts at AUT
• Māori and Pacific academics at AUT concerned about impact of job cuts
• AUT’s Pacific Media Centre gutted in blow to journalism on the Pacific Islands

The criteria included “teaching” and “research” on disputed grounds, but ignored “supervision” and “community service”, vital components of academic workloads.

The petition says that it is “to reinstate AUT academic staff who have been made redundant based on unjust and flawed performance criteria.

“This decision heavily impacts [on] postgraduate and undergraduate students who were not considered in this process. Numerous academic staff members who are integral to the success of students and the university have been made redundant and we urge the AUT senior leadership team to reinstate them.”

RNZ’s Susie Ferguson talks to TEU organiser Jill Jones, and two PhD students: “Sarah”, and Melanie Welfare, who have both signed the petition requesting AUT reinstate staff.

• Pacific Media Watch reports that the journalism programme, which celebrates 50 years of teaching media tomorrow, is among those sectors hit by the AUT layoffs.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

A Fiji-based academic challenged the Pacific region’s media and policymakers today over climate crisis coverage, asking whether the discriminatory style of reporting was a case of climate injustice.

Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, head of the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific, said climate press conferences and meetings were too focused on providing coverage of “privileged elite viewpoints”.

“Elites have their say, but communities facing the brunt of climate change have their voices muted,” he told the Look at the Evidence: Climate Journalism and Open Science webinar panel exploring the role of journalism in raising climate awareness in the week-long Open Access Australasia virtual conference.

• READ MORE: Other open access reports
• Tuwhera’s open access titles

Dr Singh, who is also on the editorial board of Pacific Journalism Review and was speaking for the recently formed Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN), threw open several questions to the participants about what appeared to be “discriminatory reporting”.

“Is slanted media coverage marginalising grassroots voices? Is this a form of climate injustice?” he asked.

“Are news media unknowingly perpetuating climate injustice?”

He cited many of the hurdles impacting on the ability of Pacific news media to cover the climate crisis effectively, such as lack of resources in small media organisations and lack of reporting expertise.

‘Jack-of-all-trades’
“We are unable to have specialist climate reporters as in some other countries; our journalists tend to be a jack-of-all-trades, and master of none,” he said.

He did not mean this in a “disparaging manner”, saying “it’s just our reality” given limited resources.

Key Pacific media handicaps included:

• The smallness of Pacific media systems;
• Limited revenue and small profit margins;
• A high attrition rate among journalists (mostly due to uncompetitive salaries);
• Pacific journalists “don’t have the luxury” of specialising in one area; and
• No media economies of scale.

“Our journalists don’t build sufficient knowledge in any one topic for consistent or in-depth reporting,” he said. “And this is more deeply felt in areas such as climate reporting.”

He cited pioneering research on Pacific climate reporting by Samoan climate change journalist Lagipoiva Dr Cherelle Jackson, saying such Pacific media research was “scarce”.

‘Staying afloat in Paradise’
A research fellow with the Reuters Institute and Oxford University, Dr Jackson carried out research on how media in her homeland and six other Pacific countries were covering climate change. The 2010 report was titled Staying Afloat in Paradise: Reporting Climate Change in the Pacific.

Pacific journalists and editors “have a responsibility to inform readers on how climatic changes can affect them, she argued. But this did not translate into the pages of their newspapers.

“Climate change is simply not as high a priority for Pacific newsrooms as issues such as health, education and politics which all take precedence over even general environment reporting,” Dr Jackson wrote.

“For a region mainly classified by the United Nations as ‘least developed’ and ‘developing’ countries, it is apparent that there are more pressing issues than climate change.

“But the fact that the islands of the Pacific are already at the bottom end of the scale in regards to wealth and infrastructure, and the fact that climate change is also threatening the mere existence of some islands, should make it a big story. But it isn’t.”

She has continued her advocacy work on climate change as climate editor of the Associated Press and completing a doctorate on the topic.

Critical of paywalls
Daalder spoke about how open access to scientific papers was vitally important for journalists who needed to read complete papers, not just abstracts. He was critical of the paywalls on many scientific research papers.

Open access enabled journalists to do their job better and this was clearly shown during the covid-19 pandemic — “and we need this to happen for climate reporting”.

Meduna said it took far too long for research, such as on climate change, to filter through into public debate. Open access helped to reduce that gap.

She also said the success of The Conversation model showed that there was a growing demand for scientists communicating directly with the public with the help of journalists.

Dr Sparrow called for a social movement for meaningful action on the climate crisis and more scientific literacy was needed to enable this.

Highly critical of the “dysfunctional” academic publishing industry, he said open access would contribute to “radically accessible” science for the public.

The panel was organised by Tuwhera digital and open access publishing team at Auckland University of Technology.

• Other webinars in the Open Access Week that ends on Friday.

Thousands of New Zealand tertiary union members will go on strike at eight universities tomorrow over a cost of living pay demand.

The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) said its members were walking off the job for part of the day at the eight universities in the country.

Union members at Auckland University of Technology initially planned to refuse to enter students’ marks from October 6 to 21, the union said.

• READ MORE: ‘Foolish’ plan to axe 230 AUT jobs will affect every department, academics say
• Staff angry, disillusioned as AUT ascends in worldwide university rankings
• Other AUT reports

However, after the AUT management warned that striking staff would face suspension and loss of pay for two weeks, TEU withdrew the action so that staff would join the Thursday strike instead, a later union statement said today.

The TEU, which has 7000 members, is demanding an 8 percent pay rise needed to keep up with the cost of living.

Each university was negotiating its own collective agreements with the union, but the agreements expired at about the same time enabling a co-ordinated industrial action.

The action announced includes full stoppage between 1pm and 5pm at University of Auckland, University of Waikato and AUT; from 12pm to 4.30pm at Victoria University of Wellington and for shorter periods at three other universities.

There will be rallies at each university and marches and pickets at Waikato and Massey universities.

On its website, the University of Auckland stated it had explained to the unions that it had made an offer that was fair and reasonable and rewarded staff, while retaining fiscal responsibility.

“The university has made a best offer of a 5 percent and 4 percent general revision offer over two years, subject to certain conditions,” the statement said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A union representing New Zealand tertiary sector staff says a proposal which could lead to massive job cuts at the Auckland University of Technology came completely out of the blue and was a major shock.

Around 230 jobs could be axed as the university suffers a significant drop in international student enrolments, due to the covid-19 pandemic.

AUT yesterday announced it would review administration and support roles and a small number of courses with low enrolments.

• LISTEN TO RNZ CHECKPOINT: ‘People are shocked and horrified – we had no idea this was coming’ – Tina Smith
• AUT announces review of staff roles and low enrolment courses

Programmes included in the university’s proposal included Bachelor’s degrees in Social Sciences, Conflict Resolution, Japanese Studies, and English and New Media.

The faculty with the highest number of proposed cuts is Design and Creative Technologies, with 50 jobs being axed.

Tertiary Education Union national secretary Tina Smith told RNZ Checkpoint she was shocked and horrified by the depth of the cuts.

“The thing that’s horrific, really horrific, is the numbers of staff that they’re talking about – they’re talking about 150 academic and about 80 general professional staff and that’s full time equivalent, in real numbers, in real people numbers, that could be a lot more.”

Smith said a member who had worked there for more than 20 years told her they had never before seen cuts of this magnitude.

Significant international student drop
Costs had increased, international student numbers had dropped significantly, and it had fewer New Zealand students than last year because more people, including school leavers, were choosing to work instead of study, AUT said.

AUT vice-chancellor Toeolesulusulu Professor Damon Salesa said the proposed staff cuts would reduce spending by $21 million a year.

Smith acknowledged that student numbers would be down next year because students had had a tough time due to covid and there was a workforce shortage.

“So there’s that option for students to go and earn some money instead of study,” she said.

“But what we need to do is encourage people into the long-term futures that will do the best for them and their whānau, which is gaining the real skills that they need to rebuild our economy, this country and for businesses.”

Cutting courses and students was “short-term thinking” and not the right approach, she said.

Smith acknowledged that some courses did have low student numbers but said it was important to keep those staff on board and look at alternatives for them.

Faulty ‘benchmarking’
“One of the things they’re [AUT] using for their rationale is that the percentage of staff of our operating expenses is above the benchmarking of other universities.”

But AUT was a comparatively new university so had higher debt and less reserves than some of the more established universities, she said.

AUT had had a high percentage of lower decile students and had been a good employer in the past, Smith said.

“So why change a formula that worked really well? Yes, it’s going to be a bit of a rocky time – but what you do in a rocky time is you stand together, you hold tight and you say, ‘we’re going to take the long view’.”

It was essential not to lose what made your institution valuable, Smith said.

• AUT made a $12.9 million surplus in 2021, after a $12.3 million surplus in 2020. The university more than 4300 staff and 27,000 students. It has a policy of being the “university of choice” for Māori and Pacific students.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Auckland University of Technology has unreservedly apologised to a former academic turned Australian MP for its botched handling of her complaint regarding sexual harassment by a former staff member.

Dr Marisa Paterson was director of Australian National University’s Centre for Gambling Research in 2020 when she publicly accused internationally-respected gambling expert Max Abbott of stalking and harassing her.

He stepped down as dean of the School of Health and Environmental Sciences​ after the story was aired by the news organisation Stuff. He later resigned as a professor.

• READ MORE: Dr Marisa Paterson, who previously revealed she was sexually harassed, reaches settlement with New Zealand university
• The 2021 Davenport report into harassment and sexual harassment at AUT

In a joint statement with the university issued through the Office of the Human Rights Proceedings today, Dr Paterson, now a Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly, said she made the complaint because she wanted the harmful behaviour to stop and for the situation to be investigated.

“My desperation in lodging a formal complaint was extreme — my career was everything to me and I knew that making a complaint would have significant implications. The independent report that was commissioned by AUT and this apology, are public recognition that I did not experience the appropriate or adequate response to the harm I experienced.”

Dr Paterson said in addition to the sexual harassment, she suffered “long-term distress and implications” from having to fight an institution for an adequate response.

“But today, what I went through is being publicly recognised. And my voice today is being heard — most importantly by AUT. It is accounted for and it is being recognised as an equal through this joint statement. My statement today is not one of forgiveness. This is a public step in leadership.

“This can never happen again.”

‘Poor investigation’
Chancellor Rob Campbell said AUT offered its unreserved apology to Dr Paterson for its poor investigation into her complaint and lack of communication through the process.

“We would also like to recognise your courage in coming forward, and to thank you for providing the opportunity for AUT to learn from this and initiate a process of culture change which we are confident will improve the experience of people learning and working in the university,” he said.

“We hope that our actions will be viewed as reflecting a survivor-centred approach and positive shift in institutional culture.

“We trust that this genuine apology will support you in your pathway forward.”

He said the university was already working to respond the 36 recommendations in the independent review, including the development of a stand-alone sexual harassment policy, a new three tier complaints process, and training for all managers.

The Office of the Human Rights Proceedings said the apology and joint statement was a positive outcome for both sides.

‘Absolute tenacity’
Director Michael Timmons said it reflected “Dr Paterson’s absolute tenacity and her strength in accessing justice for what happened to her”.

“But it also shows AUT has acknowledged what has happend to her and is publicly holding themselves to account.”

He conceded the outcome had been a long time coming.

In an interview with the ABC in Australia, Dr Paterson said: “I am feeling vindicated. I feel that today there has been some justice served. This has been many years in the making for me, and I think that this is a big day for human rights and for women.”

Dr Paterson first laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission in November 2021 but it was not resolved.

Mid-way through this year, she contacted the Office of the Human Rights Proceedings, which is responsible for providing publicly-funded representation to complainants taking legal action under the Human Rights Act.

Timmons said the settlement has avoided the need for further legal proceedings.

“This case is really important because it says to big institutions, particularly tertiary institutions, that they have firm obligations under the Human Rights Act for the actions of their staff.”

Max Abbott’s name was not mentioned in the apology or statement as the case only concerned AUT’s actions, he said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Living in New Zealand as a student Laurens Ikinia wanted to create a space for the West Papuan diaspora to gather.

“We have been facing challenges and oppression back home so it is really hard for us to preserve and maintain our culture,” he said.

The West Papuan Students Association in Oceania started in 2020 but they launched the “Empowering Wantoks” programme last year.

• LISTEN TO ABC PACIFIC BEAT: Interview with Laurens Ikinia
  
• READ MORE: Other reports on the Papuan students

Guest speakers are invited to discuss topics with students about West Papua and they host language classes as well.

Ikinia is a Masters of Communication postgraduate student at the Auckland University of Technology and said that living in New Zealand had been a good experience.

“We are studying and living in a country that has a diverse community where indigenous people and non-indigenous people live together,” he said.

“That makes us feel like we are welcome.”

However, the students are currently campaigning to be able to finish their studies in New Zealand after Indonesia abruptly cancelled their scholarships at the start of this year.

Republished with permission.

Auckland University of Technology’s new vice-chancellor — the country’s first Pasifika educator in the top role at a university — is determined to break down inequalities among students in the sector.

Professor Damon Salesa, formerly at the University of Auckland, started in his new role this week.

He told RNZ’s Nine to Noon programme that improving the experience of student groups that had not previously been well-catered for would be AUT’s top priority under his leadership.

• READ MORE:  AUT’s new academic head seeks to build relationships around Pacific
• Pacific scholar Dr Damon Salesa named AUT’s next vice-chancellor
• ‘Transform lives’ with education, new vice-chancellor for AUT tells Pasifika

“The reason I want to be a vice-chancellor is because I don’t think universities have made this the priority it needs to be,” he said.

“We will measure ourselves by how our Māori students do, how our working class students do, how our Pacific students do, and how they feel, because actually a positive outcome isn’t just a qualification.”

He said the covid-19 pandemic illuminated inequities in education, with online learning hindering many students’ ability to participate.

“That mode of teaching had an inequality in it … the digital divide is a real thing.”

Professor Salesa said universities needed to be held to a higher standard of fair outcomes for all students.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Time is running out for a group of West Papuan students in New Zealand whose scholarships were cut — out of the blue — by the Indonesian government

The sudden removal of government funding for the Papuan students has left many of them in financial dire straits on visas that are running out.

Forty two students learned of the termination of their scholarships at the beginning of this year. With deadlines approaching they have appealed to both the Indonesian government and MPs in New Zealand to see if they can fix their dashed hopes of a completed education.

• READ MORE: Ukraine example cited in call to extend visas for abandoned Papuan students
• Papuan students caught by Indonesian grants cutback plead for NZ help
• West Papuan students in dire straits in NZ after Indonesia cuts funding
• West Papuan students fight to keep scholarships to study in Aotearoa
• Overcoming trauma, Papuan students in NZ now face new challenge
• Papuan students form global umbrella body, reaffirm campaign for education rights
• Papuan students succeed in NZ – ‘the golden generation from Papua’
• Mahasiswa Papua di luar negeri deklarasikan IAPSO – Tabloid Jubi [Bahasa Indonesian]
• Other reports on the Papuan education controversy
• WATCH: Te Ao Māori News video

Green Party MPs Ricardo Menendez March, Golriz Ghahraman and Teanau Tuiono penned a letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta requesting government to support for the students before they are deported.

They are calling for a scholarship fund to support the impacted students, a residency pathway for West Papuan students whose welfare has been affected, and an assurance that the students will have access to safe housing in affordable accommodation.

But according to Menendez March, the most urgent issue is the students’ visas — he is calling on the government to extend them due to special circumstances, such as those for Ukrainian nationals.

“What the situation in Ukraine taught us is that when there is political will, our immigration system can move relatively fast to provide solutions for people who are facing uncertainty,” he said. “The special visa that was created to support Ukrainian families show we could have an intervention to support these students.”

Quick move for Ukraine
Immigration moved quickly to ensure Ukrainians with family in New Zealand had an easier avenue to a two-year work visa as a part of the humanitarian support developed in response to the refugee crisis.

“Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi said last week when the details were unveiled: ‘This is the largest special visa category we have established in decades to support an international humanitarian effort and, alongside the additional $4 million in humanitarian funding also announced today, it adds to a number of measures we’ve already implemented to respond to the worsening situation in Ukraine.'”

The Ukraine policy is expected to benefit around 4000 people, with Immigration streamlining processes to make sure they are supported sooner rather than later.

With just 42 West Papuan students now in this visa crisis, Menendez March said it would be easy enough for the Government to create a special category.

And more than that, it would be an opportunity for New Zealand to stand up for a Pacific neighbour.

“As a Pacific nation we do have a responsibility to support West Papuans,” he said. “I think this is a small but really tangible way that we could supporting the West Papuan community.”

For some of the students, returning home isn’t just a matter of giving up on whatever ambitions lay past graduation day – but also a safety risk.

Openly communicated
“The students have openly communicated in the past some of them may not necessarily face safe living conditions back at home,” Menendez March said, who met with the students last week along with Greens spokesperson for Pacific people Teanau Tuiono to discuss possible solutions.

Tuiono said there were multiple reasons why the New Zealand government should step in and offer support to the students.

“First, there’s the consistency thing — if we’re going to do this for people from the Ukraine, why not for West Papuans,” he said. “Also, we are part of the Pacific and we have signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

The declaration, first adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007, establishes a framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world.

“West Papuans are indigenous peoples who have been occupied by Indonesia, so there’s that recognition of a responsibility on an international level that we have signed up to,” Tuiono said.

The letter signed by the Green MPs was sent to Mahuta at the beginning of this month, but they say there has been no meaningful response. Meanwhile, some of the students are potentially just a matter of weeks away from deportation.

The decision to rescind the scholarship funds came as a shock to West Papuan students in New Zealand like Laurens Ikinia, who is in the final year of his Master of Communication at AUT. He hopes he will be allowed in the country until his upcoming graduation.

But despite the International Alliance of Papuan Student Associations Overseas calling on the Indonesian government to consult with it to try and resolve the issue, there has been no response.

“It is really heartbreaking for us as the central government of Indonesia and the provincial government have not given any positive responses to us,” Ikinia said. “The government still stick to their decision.”

Matthew Scott is a journalist writing for Newsroom on inequality, MIQ and border issues. Republished with permission.

The son of a factory worker made New Zealand history last week, as the first Pacific person to be appointed to the eminent leadership position in academia at a New Zealand university.

“I’m really excited to be the AUT vice-chancellor and with that excitement comes a sense of its significance with the sector which I work in and have given much of my life to, actually looking like the people it serves. So I’m really excited to be part of that story,” Toelesulusulu told Asia-Pacific Report.

• READ MORE: Pacific scholar Dr Damon Salesa named AUT’s next vice-chancellor
• ‘Transform lives’ with education, new vice-chancellor for AUT tells Pasifika

“AUT is a place where talent can find opportunity and I would hope that lots of other people would want to express that excitement by wanting to come to AUT,” he says.

“What matters more is the work of the whole institution, that the university itself embraces its many different communities, its Māori students, its Pacific students and already AUT is a little bit known for that and what we can do is to build even more deeply on that.”

Professor Steven Ratuva, director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, says Dr Salesa’s appointment is a significant milestone for the Pacific.

“It is something he richly deserves, and he has been working hard for and it is a good career choice, it is good for the Pacific academic community, and I congratulate him for his contribution to Pacific education.”

South Auckland priority
Currently pro-vice-chancellor Pacific at the University of Auckland (UOA), Dr Salesa takes up his new role as vice-chancellor at AUT in March.

From just up the hill at UOA, he has observed AUT, and likes what he saw.

“I’ve really admired the way AUT prioritised and served its students, particularly the students of South Auckland and mature students, and that is one of reasons I was really interested in the job,” he says.

“Just because those communities of learners for whom education really matters, AUT has really embraced them and that is part of what is exciting about AUT — that is why I wanted to come across and join AUT.

“There is no question that the campus down south and campus on the shore bring universities into the communities that they serve and as well as being global institutions they are local institutions.

“If you have heart to service and you keep the students at the very centre of the decisions you make, you get great results like you see AUT deliver in South Auckland and the North Shore,” he says.

Strengthening Māori and Pacific research
Pacific and Māori research is one area he wants to strengthen as well as build relationships with other institutions in the Pacific.

“Certainly, one of the things I have as a priority is to make sure that AUT is in all of the partnerships that it needs to be in, that we are serving our communities and our partners as well in a reciprocal relationship from which everyone grows.

“That will mean we have to be a little bit selective, but it will also mean that Pacific partnerships and other partnerships are critical to the very centre of the university, and they are not seen as being marginal because we’re a university in the middle of the South Pacific.

“We need to honour that and be connected to our whanau around the Pacific.

“It is absolutely important that we are having those conversations, we need to understand how we can support the University of the South Pacific (USP) and their work, how we can find benefit and value for New Zealand and AUT students and staff from those relationships, so certainly we will be taking that seriously.

“But certainly, USP is a special institution in our region, so we need to be strategic in how we support and partner with them.”

Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, head of journalism at USP, says “as many have pointed out, the appointment is well deserved. He was not given any preference as a Pacific Islander. He was picked on merit.

A Pacific ‘trailblazer’
“As a trailblazer, he will inspire many Pacific Islanders and Pacific people beyond New Zealand as the vice-chancellor of one of the finest universities in our region.

“Through my association with the Pacific Media Centre (PMC), I have participated in AUT journalism-related workshops, seminars, and conferences.

“I have a high regard for the AUT and the PMC, long a flagship of the university for its cutting-edge research and publications in Pacific journalism.

“I hope the PMC is revived as journalism in the region has been struggling due to economic and political factors. Pacific journalism needs support and leadership and AUT can become the beacon it was,” Associate Professor Singh says.

Dr Salesa was in the dark about the PMC which has now been in hiatus for almost a year for unknown reasons.

“I’d have to learn more about that, I don’t know the ins and outs of that situation, but these are things that have to be collaborative, they have to be built with the kind of collective will and expertise of the university especially.

“There is no question that AUT will be prioritising Māori research and Pacific research among its other amazing specialisations,” Dr Salesa says.

AUT ‘anchored in Pacific’
“AUT will always be anchored in the Pacific region and obviously has a long history of educating people from the Pacific region and we hope to continue and deepen that.

“Those partnerships will speak directly to AUT’s future, and this is a period in time where everyone is just hoping for the best possible outcome for USP, and we will be looking to support in ways that make sense for them and AUT.”

Dr Salesa is testament to the fact that people of a Pacific background or ethnicity can succeed and excel — not just in sport, but in every facet of society.

“I think we’ve always known, as the saying goes, talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t — and what AUT is the story of, is making opportunity available to diverse groups of talented people.

“We know if you make opportunities available to those who have been denied them, they will flourish if they are supported in the right way.

“I have no doubt what people will see in my own story is that the kinds of diverse talent we have in New Zealand that too often we haven’t made the most of, can come to AUT and thrive.

“I hope that people see in that all kinds of stories because I am also the son of a factory worker, and I am also a first-generation university attendee people can understand that when talent gets opportunity and support it drives them and that’s what I am hoping you’ll see and that is what success at AUT is all about and its story,” the Auckland suburb of Glen Innes-raised Dr Salesa says.

Education pathway
A strong advocate for education, he wanted young Māori and Pasifika people to pursue that pathway rather than young school leavers joining the workforce.

“We know that education is one of the proven pathways to wellbeing and prosperity for families, and that at the same time we know that many families need their young people to go out and work.

“So, it is absolutely critical that we find ways to get talented young Pacific, Māori and other students into high value employment and education is one of the ways of doing that.

“What we need is for them to be ambitious, to have high expectations of themselves and their families and it is for AUT and other universities to deliver that transformational learning which is the secret to those strong and prosperous futures,” Dr Salesa says.

Transformative learning allowed people to change and have more than one career.

“We know all of us are living in the most uncertain and highly changeable times. In the old days everyone imagined they would have just one career and many people now are realising they might not only change jobs but change careers and they have also come to realise that in many, many of our jobs technology sits at the centre of opportunity and the ability to be effective.

“AUT is the kind of institution that is built for these times, it offers all sorts of flexible learning offerings and a truly diverse student body and it is New Zealand’s tech university.

Transformative learning
“So transformative learning is the kind of learning that actually transforms individual students lives where you can see outcomes writ large and that’s what I’m hoping to support further development at AUT so that people understand AUT is a great place to go, to study and get a great job but also prepare themselves for a great future,” Dr Salesa says.

Then there was the inevitable vexed question, whether it was time for another university, namely AUT, to start a new medical school? To which he played with a straight bat.

“At the moment AUT is one of the great providers of the health workforce in New Zealand and certainly for the short term we will be focusing on doing an even better job of doing that.

“Delivering a health workforce and the health researchers that New Zealand needs. That is obviously a critical contribution in the age of the pandemic, but again that will be built collaboratively with my colleagues at AUT.

“I think it is a very challenging time for universities across the board and particularly where next year is going to be where students have had two years of lockdown learning in Auckland so we have to make sure that the university can support them in their ambitions to be successful at AUT.

“That is going to be one of the great challenges, not just facing AUT, but all the tertiary providers that have suffered lockdowns in Auckland.”

Keynote speakers professor David Robie and Glenda Gloria, executive editor of Rappler, addressed “truth and justice” on the opening day of the Asian Media Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference in Auckland.

Dr Robie opened the conference yesterday with his topic “Journalism education ‘truth ’ challenges in an age of growing hate, intolerance and disinformation” while Gloria spoke about the difficulties of doing investigative journalism amid this covid-19 pandemic.

Founding director of the Pacific Media Centre, Dr Robie began with a tribute “to two extraordinary and inspirational journalists, who have shed light on dark places and given the rest of us hope”.

• READ MORE: Other ACMC media conference reports

The first of these was to Maria Ressa, chief executive of the Filipino investigative website Rappler, who, along with Russian editor Dimitry Muratov, was named a Nobel Peace prize laureate last month for safeguarding “freedom of expression”.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee described them as “representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions”.

Julie Posetti, global director of research at the International Centre for Journalists (ICJ), said the choice had been very timely and she pointed to the fact that it had been 85 years since the first working journalist had won the Nobel prize.

German investigative editor Carl von Ossietsky won the Nobel prize for his “burning love for freedom and expression”’

Award in jail
Ossietsky, was incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp at the time he won the award and later died in jail.

As Gloria told the conference hosted at Auckland University of Technology, the Nobel prize put a “global spotlight on the extraordinary dangers that we journalists face today”.

“You and I are no stranger to threats to media freedom – from repressive laws to libel suits to imprisonment to death threats,” she said.

“To many of us in the Global South, journalism has always been considered a dangerous profession long before media watchdogs started ranking countries around the world according to the freedoms enjoyed by their press.

“And yet, despite all that we have seen and experienced, it’s no exaggeration to say that this is the most challenging period for journalism. At stake today is our very existence, our relevance, and our ability to speak truth to power.

“Not only are journalists under attack. Truth is under attack,” Gloria said.

Optimism for Rappler
She gave three reasons for the Filipino publication Rappler to be optimistic in spite of dealing with 11 lawsuits aimed at silencing the website.

“Every crisis is an opportunity. In the last two years, we at Rappler managed to bounce back and continue holding power to account and exposing wrongdoing,” she said.

“Part of the reason is how our ownership structure was set up. Rappler is the only journalist-owned and journalist-led media company in the Philippines. We make decisions for the public interest even if it’s bad for business.

“Second reason to be hopeful is — for journalism to matter, the community must be a part of it. In our crisis years, our community stayed with us.

“We realised that we had a core base of audience that, while not massive, shared the same value that we believe in, which is the public’s need for transparency and accountability on the part of those who lead and government them.

“At Rappler, we learned that when the going gets tough, hold the line, stick to your core, and have faith in your community of readers.

“The third reason to be hopeful is that crisis challenges our mindsets. The attacks on Rappler scared away advertisers but also compelled us to diversify our revenue stream so that today, our revenues come not just from advertising but business research, grants, membership, programmatic ads, and special projects.

Postive net income
“We have not paywalled our site but we have content and activities exclusive to paying subscribers. Thankfully, we are now entering our third year of positive net income,” Gloria said.

Dr Robie’s second tribute was to Max Stahl whom he described as a “courageous journalist and filmmaker who sadly died at the age of 66 from cancer”.

From Timor-Leste, he made the controversial film footage of the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre in the capital Dili which eventually led to Timorese independence.

British-born Stahl returned to East Timor in 1999 and made the documentary In Cold Blood: Massacre of East Timor, for which he was decorated with the Order of Timor-Leste, the country’s highest honour and he was awarded Timor-Leste citizenship in 2019.

“The common thread linking all four of these media communicators – Maria Ressa, Dimitry Muratov, Carl von Ossietsky and Max Stahl – has been their courageous, determined relentless pursuit of ‘truth and justice’,” Dr Robie told the virtual conference.

“ ‘The truth’ – this supreme goal of journalists in holding power to account is hugely under threat by politicians, demagogues and charlatans peddling fake news and disinformation,” he said.

Dr Robie spoke about covid-19 and the “disinfodemic” – described by UNESCO as “falsehoods fuelling the pandemic”, leading to civil disobedience and attacks on medical staff the world over, including in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Violence pervaded South Pacific
The violence had pervaded the South Pacific and was noticeable in Fiji and Papua New Guinea despite the high number of people being infected.

Dr Robie highlighted PNG where health authorities were forced to cancel vaccinations for fear of attacks, hence the rate is incredibly low this month, sitting at 2.5 percent,

He also addressed the infodemic and the rise of “disinformation” and the challenges it brought to the media.

Dr Robie spoke about climate change “and the disproportionate impact this is having on our Asia-Pacific region”.

A key component of the disinfodemic was the lack of fact-checking and as veteran Pacific journalist and consultant Bob Howarth had asked, why had the basics of fact-checking not “become part of journalism training in our universities and colleges?”.

Dr Robie also spoke about climate change “and the disproportionate impact this is having on our Asia-Pacific region”.

Climate ‘catastrophe’
He outlined the challenges of climate change, preferring to call it climate “catastrophe”.

“I am stressing the word catastrophe rather than merely change, That is because for the microstates of the Pacific it is already viewed as an impending catastrophe,” he told the conference.

Dr Robie said he had developed several theories and models of journalism such as “talanoa journalism”, a concept developed through a Pacific approach.

“My emphasis has been on ‘project journalism’, creating high quality coverage of issues and challenging assignments on university platforms with high standards of journalistic integrity and to foster multi-university collaboration across national boundaries.”

The conference concludes tomorrow.

• The ACMC conference programme

The new vice-chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology is calling on young Pasifika peoples pursuing their education to stay the course.

Toeolesulusulu Dr Damon Salesa, who is currently a pro vice-chancellor at the University of Auckland takes up his new role at AUT in March.

He is the first person of Pacific descent to head a university in New Zealand.

Toeolesulusulu said the past two years of the covid-19 pandemic have been the most difficult for education in a long time.

He said part of the reason he chose to take up the new role was that AUT provides a pathway to education for people of all ages, backgrounds and races, regardless of the life stage or academic credentials.

“The pressures of the pandemic have forced many young people to have to choose between furthering their education or providing for their families, and institutions like AUT can help.

“Now is a great time to just leave school and get a job,” Toeolesulusulu said.

“But in terms of the future that students’ families need, that our city and our communities need, education still remains the single most powerful way to transform the lives of you and your family and through them our communities.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Pacific scholar and senior university sector leader Toeolesulusulu Dr Damon Salesa has been appointed as the next vice-chancellor of Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland University of Technology (AUT), AUT News reports.

The appointment by the University Council at Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau AUT was announced today and is the result of a global search after current vice-chancellor Derek McCormack announced his retirement in March 2022 after 18 years at the helm.

Toeolesulusulu is a prizewinning historian and former Rhodes Scholar. After obtaining his MA with first class honours at the University of Auckland, he completed his doctoral studies at Oxford University.

He is the author and editor of many books and academic articles including Island Time: New Zealand’s Pacific Futures (BWB, 2017) and Racial Crossings (Oxford University Press, 2011) which won the international Ernest Scott Prize in 2012. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and currently serves on their council.

“For 20 years AUT has been the most remarkable story in Aotearoa New Zealand tertiary education, showing how the pursuit of excellence can be set on a foundation of service, inclusion and close relationships with our communities, businesses and stakeholders,” said Toeolesulusulu.

“AUT is New Zealand’s tech university, a pacesetter in the social, educational and economic transformation in Aotearoa New Zealand. I am excited by the opportunity to lead AUT on the next leg of its journey of excellence, Te Tiriti partnership, equity and service to our city, nation, region and the world.”

His current role is as pro vice-chancellor Pacific at the University of Auckland where he also serves on the executive committee tasked with the strategic leadership and governance of the organisation.

Pacific programme in US
Toeolesulusulu has also served as co-head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa (School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies) at the University of Auckland and previously worked at the University of Michigan for 10 years, including in roles as director of the Asian Pacific Islander American Studies Programme and as an associate professor in the History Department and Programme in American Culture.

An Aucklander, Toeolesulusulu was born and bred in Glen Innes, the son of a factory worker from Samoa and a nurse from the Far North. He is married with two teenage daughters.

Toeolesulusulu retains strong connections to many of Auckland’s communities, especially in South Auckland. He has been an innovator at the interface between schools and universities and has been an important leader and supporter of the work of schools, in pedagogy, curriculum and governance.

AUT chancellor Rob Campbell said the council was looking forward to welcoming Toeolesulusulu Dr Salesa to AUT next year.

“We are impressed by Damon’s vision of the critical contribution AUT can make to Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific through quality research and teaching, and the role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi throughout the work of the university,” he said.

What are the views of Pacific journalists on professional ethical issues and what pressures affect their work? What is the age, experience, qualifications and gender breakdown of the Pacific journalist corps?

These crucial questions are addressed in a recently published research carried out by the University of the South Pacific (USP).

Published in the latest Pacific Journalism Review, the research investigates the journalism culture in the Pacific Islands, with the findings offering insights into possible remedial methods and future directions.

• READ MORE: Other articles at Pacific Journalism Review
• Worlds of Journalism study

“Watchdogs under Pressure: Pacific Islands Journalists’ Demographic Profiles and Professional Views” is based on a comprehensive survey providing an update on the demographic profiles, professional views, role conceptions, and perceived influence of more than 200 Pacific Islands journalists in nine USP member countries — Cook Islands, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Associate Professor in Pacific Journalism Shailendra Singh at the School of Pacific Arts, Communication, and Education (SPACE) co-authored the paper with Professor Folker Hanusch from the University of Vienna, who is also an international expert on world journalism cultures.

Dr Singh said that while global scholarship on journalists’ professional views had expanded tremendously in recent decades, the Pacific remained a blind spot. For example, the Pacific was not featured in the Worlds of Journalism Study on 76 countries, perhaps the most ambitious undertaking in the field.

He said that USP had financed this critical research in its member countries as journalists provide a valuable public service in the region.

Impact of journalists’ health
“Journalists’ health has an impact on the health of journalism, and journalism’s health has an impact on the health of the countries in the region. As a result, it is incumbent upon us to conduct due diligence on our journalists, on whom we rely for information in making vital judgments,” Dr Singh added.

“Through such research, we find out many things including the challenges they face.”

He discussed how the data could be used to support media organisations and national governments make better policy decisions.

“Our survey found an improvement in education and experience levels in the current cohort of journalists, compared to 30 years ago, but we are still lagging at the international level. This data may persuade governments, universities, and international donors to provide more fellowships and scholarships to build on the improvements of the last 30 years,” Dr Singh said.

The study also found a parity in female and male journalists overall. However, male journalists tended to hold senior editorial positions, implying that most females required help in obtaining more senior positions in media organisations.

He emphasised the report provided an enhanced understanding of the journalism culture in the Pacific Islands to media organisations, governments, civil society organisations, and aid donors.

“In the face of imminent concerns like climate change, this work can be used to identify future paths and remedial measures,” Dr Singh said.

Fieldwork team
“He acknowledged USP’s journalism teaching assistants Geraldine Panapasa and Eliki Drugunalevu for helping out in the fieldwork, as well as the USP Research Office, for sponsoring the study, along with USP as a whole for supporting the journalism programme. He also praised Professor Pal Ahluwalia, USP vice-chancellor and president (VCP), for his vision, which placed a high value on journalism.

“As well as our co-funders, the US Embassy in Fiji and the Pacific Media Centre in Auckland, New Zealand. Special thanks to Professor David Robie, the former USP journalism coordinator and founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review for publishing our work,” Dr Singh added.

Professor Ahluwalia praised the team’s joint work in publishing this study and commended them on the study’s “astounding” findings.

He stressed that journalists played a significant role in the Pacific and that the concerns identified in the report must be addressed.

“We are required to look after their well-being and look into the issues they are encountering,” the VCP added.

Acting deputy vice-chancellor education Professor Jito Vanualailai congratulated Dr Singh and the team for the excellent paper.

He expressed his desire to see more comprehensive studies in the future, which he believed would help the Pacific region.

Republished with permission.

• The full research paper

A Frontline investigative journalism article on the politics behind the decade-long Bougainville war leading up to the overwhelming vote for independence is among articles in the latest Pacific Journalism Review.

The report, by investigative journalist and former academic Professor Wendy Bacon and Nicole Gooch, poses questions about the “silence” in Australia over the controversial Bougainville documentary Ophir that has won several international film awards in other countries.

Published this week, the journal also features a ground-breaking research special report by academics Shailendra Singh and Folker Hanusch on the current state of journalism across the Pacific – the first such region-wide study in almost three decades.

• READ MORE: Pacific Journalism Review – the articles

Griffith University’s journalism coordinator Kasun Ubayasiri has produced a stunning photo essay, “Manus to Meanjin”, critiquing Australian “imperialist” policies and the plight of refugees in the Pacific.

The main theme of the double edition focuses on a series of articles and commentaries about the major “Pacific crises” — covid-19, climate emergency (including New Zealand aid) and West Papua.

Unthemed topics include journalism and democracy, the journalists’ global digital toolbox, cellphones and Pacific communication, a PNG local community mediascape, and hate speech in Indonesia.

This is the first edition of PJR published since it became independent of AUT University last year after previously being published at the University of Papua New Guinea – where it was launched in 1994 – and the University of the South Pacific.

Lockdowns challenge
“Publishing our current double edition in the face of continued covid-driven lockdowns and restrictions around the world has not been easy, but we made it,” says editor Dr Philip Cass.

“From films to photoessays, from digital democracy to dingoes and disease, the multi-disciplinary, multi-national diversity of our coverage remains a strength in an age when too many journals look the same and have the same type of content.”

“We promise this journal will have a strong focus on Asian media, communication and journalism, as well as our normal focus on the Pacific.”

Founding editor Dr David Robie is quoted in the editorial as saying the journal is at a “critical crossroads for the future” and he contrasts PJR with the “oppressively bland” nature of many journalism publications.

“I believe we have a distinctively different sort of journalism and communication research journal – eclectic and refreshing,” he said.

The next edition of PJR will be linked to the “Change, Adaptation and Culture: Media and Communication in Pandemic Times” online conference of the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) being hosted at AUT on November 25-27.

• Pacific Crises: Covid, climate emergency and West Papua, Pacific Journalism Review, edited by Philip Cass and David Robie, September 2021

Professor David Robie, founding director of the AUT Pacific Media Centre, has relaunched Asia Pacific Report as an independent Pacific affairs and analysis portal with many students or recent graduates around the region among the contributors.

Partnering with Selwyn Manning, publisher of Evening Report.nz, he is nurturing young Pacific journalists following the tradition that they started as an industry partnership with Pacific Scoop in 2009.

Asia Pacific Report has a growing audience in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and also in other Pacific nations.

“There is a continuing need for an independent portal of this kind given the dearth of Pacific outlets in the mainstream New Zealand media,” Dr Robie said.

“Apart from RNZ Pacific, Tagata Pasifika, and the Pacific Media Network, which do a fine job, there is little else.”

Asia Pacific Report, a non-profit publication, has community partnerships with the Asia Media Centre, RNZ, In-Depth News, Earth Journalism Network, University of the South Pacific, The Pacific Newsroom, Wansolwara and others.

Dr Robie retired from AUT in December after 18 years at the university – 13 of them as director of the PMC. He was the first journalism PhD (2004) at AUT and also the first associate professor and then professor in journalism (2012), specialising in Asia-Pacific and development media studies.

Previously he had been head of journalism at both the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific for a decade.

He was awarded the AUT Vice-Chancellor’s teaching award in 2011 and the AMIC Asian Communications award in Dubai in 2015 and has authored or edited 10 books.

He founded Pacific Journalism Review (PJR) research journal at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994 and the publication is continuing independently with the current editorial team. However, Dr Robie has swapped editorial roles with former associate editor Dr Philip Cass who has become editor.

• Dr David Robie retires at AUT University
• Asia Pacific Report on Facebook
• Pacific Journalism Review on Facebook

For many years I thought universities were the ideal place to establish centres of investigative journalism excellence. Now I’m not so sure.

My views have been shaken to the core by the Auckland University of Technology gutting the Pacific Media Centre. Its future in anything but name is now in doubt.

The PMC’s founder, highly regarded journalist and academic Professor David Robie, retired last December. In short order the centre’s offices were emptied and the contents, one hopes, placed in storage. The School of Communication Studies head, Dr Rosser Johnson, announced that PMC would henceforth share space in the main media studies workspace.

• LISTEN TO Radio 531pi: The Pacific Media Centre controversy
• Future of AUT’s Pacific Media Centre under spotlight following director’s departure – Teuila Fuatai
• Who is killing off top Pacific journalism – and why?
• Concerns grows over PMC after shock office ‘closure’ and no director
• Pacific reaction to ‘end of an era’
• Outcry over signs of upheaval at PMC – Dateline Pacific
• Outcry over signs of upheaval at Pacific Media Centre – APR
• How the ‘voice of the voiceless’ kaupapa became derailed at the Pacific Media Centre
• LISTEN to RNZ Dateline Pacific

In an email he said “everything that the school is planning will, we believe, enhance its status and increase its visibility” and that he would be calling for expressions of interest in the leadership of the centre.

However, those previously involved in its operation speak of a communication vacuum and no resumption of centre activity. Four unmarked desks have apparently been assigned. The PMC website appears to have been frozen, apart from links to associated – but independent – operations Asia Pacific Report and the Pacific Journalism Review.

Dr Robie has made clear his views on the plight of the centre and he has been joined by a legion of concerned academics, journalists and concerned members of communities throughout the Asia Pacific region. The Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative, in a diplomatically-worded letter to AUT warned what would be lost if PMC – “the jewel in AUT’s crown” – is closed or subsumed.

It suggested the best solution may be to reconstitute the PMC as an independent centre. The undiplomatic translation of that is “Take it away from the School of Communications Studies”.

Systemic issues at the interface
I would go a step further: Take it away from AUT because there is a fundamental conflict of interest between tertiary institutions and centres of investigative journalism. There are systemic issues at the interface between academic and craft practices. The tension has been exacerbated by the fact that universities can no longer measure the success of their journalism courses by the number of graduates they place in jobs.

Many of those jobs simply no longer exist and prospective students know it. As a result, the focus has shifted to a more traditional university outlook based on theoretical teaching and research outputs.

The Pacific Media Centre is not the first to fall victim.

In Sydney, the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, one of the county’s flagships of investigative reporting, closed in 2017 after 25 years of racking up a plethora of award-winning stories. The University of Technology Sydney unceremoniously closed the ACIJ following “periodic evaluation of performance against the strategic objectives of the faculty and the university”.

What that means in plain English is that the centre’s journalism wasn’t counting sufficiently towards the research-based metrics that determined how much funding UTS could attract from government.

AUT’s Pacific Media Centre is in exactly the same position. Its journalism may be lauded here and throughout the region (and beyond) but it does not push the required buttons by fitting neatly into conventional academic methodologies at the core of the Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF) model that determines a large part of the share of government money that each tertiary institution receives.

Professor Chris Nash, an award-winning ABC journalist who became director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism before moving to Monash University, told me in a telephone conversation last week that journalists were in very vulnerable positions within universities and were often pushed into internecine competition with their colleagues (let alone the broader disciplinary framework of the social sciences) over what should be their proper academic output.

Research-based imperatives
He said journalism wasn’t alone in experiencing this misalignment with the research-based imperatives of academia. Nursing and architecture had been similarly afflicted, as had history which is now one of the most august disciplines in the social sciences.

Nash wrote a provocative book What is Journalism? that argues that journalism should be treated as an academic discipline on a par with history.

“Journalism is where history used to be,” he told me. “History used to manifest precisely what journalism is being accused of, which is that it is purely empirical with no analysis and no reflection.

“It’s a common political problem that disciplines have to face as they emerge in the context of a university environment. I have to say journalism has handled it fairly badly, particularly with its focus on the job market… It has seriously failed to actually develop a concept of journalism as academic research.”

Dr Robie (whose own body of PBRF-recognised research is prodigious) acknowledged as much in a 2015 article in which he argued for greater recognition of “journalism-as-research” in the PBRF funding model.

That hasn’t come to pass and it’s clear from the dire situation facing the PMC that the friction between practice and research is as abrasive as ever.

Centres like the Pacific Media Centre develop an ethos that is driven by their leadership, and particularly by their founders. When it is time for the leaders to move on (and at 75 David Robie had more than earned his retirement), the issue of succession is vitally important.

Panama Papers moving force
When I was conducting research for my book Trust Ownership and the Future of News, I interviewed Charles Lewis, founder of the Centre for Public Integrity in Washington. The centre is the moving force behind the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that uncovered the Panama Papers.

After Lewis left the centre in 2004 it went through a series of directors, its fulltime staff dropped from 40 to 25 and it committed a number of embarrassing gaffs. It has since recovered its equilibrium and regained its place in the media landscape, but Lewis told me he believed insufficient attention had been paid to succession planning and to codifying values and ethos.

Dr Robie was mindful of the issue of succession and has written extensively on the values and ethos of the Pacific Media Centre but the reality is that neither he nor the staff of the centre had any control over events following his retirement. The decision-making was within the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies and its School of Communications Studies.

Not only were there no guarantees of any continuation of the imperatives or ethos Dr Robie had built up over 13 years, but the terms of reference for a new appointee could – and likely will – pay more attention to the academic interests of the school (and its PBRF score) than to journalism.

This endgame is in stark contrast to the centre’s beginnings. It was established as one of five autonomous centres that comprised the Creative Industries Research Institute. Although the institute was within the university, it enjoyed significant independence.

The inaugural chair of the PMC advisory board, Selwyn Manning, told me that, from the onset, the centre’s purpose was clear.

The Pacific Media Centre Project – a video made by Alistar Kata for the PMC while she was contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch.

“It was established to be a place of Pacific (and Asia Pacific) identity, where undergraduates, and those from industry, could locate, research and learn. Key to the PMC’s purpose was to ensure a bridge be constructed between the university (AUT), external journalistic bodies, and industry. The work that post-graduate students produced was to have relevancy and value in both academic terms and as real examples of quality Fourth Estate reportage in the real world.

Significant support from AUT
“The model attracted significant support from within AUT, from external networks, and from industry. The PMC’s governing board reflected this and under David Robie’s directorship the PMC soon became a thriving example of collaboration, where common ground was identified among its stakeholders, and the PMC’s direction and purpose was sustained.

“The support extended to the PMC from the Creative Industries Research Institute was first class. But, when some years later CIRI was disestablished, and the PMC was shifted to be within the School of Journalism, then it appeared to me support for its efforts and its autonomous-identity began to ebb. This was despite the PMC having achieved prominence among other media centres in the Asia Pacific region, and having produced a steady stream of AUT post-graduates, including many people recognised for high achievement.”

All of this points to a basic incompatibility that is not limited to AUT, its Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, or its School of Communications Studies. They are victims of a flawed system.

The neoliberal underpinnings of tertiary funding in this country (and elsewhere) demand policies that maximise an institution’s ability to attract contestable government money. And in the neoliberal belief that everything can be measured, the whole system is skewed by decisions on what will count. In the case of New Zealand, that means academic research outputs dictated by recognised methodologies.

That system is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future so the only way in which centres such as the PMC can survive – and thrive – is for them to be separated from institutions that devalue the product of their endeavours.

Disengagement should not be total because students and faculty members benefit immeasurably from working in a rigorous journalistic environment. And, let’s face it, they represent cheap manpower while they learn and research.

The demise of the Creative Industries Research Institute suggests there is no safety in so-called independent structures within a university. The need is for structures that have their own charter, funding security, and ability to freely associate with tertiary institutions.

NZ’s Pacific aid
New Zealand’s current official aid to the Pacific amounts to more than $440 million a year. A tiny fraction of that sum would finance the Pacific Media Centre, the worth of which is widely recognised in the region.

The Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative’s letter to the AUT vice-chancellor stated that Pacific journalism is “under existential threat” and that the PMC “has a key role to play in. the survival of public interest journalism and media in the region”. That, surely, is a justification for funding.

The government already funds the Asia Media Centre (through the Asia New Zealand Foundation) and the Science Media Centre (through the Royal Society Te Apārangi). The Pacific Media Centre should be added to that list and re-established as a stand-alone trust. It should continue its original remit and maintain its associations with Asia Pacific Report and the Pacific Journalism Review.

It may be time, however, to find a new university partner. I fear AUT has damaged its associations beyond repair.

Dr Gavin Ellis holds a PhD in political studies. He is a media consultant and researcher. A former editor-in-chief of The New Zealand Herald, he has a background in journalism and communications – covering both editorial and management roles – that spans more than half a century. Dr Ellis publishes a blog called Knightly Views where this commentary was first published and it is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

The Radio 531pi interview with Dr David Robie and doctoral candidate Ena Manuireva by host Ma’a Brian Sagala.

A retired university professor and a Tahitian doctoral candidate have appealed to Auckland University of Technology to “listen” to the Asia-Pacific people and stakeholders involved in the Pacific Media Centre when making decisions about its future.

The centre has been embroiled in controversy over its leadership succession since early last month when the 13-year centre’s office was suddenly closed and all its memorabilia, archives and Pacific taonga were packed up and stashed in a locked office.

Also, the centre’s media website has not been active for the past three months since the founding director retired last December.

• LISTEN TO Radio 531pi: The Pacific Media Centre controversy
• Who is killing off top Pacific journalism – and why?
• Concerns grows over PMC after shock office ‘closure’ and no director
• Pacific reaction to ‘end of an era’
• Outcry over signs of upheaval at PMC – Dateline Pacific
• Outcry over signs of upheaval at Pacific Media Centre – APR
• LISTEN to RNZ Dateline Pacific

While the university’s School of Communication Studies has claimed that the office was being “moved”, staff involved in the centre were said to be unaware where this was located.

Expressions for interest in the leadership were called for a week ago by the school management and a new director (or co-directors) – an internal appointment – is expected to be announced next month.

Radio 531pi Pacific Days Show host Ma’a Brian Sagala today interviewed the founding director of the centre, Professor David Robie, a former head of journalism at both the universities of Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific, and a Tahitian doctoral candidate, Ena Manuireva, who played a key role in the centre’s nuclear-free Pacific project last year, about the future of the centre.

Both expressed serious concern about the future direction with Dr Robie saying there was a serious gap between AUT’s promises and the reality and Manuireva saying that any dilution of the PMC’s cross-disciplinary role would have a negative impact on the “space” that the PMC had provided for Asia-Pacific voices marginalised by mainstream media.

Dr Robie said that his experience over the past two years had been that management had “not listened” to key people involved in the centre or the Pacific and diversity stakeholders represented by the PMC advisory board.

He said he was concerned that an “agenda” was being pushed.

Manuireva said that AUT should demonstrate greater commitment to the centre and listen to the people who ought to be leading in the future.

The Radio 531pi interview today by Ma’a Brian Sagala.

The centre’s recently retired director Professor David Robie has raised concern about the way AUT is handling the PMC’s leadership succession, as well as the removal of its physical office without a clear relocation.

It prompted an outcry among regional exponents of Pacific journalism.

Johnny Blades reports:

Since its inception in 2007, the Pacific Media Centre has built an extensive body of work in regional Asia-Pacific journalism and media research.

• READ MORE: Who is killing off top Pacific journalism – and why?
• Concerns grows over PMC after shock office ‘closure’ and no director
• Pacific reaction to ‘end of an era’
• Outcry over signs of upheaval at PMC – Dateline Pacific
• LISTEN to RNZ Dateline Pacific

But a little over a month after Dr David Robie retired as its director in December, he was sent photos of the PMC’s office stripped of its theses, books, monographs, research journals, media outputs, indigenous taonga and other history.

“I was hugely disappointed when I heard about the removal of the office and we were sent photographs,” Dr Robie said.

“Hugely disappointing because basically it’s trashing 13 years of building up the centre. And this was done without any consultation with any of the stakeholders or the PMC people themselves.”

Professor Robie, who said no clear relocation plan had been presented to the PMC and there was no inventory of the removed materials, also criticised AUT for not taking up his succession plan.

But the head of AUT’s School of Communication Studies, Dr Rosser Johnson, said the faculty had opted for a call for expressions of interest in the leadership role, rather than directly appointing someone.

He said they were looking to make the Pacific Media Centre more visible and more integrated with the life of the faculty.

“We’re moving a few people around. One of the groups of people who are moving around is the PMC,” Dr Johnson explained.

“But it’s moving to space that’s got double the office space and at least double the space for people to work in.”

However, people within the School of Communication Studies who spoke to RNZ Pacific were uncertain about where the PMC office would be, and whether it may simply be a small part of a larger, open space shared with other divisions.

A lack of communication and consultation over the move has drawn condemnation from many regional journalists and researchers.

With almost three months having elapsed since Dr Robie retired, there has been growing suspicion that AUT management will look to change the Asia-Pacific focus of the centre.

Ena Manuireva, a Tahitian doctoral candidate, said that given the recent Davenport review of the university’s culture which found bullying was rife, the handling of the PMC was “shameful”.

“It’s good for AUT to have some critical thinking in that department in their university. I’m trying to see what is the gain that they’re trying to have, what will be the outcome [of the changes],” Manuireva said.

“The outcome would be that AUT would be looked at as a university that’s not open to everyone, especially to the Pacific.”

Furthermore, the Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative (AAPMI) has called for action to save PMC, warning that its closure would come “at a time when Pacific journalism is under existential threat and Pacific journalism programmes suffer from underfunding”.

But Dr Johnson denied that the School of Commuications was looking to change the centre’s focus. His characterisation of the matter suggests that the PMC will grow its presence.

“There’s only so much one or two or three people can do. So having more people involved opens up more opportunities for people to link into their communities,” he said.

“There’s absolutely no intention at all to limit the Pacific Media Centre.”

Professor Robie said he would wait and see what transpires, but in his view there was a gap between what was being said by AUT and the reality.

“The thing is that as a centre, [the PMC] had this unique combination of media output as well as the research,” Dr Robie explained.

“I guess what I fear is that there will be a stepping back from the actual media outputs and especially that very broad coverage that we had [through student projects such as Bearing Witness and Pacific Media Watch].”

Dr Johnson said a call for expressions of interest in the Pacific Media Centre leadership role would go out this week.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A senior academic staff member at the Auckland University of Technology wants the vice-chancellor to resign following a scathing report into bullying.

The independent review heard more than 200 complaints of bullying and found evidence of sexual harassment by eight former staff.

It said some employees had been so severely affected they had been forced to take stress or sick leave, and had cried during interviews.

• READ MORE: Review finds bullying, past sexual harassment at Auckland University of Technology
• The full Davenport report
• AUT University’s #MeToo moment
• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘You can’t build a better system when the foundations of it might be rotten’ – Duration (4′:29″)

The independent review, commissioned by AUT in response to a series of #MeToo reports, was prepared by Kate Davenport QC.

The staff member quoted on RNZ Morning Report, who RNZ agreed not to name, said there was a culture of bullying at the university.

“When I was enquiring about the head of another school, and who that person was, and you know, just out of curiosity really, and the answer I got from one person was, ‘oh that person’s all right, she’s very easy to shout down’.

“Meaning that if you have a disagreement with that person, if you raise your voice they back off.”

Culture affected decision-making
The culture had also affected wider decision-making, said the staff member, because senior leadership were used to ignoring problems.

That had become evident when the university announced it would restructure the academic year into shorter course blocks because of covid.

This was despite early warnings the changes would not work.

“You can’t do block courses when you have a whole load of people, how can I put it? A whole load of people already signed up to do a course.

“Then you’re going to change, their weekly courses to block, there will be too many timetable clashes for this to be marginally practical.”

Despite these early concerns being raised by staff, the university went ahead before backtracking amid a student outcry, said the staff member.

Bullying had been highlighted in a number of past surveys, but AUT had ignored them “so it isn’t coming out now, it’s been happening for quite a long time,” they said.

“You don’t get a working culture this impregnated with a bullying managerial style overnight. It takes a few years to develop.”

Accountability needed
The staff member said the only way AUT would ever change its culture would be to ensure some level of accountability.

“And the people that are at the top, that have been ignoring this for so long probably need to be stood down or replaced…”

“I would say that includes the vice-chancellor, I would say that includes a number of people in human resources that have ignored complaints, and I would also think that many of the deans would need to be looked at.”

In a statement released with the report, AUT Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack said he and the university’s council accepted the findings.

“In response to these findings, on behalf of the university and personally, I want to apologise to all those past and present who have been subjected to bullying or other forms of harassment,” he said.

“As a university, we should have done better and my commitment as vice-chancellor is that we will do better starting today.”

‘Systemic problem’
AUT economics professor Rhema Vaithianathan, a spokesperson for Stop Sexual Harassment on Campus (SSHOC), said the report held no-one to account.

Dr Vaithianathan said there were women at the university at the moment feeling bullied because of harassment complaints they had tried to prosecute in the past.

“So this ‘lets move on, it’s a new day, it’s a new system’ doesn’t wash when people feel like they haven’t had justice.

“People who right now, today, feel they haven’t had justice first need to have justice, and then we can move on to a more just system.”

The report said badly-performing staff were moved to other roles, promoted or “moved sideways” rather than the university tackling their problems.

“The fact that eight people have left is no comfort to us because we represent all universities in the country and we feel that the solution cannot lie in individual universities getting rid of people,” Vaithianathan said.

“I do think there is a systemic problem.”

A national independent body commissioned to hear complaints, both from university students and staff, document them and follow up on those, was sorely needed, she said.

RNZ has approached AUT for further comment.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Pacific Media Centre students, staff and journalists gathered at Auckland University of Technology this week and debated reset strategies for the future in a “rollercoaster” symposium.

They also farewelled founding centre director Professor David Robie, who is departing after 18 years at AUT after a surprise announcement. He wishes to concentrate on his journalism, book, research and innovative projects.

Centre volunteer photographer and publications designer Del Abcede, who is also leaving, captured these images on the day. The programme featured a group of West Papuan postgraduate students from Auckland and Waikato who gave a cultural performance.

Master of ceremonies was Tagata Pasifika reporter and presenter John Pulu.

• Pacific journalism, media and diversity researchers tackle challenges ahead
• Former University of the South Pacific professor Dr Crosbie Walsh pens a tribute
• Media education messages of support on Cafe Pacific
• ‘Empowerment is really important. Journalism isn’t just about writing a good story … but empowering people with information in a democracy’

PMC highlights and new horizons

1 of 18

Minister of Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins says he is hopeful a lockdown can be avoided in New Zealand’s largest city after a community case of covid-19 surfaced in Auckland yesterday.

He told RNZ Morning Report preliminary results from genome sequencing suggest the woman’s case was linked to a recent Defence Force cluster.

He later announced this afternoon there had been no additional community cases linked to the latest Auckland case – which has now been directly connected to the Defence Force cluster – and there would be no change to the alert status (level 1).

Today’s media briefing by minister Hipkins. Video: RNZ News

The Auckland CBD can reopen, but the government will make mask wearing on public transport in the Auckland region mandatory on an “ongoing basis”.

Earlier, in the RNZ interview Hipkins said: “That’s looking pretty encouraging. We won’t get the final result of that until later on this morning but it is looking more likely that we will be able to identify a link with the defence group that we’re also dealing with, that will be very very helpful if we can do that.”

• READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – German bank proposes 5% tax on home workers to address covid inequality
• Covid-19: NZ tells Auckland workers in downtown to work from home
• Mystery case visited AUT campus in central Auckland this week

The minister said there were a few more pieces to the puzzle to come, but that enough information would be available to make a decision this afternoon on whether to change covid-19 response levels.

The woman in her 20s, who had no connection with the border or managed isolation, lives at the central city Vincent Residences apartment complex.

The minister said investigations, involving CCTV footage analysis, would determine whether the virus was spread from a nearby quarantine isolation facility.

RNZ reported that residences had not been told of the outbreak when its reporters arrived at the scene yesterday, with one man saying he had been rejected from getting tested at two centres because they were too busy.

Other residents, he said, had avoided self-isolating at the building when they were told by leaving immediately.

Testing team dispatched
Hipkins said a testing team was dispatched to the building, but that the process took time and that health officials didn’t have an unlimited number of staff available.

“My understanding is Auckland regional public health officials were liaising with the building manager. They did send people to the building, but it may have taken them some time to get there.

“I was assured last night that the testing team arrived on site, so we’ll get an update on that later on this morning.”

The woman who has the virus, a student at Auckland University of Technology, works at the A-Z Collection clothing store on High Street. She developed symptoms on Monday, went for a test on Tuesday and was told to isolate. Health officials say she called in sick on Wednesday, but after talking to her boss put on a mask and went in.

Hipkins would not be drawn on whether the case should be investigated by WorkSafe, but said it was a disappointing situation.

“My message to all employers, up and down the country, is that if someone rings in sick and says ‘I need to stay home’, well, do everything you can to support them to do that. When it’s related to Covid-19 there is additional financial support available to businesses if they need that.”

His comments were echoed by Auckland Mayor Phil Goff. He told Morning Report incidents where people go into work when sick could not be allowed to happen again.

‘Basic rule to follow’
“One thing that stands out in this case – the most basic rule that we all have to follow is, if you’re sick with symptoms please stay at home,” he said.

“Particularly if you get tested and are advised to stay at home, you have to follow that advice. It’s unbelievable that a person arrives at work after they’ve been tested before they have the results.

“Obviously if her story is true, any suggestion that pressure was put on employees showing symptoms to come to work, that’s just crazy. That can’t be allowed to happen.”

Goff also urged all Aucklanders to take a precautionary approach and use face masks and the QR code.

“The advice that we get from the Ministry of Health this afternoon is going to be critical. Auckland Council is taking a precautionary approach … we’ve closed the library, we’ve closed the art gallery, Auckland University is closed and people are doing exams online.”

Officials are tracing the woman’s movements over the weekend.

On Saturday, she went to Smith & Caughey’s on Queen Street and Red Pig Restaurant on Kitchener Street. On Sunday and Monday she bought takeaways from Starbucks Queen Street, Sunnytown Restaurant on Lorne Street, and the Gateau House on Queen Street.

About 100,000 Aucklanders who work in the CBD were urged to work from home today.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

Six years of diverse Pacific research by Auckland University of Technology staff and students has been profiled in a new publication.

Presented by the Vakatele Pacific Research Network last week, AUT Pacific Research Profiles 2012-2018 showcases more than 75 researchers and their efforts over that period.

The profiled research covers a wide array of Pacific issues from Samoan elders’ perception of ageing in New Zealand to road construction in Tonga to the incorporation of Pasifika beliefs in clinical psychology.

READ MORE: Contribution by Pacific community more than money, says academic

The research booklet, the second since the first in 2011, was commemorated at a launch night at AUT when the researchers were applauded for their hard work and valuable contribution to the Pacific community.

Coordinator of the Vakatele Pacific Research Network Tagaloatele Emeritus Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop commended the academics and their families for their resilience and their selflessness.

“We’re not just doing the research to get a PhD, we’re not just doing this research to get AUT EFTS, we are doing this research for our communities and for New Zealand’s aspirations to be a culturally diverse, just and equitable nation,” she said.

The inaugural foundation Professor of Pacific Studies in AUT’s Institute of Pacific Policies, Tagaloatele was the inspiration for the publication, supervising 20 of the profiled researchers herself.

Significant growth
She said that although there was pressure to publish profiles of the research online only, she insisted that Pacific people still relished “the hard copy”.

“Pacific people like to hold a book in their hands, and ask who’s doing what?”

She said in the booklet’s introduction that there had been significant growth in Pacific research and Pacific students entering postgraduate study.

“Many researchers are exploring what I will call the hard social issues – vulnerability issues relating to educational achievement, health, livelihood security, poverty and the increases in violent and risky behaviour.

“In striving to give voice to Pacific peoples’ experience, our researchers are now engaging with and critiquing Pacific research models and knowledge construction processes.”

Community research
“This commitment to community-grounded Pacific research is yielding rich returns.”

The publication also featured the Pacific Media Centre along with director Professor David Robie, publications designer Del Abcede and research fellow Dr Sylvia Frain across a double-page spread.

Chair of the PMC Advisory Board Associate Professor Camille Nakhid was also profiled, along with her research on the experiences of African youth in New Zealand, as was Papua New Guinean doctoral candidate Stephanie Tapungu, who is affiliated with the PMC.

Tapungu is researching the relationship between journalism and public relations in her home country, where she is currently completing her field work.

The publication was launched by Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Commissioner Dr Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo, herself a graduate from AUT.

Pacific ‘Queen’
She praised the researchers and Tagaloatele, referring to her as “the Queen”. She said that the demands of academia and society tested the will of academics, citing a Samoan adage as a metaphor for their journeys.

“E fili i le tai se agavaa – Let the sea determine the worth of this canoe.”

Michael Andrew is the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project contributing editor and a postgraduate student journalist in the School of Communication Studies.

By Alison Sykora

​Auckland University of Technology is 16th in the world in the newly released Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings that assess the social impact of universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Of the 17 goals, AUT ranked number two for Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11) covering sustainable practices such as research promoting remote working, affordable housing, and investment in art and heritage.

In Gender Equality (SDG 5) AUT is ninth in the world, recognising the percentage of research by female academics, outreach to female students in areas including STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and policies implemented to enable gender equality.

New Zealand universities have excelled in the rankings with University of Auckland achieving first place and Massey University placing number 38.

The rankings support AUT’s commitment to the United Nations SDGs, highlighted by the launch of its Sustainability Roadmap in 2018.

Chair of the AUT Sustainability Taskforce, Professor Thomas Neitzert noted that work in the area of sustainability is ongoing and in line with AUT’s deliberate focus on technological transformation, external impact and industry connections.

“Our students, stakeholders and community expect sustainability to be a priority for AUT. We believe advancing knowledge and understanding of the issues and opportunities around creating a sustainable future is essential,” said Professor Neitzert.

The Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings are the only global performance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

They use carefully calibrated indicators to provide comprehensive and balanced comparisons across three broad areas: research, outreach, and stewardship.

Alison Sykora is head of AUT communications.

• Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings

Muslim students at Auckland University of Technology have praised the gestures of kindness they have received from fellow students and the New Zealand community following last Friday’s terror attack in Christchurch when 50 people were massacred.

The students reflected as New Zealand was poised for a national day of mourning vigils, including a two-minute silence in solidarity across the nation after the Friday Muslim call to prayer relayed by the public broadcasters RNZ and TVNZ at 1.30pm.

Having just returned to Auckland from Christchurch where she was visiting friends and family – some of whom were wounded in the attacks – first year student Ruqaiyah Hanif said the support she had received since Friday had been overwhelming.

“Today I was coming on the train alone and I know as a Muslim we are told to stay in groups just to be safer, I had these young men approach me and they just sat with me and talked with me through the train ride,” she said.

READ MORE: Hate speech ‘gives green light’ to religion, race attacks

“It was just really nice and comforting to know that there are people that care, and they’re everywhere.”

Hanif, who is in her first year of a business degree, said that while she knows people who were killed in the attacks, the strength shown by those recovering is inspiring.

“I visited the Al Noor Mosque and the response centre and met a woman who lost her husband and she was so strong. These people are an inspiration to us.”

The Al Noor Mosque was the first of the two mosques attacked in last Friday’s shooting.

Safe and secure
Fourth year business student Samirah had also noticed the support shown at AUT, saying the measures taken by the police and campus security had made her feel safe and secure.

“I had a police officer approach me and say ‘if there is anything I need we’re around campus and we’re around the Masjid as well’.

“We’ve got prayers coming up on Friday and people have said, ‘we will form a human chain around you so we can make sure you’re safe inside.’”

The AUT Masjid has been under guard by campus security this week and police have also been regularly patrolling the area.

Doctoral student and campus security guard Omer Bin Nasir, who has been stationed outside the AUT Masjid, said that while Friday was a dark day Muslims were touched by the efforts of the public and the government.

“Last Friday was black Friday for Muslims, for New Zealand, but after that, the way the government and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has addressed this issue, I think Muslims living in New Zealand feel much more secure, and they feel they are part of this country.”

Bin Nasir, a former television journalist from Pakistan, who is researching how domestic violence is portrayed in the New Zealand media, said he had experienced racism and bullying in this country before. The issue was resolved quickly, however, after he contacted police.

‘Country before heaven’
“This is a country before heaven,” he said. “It is so beautiful, and the people are really friendly.”

Despite the outpouring of public support in the aftermath of the massacre, other students have echoed Bin Nasan’s experience of racism in New Zealand. Some have even been subjected to abuse since Friday.

“There have more attacks on Muslims from Friday until now. My friend was attacked and my house was attacked,” said student Nora Rahimi.

“Some people realise their agenda is being spread out and they’re like, hmmm, this is acceptable now.”

Rahimi, who is studying for a Bachelor or Arts, said the accused terrorist should have been on a security watch list prior to the attack.

“Despite that I am very happy that the government is taking big steps forward to help us and the community.”

Office manager Zara Jawadi felt the same way. However, she stressed the need for ongoing education about all religions including Islam.

Get educated
“I think people should be inspired now to get out there and educate themselves, and see for themselves what our religion is all about, not just Islam but all the other religions in this country.”

Jawadi, who works for the charity New Muslim Project also said that ongoing racism, no matter the context, was not acceptable.

“Each of us has a responsibility to stand up against racism, whether it’s a small comment or a joke, don’t let that be ok anymore.”

The other students agreed that consistency was the best way to prevent further attacks. They hoped the sense of unity felt after Friday would continue.

“All this love and support we’ve been getting, we just want it to continue,” said Samirah.
“We don’t want it to end in a few weeks and everything goes back to how it was, when we stop knowing about each other and stop caring about each other.

“We want to stay as a country, unified, always.”

Michael Andrew is the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project contributing editor.

• Other mosque attack stories

Leitis in Waiting, a feature documentary, launched the fourth Nuku’alofa International Film Festival 2018 at the Digicel Square in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, last night.

The film is about the struggles of transgender people living in Tonga – known locally as ‘leitis’.

Tonga Leitis is an intrepid group of indigenous transgender women and Joey “Joleen” Mataele an activist campaiging for transgender women and the co-founder of the Tonga Leitis Association.

READ MORE: Talent on show at Nuku’alofa

The film tells a story of the transgender struggle against a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and intolerance against the transgender community in the South Pacific kingdom.

“It is an honour to be able to bring this film to its rightful home,” says Hinaleimona Wong-Kalu,  creator, producer and one of three directors along with Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson.

Encouraging the people
“We would like to encourage people to tell their stories… we like to bring movies from around the world so that Tongans can connect to other parts of the world,” says Sisi’uno Helu, director of the Nuku’alofa International Film Festival, who is also one of the producers of the film.

Leitis in Waiting closely follows Mataele, a devout Catholic of a noble descent who organises an exuberant beauty pageant presided over by Princess Salote Mafileʻo Pilolevu Tuita.

Mataele also provides shelter and training for a young leiti contestant who has been rejected by the family.

She spars with American-financed evangelicals who are threatening to resurrect colonial-era laws that would criminalise the leitis’ lives.

Eva Tanya Mafi, one of the lead characters of the documentary, was also present for the screening.

• The two-day film festival will host 11 international films, including Banabans of Rabi by Blessen Tom and Hele Ikimotu, postgraduate students of New Zealand’s Auckland University of Technology.

The Pacific community has contributed immensely to New Zealand’s economy – but that isn’t the only contribution, says a leading development studies academic.

Dr Crosby Walsh, founding professor of development studies at Massey University and at the University of the South Pacific – and a blogger on Pacific issues, was commenting about some perceived shortcomings of a new report on the Pacific’s contribution to the New Zealand economy.

The Pacific community has contributed $48.4 billion, reports the New Zealand Pacific Economy document published by the treasury last week.

READ MORE: Community input key to the new report

“Our censuses allow people to declare more than one ethnicity, thus, the footballer Reiko Ioane played for the Māori All Blacks,” said Dr Walsh.

This report was prepared to identify and define the economic footprint of the Pacific community within New Zealand’s economy.

Although the statistics show the contribution of the entire Pacific community to the New Zealand economy, it is unwise to “lump all [Pacific communities] together with a single identity,” said Dr Walsh.

“Their contributions vary. For example, Cook Islanders in the orchards of Hawkes Bay; Tokelauans in forestry in Tokorua and car assembly in Lower Hutt,” said Dr Walsh, who publishes Croz Walsh’s blog on the Pacific.

Challenging formulas
This research, funded by the Treasury and the Pacific Business Trust, was welcomed by Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairborn-Dunlop, professor emeritus at Auckland University of Technology.

“This publication is groundbreaking in its revisioning and challenging of commonly used formulas of economic and economic contribution,” said Tagaloatele.

“In doing so, the data has set a comprehensive and really realistic picture of Pacific people’s significant actual contribution to the New Zealand economy but also – and very importantly – what Pacific peoples believe to be important in life, such as social capital,” she said.

“We have a strength -based platform to go forward. I strongly congratulate the Treasury on their boldness in setting these new baselines and directions,” said Tagaloatele.

Low income
About 310,000 Pacific New Zealanders living in the country residing primarily in Auckland, says the new report.

More than 163,000 Pacific employers and employees contribute $6.6 billion into the New Zealand economy, or six percent of the total economy, but with an unequal spread in individual pay.

An average individual income of $40,300 contrasted with an average income of $53,500 of non-Pacific New Zealanders, said the report.

There was a huge inequality in the highest paying job sector but the wages were consistently in the low paid or unskilled jobs.

The highest paying job was in the mining sector for all New Zealanders, the report said, yet, the non pacific people earned an average of $104,900 in contrast to $69,000 of Pacific Islanders.

In the lowest paying industry (accommodation and food services industries), the pay scale for all New Zealanders was the same, averaging about $25,000.

Tertiary education
“Often this work is low or unskilled,” said the report. But in order to combat the low wages, it is important that increasing tertiary education qualifications of young Pacific will enable growing income levels and wealth creation.

As cited in Beehive, “Improving Pacific people’s education success will lead to increased employment, higher incomes, home ownership and overall health and wellbeing for all our people,” said ‘Aupito William Sio, Labour MP and Minister for Pacific Peoples.

The income from the 101,000 Pacific households contributes $12 billion into the economy with an average of $119,000 in comparison to 114,000 to non-Pacific.

The Pacific community also pumped $8 billion dollars into the gross domestic product (GDP) as an income from various fields either by working as employees or employers across a range of sectors in both Pacific and non-Pacific enterprises.

Their contribution to production GDP is $3.1 billion whereas the contribution to expenditure GDP is $10.4 billion.

The total contribution is $48.4 billion.

And the Pacific community spent 27,000 hours a week involved in an unpaid voluntary labour.

The report said that the “Pacific religious organisations (churches) hold over $500 million in assets” and these operations relied on 27,000 Pacific volunteers a week.

• NZ Law Society elects first Pasifika woman as president in ‘sea change’
• New report reveals contribution Pacific New Zealanders make to economy

By Leilani Sitagata

Two final-year communication studies students at Auckland University of Technology decided for their end-of-year project to film a mini documentary about what it means to be a “plastic” islander.

The television majors Elijah Fa’afiu and Jamey Bailey brought it all to life to create Plastic Polynesia.

The nickname “plastic” refers to a person who is out of touch with their culture and perhaps cannot understand or speak their language.

READ MORE Dear Heather, we’re really talented, empowered – and we’re not leeches!

The film looks at the lives of Pacific Islanders who choose to ignore or struggle to embrace their heritage and follows a student learning Samoan for the first time.

Fa’afiu says he was passionate to pursue this concept because he can relate to being “plastic”.

Plastic identity
“I identify with the term ‘plastic’ and it turns out that I’m not the only one who does,” he says.

“I wanted to explain this word and how it differentiates Pacific Islanders from each other.”

He says that over the years he has not been in touch with his Samoan and Māori heritage, and this is the case for a lot of Kiwis.

‘Disconnected from roots’
“I feel I’ve been disconnected from my roots, that wasn’t intentional – it was just how things ended up.”

Alongside Fa’afiu was producer Bailey, who was in a similar boat to him when it comes to being connected to his culture.

“I label myself as ‘plastic’ because it’s an easy scapegoat.

“I don’t speak the language, I don’t do church, I don’t do all the things I’m supposed to do.”

He says that this film was an opportunity to challenge and explore what exactly “we are meant to do”.

Part of the documentary follows university student Rashad Stanley as he undertakes the journey to learning the Samoan language.

Not knowing
This was important to Fa’afiu as he says he can relate to the experience of not knowing such a big part of his culture.

“Being born in New Zealand, my parents did take me to church and speak Samoan to me, but I never really absorbed the language.”

Plastic Polynesia also touches on the idea of how Pacific Islanders are stereotyped.

Bailey says he strongly believes this generation is the one that’s working hard to break the misconceptions surrounding all types of people.

“Growing up, the common stereotypes are that we’re only at school for the sports and music, and mainstream media has been a big part of the way Pacific Islanders are perceived.

“With Plastic Polynesia, we’re trying to break those stereotypes and show that there are Polynesians out there who are different.”

The film also includes an interview with Hibiscus and Ruthless’ Nafanuatele Lafitaga Mafaufau Peter as well as many students.

Bailey says the message is key and he hopes the audience will catch on to the importance behind the story they share.

“In terms of face value, a lot of people just see brown skin and we want to tell that stories don’t get heard.

“Our goal by the end of this is to bring awareness that we can’t keep grouping people, we’re all individual.”

Leilani Sitagata is a reporter on the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project.

• Plastic Polynesia will be screened during the AUT Shorts film festival being held at The Vic in Devonport on November 22

Students and staff gathered in Auckland last night to launch a cookbook with a difference celebrating culinary delights from refugee or immigrant families – and to taste some of the special 15 recipes.

The recipes in Tastes of Home, published by Auckland University of Technology to support an educational scholarship for refugees, were an instant success.

Chapters and the recipes have been provided by volunteer student contributors drawing on their family culinary secrets.

READ MORE: Diversity at Auckland University of Technology

“These recipes have been tested and standardised by the culinary art students for the cook book,” says Lian-Hong Brebner, a diversity manager at AUT and one of the co-editors with Professor Alison McIntosh.

“This is more then a cookbook, it’s about celebration of AUT’s diversity that refugee and migrant background students bring to us, and their their tradition of hospitality,” says Brebner.

Encouraging diversity
AUT as a university encourages diversity and was also the first university in New Zealand to appoint a professor of diversity – Professor Edwina Pio.

“We are also proud to be the first and only New Zealand university to appoint a professor of diversity,” says Dr Andrew Codling, who is the head of the vice-chancellors office.

“We are proud that our students and staff are from over 100 nationalities on our campuses, and in fact over 52 percent of our staff were born overseas – and I am one of them,” says Dr Codling.

Seven percent of the staff are from the Pacific, 6 percent are Māori and 64 percent of the professional staff are female.

AUT scholarship programme
Proceeds from the book sales will go towards a scholarship programme for future refugee students.

About 50 volunteers from diverse backgrounds worked around the clock to make the book possible.

“I volunteered to be part of the project because I loved that the proceeds would be going towards a scholarship for refugees,” says Leilani Sitagata, who is a final year AUT student journalist.

“As I’m a journalism major, I knew how to write, and I love my food – so I thought why not combine the two and help write a cookbook.”

Homemade cuisines from around the world featured in the book include Afgan, Iranian, Iraqi, Kurdish and Māori and many other dishes.

On launch day, 38 copies were sold with a further 100 copies already being pre-ordered online.

• Tastes of Home at AUT Shop

By Rahul Bhattarai

Nine years on the popular Flavourz Film Festival has grown and grown … with more than 170 people watching the screening of 15 student documentary and feature productions at Auckland University of Technology at the weekend.

The short films – ranging between 2min30sec and 12min – featured topics as wide ranging as birdlife, culture, ethnicity, matchmaking, migration, plastic pollution, racism, the Banabans of Rabi and the closure of Hato Petera College. Some were quirky and funny.

“Flavourz has evolved over the years. In the beginning it had a small screening and a small lecture hall, now we have got about a 170 people here today,” said senior lecturer and film maker Jim Marbrook.

READ MORE: Banabans of Rabi short climate change documentary chosen for Nuku’alofa

“it’s a showcase of some of our really interesting work with the focus on diversity and culture.”

Marbrook was one of the founders of the festival along with Tui O’Sullivan, Isabella Rasch and Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie.

“We got the idea to put on a film festival to celebrate diversity,” said Marbrook

AUT has one of the New Zealand’s leading school of communications with the latest facilities and highly experienced staff for the students to learn from.

A Migrant’s Story, by Irra Lee, one of the films screened at the festival. Trailer

‘Lucky students’
“In a Bachelors of Communications Studies programme students are very lucky because we have a very strong journalism school and we have screen production courses,” said James Nicholson, curriculum leader and a senior lecturer for television and screen production.

An 11 minute postgraduate documentary, Banabans of Rabi: A Story of Survival, by Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom, made as part of the three-year-old Bearing Witness climate change project, was one of the films screened.

It has been accepted as an entry in the Nuku’alofa Film Festival in Tonga later this month.

Banabans of Rabi shows the impact of climate change and on the remote northern island of Rabi in particular.

Hele Ikimotu was inspired to make this film in order to explore his own unknown Kiribati culture and the struggles of the people on the island where the Banaban people had been relocated by the British colonial government.

Such voices are seldom heard in the mainstream media.

“When it comes to climate change it is only about the bigger cities and the islands,” Ikimotu said.

‘Telling the stories’
“In Fiji, it’s always about Nadi and Suva but not so much about the outer islands. So, I thought this would be a good opportunity to tell the stories of those who don’t get the opportunity to talk about what they are going through.

“I had never really experienced that side of my culture, never knew too much about it,” he said.

“So when the opportunity to go to Fiji came with the Pacific Media Centre, I used it to go to Rabi. I knew it was a difficult trip but if I put in some effort it could happen.”

The trip from Suva to Rabi was 15 hours long.

“it was a very gruesome trip, with up to seven hours in a motor vehicle at a stretch, and a boat ride,” said Blessen Tom.

Banabans of Rabi: A Story of Survival will be screened at the 2018 Nuku’alofa Film Festival in Tonga on November 22/23.

• Banabans of Rabi on facebook
• Rabi landslide? Not a big problem, horseback and walking the answer

The inaugural Flavourz film festival in 2009.

As part of their coverage of the 2018 Fiji general election this month, University of the South Pacific student journalists have participated in a recent three-day virtual seminar on election reporting organised by the US Embassy in Suva.

The virtual seminars were facilitated by journalism professor Gary Kebbel, who teaches global news, mobile and social media at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is a member of the US State Department speaker programme on reporting on elections.

Final-year journalism student Mereoni Mili said the seminars were timely and relevant, with Fiji heading to the polls next week on November 14.

“As a student reporter covering elections this year for the first time, I found the workshop very useful and helpful. It broadened my understanding of the basic guidelines for reporting election,” she said.

“The seminars also provided an insight into the kinds of issues we could report on for our election coverage. One of the most important things I learnt was the role of the media to provide equal and unbiased coverage for all political parties.”

Another student, Mitieli Baleiwai, said the experience provided an opportunity to learn different reporting styles.

“Professor Kebbel showed us different approaches to covering election stories and how we could use these approaches to help people vote for the best candidate that would represent their interest,” he said.

Basic guidelines
Professor Kebbel focused on basic guidelines for reporting on elections, responsible election coverage and fact-checking candidate claims during the hour-long seminars on September 12, 19 and 26.

The coordinator of USP Journalism, Dr Shailendra Singh, who attended a workshop with the students, said the exercise was integral to preparations for the election coverage.

He said the seminar supplemented USP Journalism’s in-house workshops to prepare students for the event.

Among other things, the in-house workshops covered Fiji’s electoral system, the country’s political landscape, the challenges faced providing fair and balanced coverage within available time and resources, story selection and the overall responsibility of the journalist to the public.

An important element of the workshop was the safety and security of journalists.

Dr Singh added the election was too good a learning opportunity to be missed in terms of applying theoretical knowledge with professional practice and experiencing the outcome.

“The idea of covering the elections is part of authentic learning in which students perform real-world tasks to bring out the practical and meaningful application of the theories and concepts learnt in the classroom,” he said.

Normative journalism
“Students come to terms with both possibilities and limitations of normative journalism theories, that is the difference between how journalism ought to be practised in an ideal situation and how it is actually practised, based on the realities and constraints in the field.”

USP Journalism students will be covering the 2018 general election under the supervision of Dr Singh and Geraldine Panapasa, supervising editor-in-chief of the campus-based newspaper, Wansolwara.

The objective of the election coverage is to give students practical experience about an important democratic process while also becoming acquainted with key issues affecting the country as well as understanding the election process.

The Wansolwara elections team, comprising three staff members and 10 final-year journalism students, will cover major areas in the Western Division from Sigatoka to Korovou as well as major parts of the Southern and Central divisions.

AUT collaboration
Wansolwara will publish a special edition on the election, focusing on the human interest elements as well as a content analysis of people’s expectations of government.

A postgraduate student from Auckland University of Technology, Sri Krishnamurthi, an experienced news agency journalist, will also be attached to the Wansolwara team as a collaboration between the two universities.

He will be reporting for Wansolwara and the Pacific Media Centre’s Asia Pacific Report.

Kaelyn Dekarube (Nauru) is a final-year journalism student at the University of the South Pacific in Suva.

Union members at Auckland University of Technology are withholding marks for two weeks after voting overwhelmingly in favour of taking strike action in support of their salary claims.

The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) has asked for a 3 percent increase for all staff covered by collective agreements and for the lowest paid staff members to be paid the Living Wage.

This modest increase would go some way to ensuring salaries at the university “reflect the time, energy and skill that staff put into their jobs”, said the union in a statement.

“What we’re talking about here are the people who make studying at AUT possible. Every person at the university makes a huge contribution to the quality teaching and learning AUT is known for,” said Irena Brorens, the national industrial officer of the TEU and lead advocate for negotiations at AUT.

Staff have also been negotiating collectively for the Living Wage at AUT.

The university has so far refused to accept that the lowest paid staff working at AUT should be paid the Living Wage of $20.55 per hour.

The union believes that regardless of whether an employee works full time, or as a student working in a café, or as a student mentor at AUT, they should receive this rate which enables them to pay for the basic necessities of life.

“AUT needs to follow the lead of Auckland City Council which has agreed to pay the Living Wage to all employees,” Brorens said.

“Basically, it is the right thing for a university to do.”

Recently more than 1000 staff and students signed a petition calling on Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack to pay staff the Living Wage.

For two weeks, union members will not be releasing student marks to AUT. The TEU has notified the student union of its plans and has told them that AUT can ensure the release of marks by agreeing to what the union is asking for.

• No marks for AUT students as staff vote to strike

Fiji-born veteran journalist Sri Krishnamurthi has some simple advice for aspiring journalists – “Do your job without fear or favour”.

And this advice could not have come at a better time as Fiji awaits the impending 2018 election.

A former journalist with The Fiji Times, Krishnamurthi left for New Zealand after the 1987 coup, returning to his homeland this year after 30 years away to conduct research and writing on an international media project to gauge the mood and issues in Fiji before elections later in the year.

Krishnamurthi is a postgraduate digital communications student from Auckland University of Technology’s (AUT) Pacific Media Centre and arrived in Fiji last week for the International Journalism Project, which is a collaboration between the University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme and AUT’s Pacific Media Centre student publications Wansolwara and Asia Pacific Report.

“I came back and saw a lot of changes in Fiji. I notice that students have easy access to the internet and new technologies,” said the former reporter for the now-defunct New Zealand Press Association news agency.

“Students can search through websites or social media for events, entertainment and information.”

Even though he has more than two decades of experience in journalism, Krishnamurthi believes he still has a lot to learn – even at age 54.

Smart students
“As far as I see, students nowadays are really smart and intellectually fit compared with my early days of learning when there was a lack of facilities to study journalism in Fiji,” said Krishnamurthi, who has a New Zealand Certificate in Journalism and MBA from Massey University in Auckland.

He said USP provided a platform and opportunities for young aspiring journalists to train themselves to become professionals.

Krishnamurthi spent more than 10 years with NZPA as a seasoned sports journalist. He also had a stint with NZ’s Rugby News magazine. One of the many highlights of his career was covering the 1992 Cricket World Cup in New Zealand.

More recently, he has worked for a tertiary institution (NorthTec), an Iwi organisation (Ngatiwai) as well as an economic development agency (Northland Inc) as a communications and marketing specialist.

In 2008, he was press secretary to Shane Jones, then NZ Minister for Building and Construction; Associate Minister for Trade, Treaty Negotiations, Immigration.

Krishnamurthi was also part of the crisis communications management team for the Canterbury District Health Board. He was tasked with managing external and international media interest after arriving in Christchurch within hours of the February 22, 2011 earthquake.

He lists sports, politics, movies, reading and meeting people, going to the gym and camping as some of his interests.

Long-standing partnership
The AUT’s Pacific Media Centre and USP Journalism have a long-standing partnership stretching back more than 11 years.

According to PMC director Professor David Robie, the International Journalism Project has supported challenging projects such as the three-year-old Bearing Witness, where postgraduate students gain first-hand experience of the impact of climate change in Fiji and co-operate in a learning environment with Pacific environmental and journalism students.

“We had two students covering the 2014 election. A short documentary produced by two other students under the Bearing Witness project [Blessen Tom and Hele Ikimotu], featuring Rabi island, has been entered in the Nuku’alofa Film Festival,” Professor Robie said.

“We thank our USP journalism colleagues for the encouragement and support to enable these unique assignments to take place.”

• Trailer for the forthcoming PMC documentary on Rabi Island
• Sri Krishnamurthi’s project file | More stories

Chris Ha’arabe of the Solomon Islands is a final-year journalism student at the University of the South Pacific.

Educator and kuia Tui O’Sullivan has recently retired from Auckland University of Technology after close to 40 years of service.

Born and breed up North in the heart of Ahipara, she says choosing to do tertiary study was the right choice for her.

“Growing up as a young girl you were told to pick from three directions – academic, commercial or homecraft,” O’Sullivan recalls.

“I never had a burning desire to become a teacher, but it just seemed like the best fit for me to follow that path.”

Over the years, O’Sullivan (Te Rarawa and Ngati Kahu) gained a Bachelor of Arts, Master’s in Education (Māori), a Diploma in Ethics and a Diploma in Teaching.

“Coming from a town where you didn’t know names, but everyone was Aunty or Uncle, Auckland was by far a change of scenery.”

O’Sullivan was appointed as the first Māori academic at AUT (then ATI followed by AIT).

Evening classes
She says she taught evening classes on literacy twice a week and had many people from the Pacific wanting to improve their written and oral skills.

“A number of them were members of church groups who wanted to polish up for competitions involving writing and speaking.”

Alongside the night classes, O’Sullivan was involved in the formation of the newspaper Password.

“We formed a newspaper which explained certain things about living in New Zealand, among other things like the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori culture.”

O’Sullivan says there was an increasing number of immigrants to her English classes and Password helped with their immersion into a new culture.

While working in general studies, she says she helped teach communications English and basic skills to full time students, predominantly young men.

However, women started to come along to O’Sullivan’s teaching and the numbers slowly grew.

First women’s group
O’Sullivan was part of the creation of the very first women’s group on campus.

“A senior lecturer approached a couple of us women staff asking if we could keep an eye out for the young women and be an ear should they need that.

“From there Women on Campus developed which looked after the interests of women students and staff members.”

She said they switched the name of the group over the years because what they originally chose didn’t have a ring to it.

“We were called Women’s Action Group for a while, but WAG didn’t sound too good.”

Another first for the university was the establishment of the Ngā Wai o Horotiu marae in 1997 which Tui said she’ll forever remember.

When the marae was officially opened more than 1000 people turned up to celebrate the momentous occasion.

Emphasis on diversity
The marae opening signified AUT acknowledging the Treaty of Waitangi and further emphasised the diversity within the university.

“The majority of staff here have had this willingness and openness to support and promote success for Māori and Pacific students.”

When asked what was one of the most gratifying times for her during her time at AUT, O’Sullivan simply says applauding the young people who cross the stage.

“I always seem to end up with lots of those lolly leis because people end up with so many, and they get off-loaded to me.”

O”Sullivan says that over the years she’s never missed a graduation for her faculty regardless of how many there are.

“Seeing students wearing their kakahu or family korowai, and others who have grown to learn more about their whakapapa and their place in the world.

“Those are the most rewarding times for me.”

O’Sullivan was the equity adviser for the Faculty of Creative Technologies and lectured in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and community issues. She was also a strong advocate of the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) and a foundation member of the advisory board for AUT’s Pacific Media Centre from 2007.

She insists she hasn’t left a legacy but has been part of an ever evolving journey that AUT is going through.

• A virtual tour of Ngā Wai o Horotiu marae

Bearing Witness climate change project students won big last night at the annual awards ceremony for AUT’s School of Communication Studies last night.

Julie Cleaver and Kendal Hutt took out the Spasifik Magazine Prize and Pacific Media Centre Storyboard Award for Diversity Reporting for their work on the Bearing Witness climate change project last year.

Hele Ikimotu was awarded the John Foy Memorial Award for broadcast journalism and will be flying to Fiji tomorrow to continue the Bearing Witness climate change project this year.

READ MORE: Bearing Witness climate project stories

‘Great honour’
Cleaver and Hutt both travelled to Fiji last year where they created a multimedia feature on the Fijian village of Tukuraki, which was hit by a deadly landslide and two cyclones in the space of five years.

The project also won the Dart Asia-Pacific Prize for Journalism and Trauma at the annual Ossie Awards for Student Journalism at Newcastle, NSW, last December.

Cleaver is now editor of Debate Magazine and Hutt is a reporter with the North Shore Times.

Hutt said it was a great honour to receive this award.

“This award is not just our award, it is also Tukuraki’s award for letting us come up to the community and let us tell their story. I think it had only been told in Fijian media and ABC Australia,” said Hutt.

‘Journalism highlight’
Cleaver said her time in Fiji was a moving experience. “It was a privilege to be a journalist and hear these people’s stories. When else would you get to hear these people’s personal testimonies from someone who has been through so much as well.”

“The Pacific Media Centre has been so supportive to both of us throughout this process. Thanks so much to Professor David Robie and everyone else involved,” said Cleaver.

“The trip was a journalism highlight. This is why I wanted to get into journalism.”

“It’s so awesome that Dr Robie is driving this PMC project. It needs someone passionate to keep it going and it’s such a privilege to be a part of that.”

Ikimotu ‘excited’
Bearing Witness climate change project participant Hele Ikimotu received the John Foy Memorial Award.

Louise Matthews, curriculum leader of AUT’s journalism programme, presented the award to Ikimotu and said he “aced” his undergraduate courses and stayed on to do postgraduate study this year.

Ikimotu thanked God, the John Foy Memorial Trust sponsors and his “supportive and inspiring” journalism tutors in his acceptance speech.

“I’m so excited and nervous to go over there. I come from an ancestry of storytellers. There are times I doubted I had the ability to be a good storyteller but this award has affirmed I have what it takes, and I’m so excited to see where journalism takes me.

“I’m so excited to use it as a platform for my people and continue being a voice for the Pacific. I was born in the Islands and I know my family back home are proud that I’m doing it and representing them.”

Ikimotu leaves for Fiji tomorrow with fellow participant Blessen Tom to carry on this year’s version of the Bearing Witness project.

Ikimotu and Tom will be heading on a two-week climate change mission to the main island of Viti Levu where they will be interviewing local people who are directly affected by the devastating effects of climate change in the Pacific.

Ikimotu and Tom will be searching for stories, interviewing people directly affected by climate change and reporting directly for Asia Pacific Report, Wansolwara and other media.

• Wansolwara report on the climate change project in Fiji
• Tukuraki disaster village multimedia report

Full 2017 School of Communication Studies awards:
School of Communication Studies Award for Top Student in the Certificate in Communication Studies: Schumacher Liuvaie

School of Communication Studies Award for Top Year One Bachelor of Communication Studies: Amy Wang

School of Communication Studies Award for Top Year Two Bachelor of Communication Studies: Jamie Ensor

School of Communication Studies Award for Excellence in Communication Theory: Adam Szentes

Communication Studies Postgraduate Scholarships: India Fremaux, Yulia Khan, Malini Radkrishna, Jayakrishnan Sreekumar

Dean’s Award for Best Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies: Elizabeth Osborne

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Master of Communication Studies – Thesis: Ximena Smith

Oceania Media’s Spasifik Magazine Prize and the Pacific Media Centre’s Storyboard Award for Diversity Reporting: Julie Cleaver and Kendall Hutt

The Radio Bureau Award for Top of Research Project: Radio: Georgina Cain-Treleaven

The Radio Bureau Award for Top Radio Student: Maxene London

John Foy Memorial Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism: Hele Ikimotu

Bauer Award for Excellence in Magazine Journalism: Nicole Barratt

New Zealand Herald Award for Top Post Graduate Diploma Student in Creative Practice – Journalism: Arun Jeram

National Business Review Award for the Outstanding Graduate in the BCS Journalism Major: Nicole Barratt

New Zealand Geographic award for Excellence in Photojournalism: Adam Szentes

Public Relations Institute of New Zealand Award for the Top Year 2 Public Relations Student: Jamie Ensor

The winners of the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand Paul Dryden Tertiary Award 2017: Boyan Buha, Jodealyn Cadacio, Simon Cooper, and Georgia Ward

Highly Commended Public Relations Institute of New Zealand Paul Dryden Tertiary Award 2017: Abby Berry, Emma Hilton, Morgan MacFadyen

Public Relations Institute of New Zealand President’s Award for the Top Academic Student in the Public Relations Major: Adam Szentes

The Postgraduate Public Relations Global Virtual Team Winner (2017): Alex Ubels

FCB Change Agency Award for Digital Media Excellence: Stefanee Chua

School of Communication Studies joint Award for Academic Excellence in the Creative Industries Major: Kaylah Burke and Laura Reid

QMS Awards for Advertising Creativity:
QMS Art Director of the Year – Holly Smith
QMS Account Executive of the Year – Ella Bilham
QMS Team of the Year – Will Macdonald and Adam Ramsdale

Francis Porterfield Memorial Award for Excellence in Multicamera Production: Steven Yee

MediaWorks Award for Best Producer: McKay Carroll

Colourful Pacific scenes from the AUT School of Communication Studies annual media awards at the Sir Paul Reeves Building communications precinct in Auckland last night.

On hand to take photos were Del Abcede and David Robie of the Pacific Media Centre (PMC) and Star Kata of Tagata Pasifika. Jean Bell filed the news report and full awards listing here. John Pulu of Tagata Pasifika, an AUT graduate, was the popular MC.

Communication Studies awards 2018

1 of 20

One of New Zealand’s best-selling and most-respected historians and social commentators, Professor Paul Moon, has been acknowledged for his contributions as a researcher, academic and teacher.

The AUT Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate excellence in the university’s community.

Professor Moon was awarded the top accolade – the AUT University Medal – this week for sustained and exceptional academic achievement, especially in Māori, Treaty of Waitangi-related issues and early New Zealand history.

The award at Auckland University of Technology comes as Te Ara Poutama’s Professor Moon prepares to launch a new online course, focusing on the Holocaust.

The paper is the first of its kind in New Zealand and will be delivered entirely online, enabling people to study from all over the world. It is anticipated that the course will be available next year.

Surveying the Holocaust, from its historic origins in European anti-Semitism, through to its implementation during the period of the Third Reich, the course will centre on the preconditions of the Holocaust in Europe, its subsequent implementation and scale, and recent historiographical issues relating to its enduring significance.

Students will have the opportunity to investigate in detail a specific case study relating to the Holocaust, and to examine the relevance of the Shoah in the contemporary world.

Interactive learning
There will be lecturer support, tutorials for students to participate in, interactive learning, regular feedback on students’ work, and a comprehensive range of resources. The technical aspects of the paper will be supported by AUT’s Centre for Learning and Teaching.

“Now, more than ever, it’s important to remember the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and to understand the mentality that led to it,” Professor Moon says.

Professor Moon also received the Teaching Innovation award. His innovative approach to increasing student engagement has resulted in a number of fully online papers focusing on New Zealand history.

These four papers have formed the basis of AUT’s minor in history.

In his 24 years at AUT, Professor Moon has built an international reputation in the field of New Zealand history.

His innovative approach to learning has led to the development of online history papers and delivery of history based treaty seminars, resulting in a new undergraduate history minor at AUT in 2016.

Professor Moon has published 26 books, including Encounters: The Creation of New Zealand, which was shortlisted for the international Ernest Scott Prize in History.

Biographies, Treaty claims
Other titles include This Horrid Practice: The Myth and Reality of Traditional Maori Cannibalism, A History of New Zealand in the Twentieth Century, a trilogy of volumes on the Tūhoe tohunga (expert) Hohepa Kereopa, as well as biographies of Governors Hobson, FitzRoy, and the Ngapuhi chief Hone Heke,

His works have been published by some of the biggest international publishers including Penguin, Random House and HarperCollins.

He has worked on several Treaty of Waitangi claims and with numerous government agencies on Treaty-related issues. He is one of only a few historians whose work has been cited favourably in Parliament by MPs.

“The award is recognition of the growing role of history as a discipline at AUT, and of the contribution of all the people involved in teaching the subject,” Professor Moon says.

• Professor Paul Moon’s page

The Pacific Media Centre’s peer-reviewed research monographs have been launched on the Auckland University of Technology Library’s open access publishing platform Tuwhera.

Pacific Journalism Monographs, first published in 2012, is now freely available on Tuwhera in a move described by PMC director Professor David Robie as a “tremendous step forward”.

“Tuwhera is one of the most exciting initiatives in the university,” he said as the platform celebrated its one-year anniversary.

Pacific Journalism Monographs serve as a research companion to Pacific Journalism Review, publishing longer research projects in an online and booklet format.

Since its launch in 2012, the monographs have covered a diverse range of journalism research, from media freedom and human rights in the Asia-Pacific region to climate change.

The latest edition was a report about self-censorship in Fiji researched and written by prominent Suva journalist Ricardo Morris.

Luqman Hayes, AUT Library’s scholarly communications team leader, also spoke at the launch and reflected on the Tuwhera platform’s significance.

He told visiting academics from the Universitas Gadjah Mada’s Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) Tuwhera meant “be open” in te reo Māori and sought to share knowledge and promote scholarship through an “indigenous set of lenses”.

Such Māori knowledge paradigms and perspectives as mātauranga (knowledge) and whenua were central to the open access platform’s principals, Hayes said.

“Tuwhera’s not just a publisher, but an incubator which has seen philosophical realignment.

“It’s opening up communication in isolated parts of the world,” he said.

CESASS director Dr Hermin Indah Wahyuni spoke about the centre’s journal IKAT and how happy she was that the research centre would be collaborating with the PMC’s Pacific Journalism Review and Tuwhera on a major project involving ecological communication and maritime disasters in the Asia-Pacific region.

“We are really happy and welcome the collaboration,” she said.

Although described by Dr Wahyuni as “a young journal”, IKAT’s first volume was published in July and two further volumes are planned for 2018. Each volume of the journal also comprises six thematic articles, she said.

It is hoped the July 2018 volume on environmental issues in Southeast Asia would align with the collaboration with the PMC, Dr Wahyuni said.

“We hope we can make this journal ready and fulfill international journal standards to become an international journal.”

IKAT also has an international advisory board, which comprises several academics from the US, Japan, Germany, Australia and the Republic of Korea.

PMC director Dr Robie is also a member.

“We are also very happy we have international advisers, including David Robie,” Dr Wahyuni said.

“We are here to read, discuss, write and be productive,” she added.

Dr Wahyuni and her CESASS team teach up to 11 different subjects with classes of over 40 students, along with fulfilling research responsibilities and supervising community service.

This hard work and dedication, however, has earnt them the title of a centre of excellence, the only one in social sciences, by the Ministry of Higher Education.

Dr Wahyuni said the centre was “blessed”.

The CESASS team also gifted the PMC with several Indonesian cultural artefacts.

Proudly on display in the PMC is a handcrafted, silver phinisi model, received on behalf of the research centre by Dr Robie.

The phinisi, or pinisi, is a traditional two-masted sailing ship from South Sulawesi, originally built by the Konjo tribe.

The Gadjah Mada team are in New Zealand from October 2-13 and will be presenting research on the relationship between the media and natural disasters in Indonesia, attending workshops and professional exchanges.

• ‘Asia-Pacific uniting, working together’ – Gadjah Mada team arrive in NZ
• Pacific Journalism Monographs go live on Tuwhera digital platform
• Pacific Journalism Monographs at Tuwhera

Auckland University of Technology has launched a “first of its kind” Indonesia Centre in a cultural diplomacy initiative.

“This is both a celebration and a step forward into the future,” AUT’s Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack said at last night’s launch.

“The centre is an acknowledgement of the strong relationship enjoyed between the government of Indonesia and AUT, and the acknowledgement of both parties to strengthen that relationship,” he said.

Significantly, AUT’s Indonesia Centre was also a “world first partnership”.

“This is the first centre of its type in the world. The Indonesian government sees the establishment of this centre at AUT as a significant move in cultural diplomacy and assuming that this pilot is successful…it is likely to be repeated in other cities around the globe,” McCormack added.

This was echoed by Indonesia’s ambassador to New Zealand, Tantowi Yahya, who said:

“The Indonesia Centre is a pilot project for promoting Indonesia in New Zealand…It is quite an ambitious undertaking and if it succeeds it will be replicated in other cities around the world. If it succeeds, it will also be the opening door for Indonesia to work with many countries through culture.”

Centre cultural addition
It was hoped the centre will be an addition to both the cultural life of the university and Auckland, the delegates also acknowledged.

“I’m very hopeful that every visitor to this centre will be enchanted by the richness of Indonesia’s cultural diversity and it is also hoped it will become a window for New Zealanders, for Aucklanders, to know more about Indonesia and will one day get to the point of wanting to visit Indonesia and to learn.

“I’m also hopeful that cultural interactions will also take place so that it will enhance better understanding and deeper friendship between Indonesians and New Zealand people,” Yahya said.

Indonesia’s cultural diversity was on full display at the opening, where dancers performed several traditional Javanese dances and the orchestra took up wooden mallets to play on the full royal Javan Gamelan donated by Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture.

Vice-Chancellor McCormack described the Gamelan as a taonga, or treasure.

“We’re getting something that is extremely special to be housed in, and be a part of, the work and the cultural events at the Indonesia Centre,” he said.

AUT’s Indonesia Centre, dubbed AUTIC, will see people able to learn Bahasa Indonesia and take part in summer schools across various areas, such as culinary art and filmmaking, in an annual program which will continue to be collaborated on, delegates said.

Engage with Indonesia
Vice-Chancellor McCormack also highlighted other AUT engagements with Indonesia, including a Pacific Media Centre partnership.

The PMC will be hosting two weeks of workshops and collaborative research with four Indonesian communication researchers from the Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESSAS) at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta early next month.

Centre director Professor David Robie has been selected to visit the Yogyakarta university as part of the Indonesian government’s World Class Professor (WCP) programme later in the month.

Lester Khoo, director of AUT’s International Relations and Development reflected:

“We have to be engaged with Indonesia, we have to be engaged with ASEAN, otherwise we risk being irrelevant. It’s very important that we have this as a first step of a longer-term vision of being connected with Indonesia.”

• AUT’s Office of International Relations and Development

By Kendall Hutt in Auckland 

Student journalists from across the Pacific region have wrapped-up their 2017 internships.

Brandon Ulfsby, Joshua Lafoai, Linda Filiai, Safia Archer and Shivika Mala say their internships have “opened their eyes” to one another’s journalism cultures and opened future doors.

“The contacts you gain are the most beneficial for the future,” says Archer, a final-year journalism student from Massey University in Wellington.

Organised by the Pacific Cooperation Foundation as part of its media programme — now in its third year — three journalists from the Pacific and two journalists from New Zealand were given the opportunity to experience one another’s media cultures.

WATCH MORE: PCF interns at the America’s Cup Parade

Travelling to Apia and Suva respectively, Ulfsby and Archer say they enjoyed the “slower pace” of the newsrooms they visited.

“They process stories a lot more slowly, but that ups the quality of the storytelling,” says Ulfbsy, a Bachelor of Communication Studies journalism major at Auckland University of Technology.

“In New Zealand there are commercial pressures that can alter the telling of the story.”

Highlight ‘was the people’
While in Samoa, Ulfsby interned with TV3 Samoa, Samoa Observer, Talamua (Radio Samoa) and Savali and says the highlight “was the people”.

“I’d say Samoa is the people, that’s how I see it. Going there for a media exchange, it’s really about getting to know the people and understanding the cultural context that they’re in — their stories, their perspectives — and presenting it in a really authentic way.”

Despite an apparent lack of resources, Ulfbsy says, “journalists in the Pacific have a sense of freedom we don’t have in New Zealand. Freedom in the sense that they can select the stories that they want to write about, cover, and they can present it in a way they feel best represents it”.

Ulfbsy’s thoughts were similarly echoed by Archer:

“The resources that the journalists are using, we’re so spoiled here. We can do things so easily. They do things when they’re relatively under-resourced compared to us, but they still manage to produce good content in a relatively timely manner.”

For Archer, however, the highlight of her time in Fiji was spending a day in the village of Nayavutoka in the northern province of Ra.

She says the village of 57 families was “ground zero” for Cyclone Winston in 2016.

‘They’re still rebuilding’
“It’s three hours on a dirt road, barely accessible, and had been completely ravaged by Cyclone Winston and 17 months later they’re still rebuilding.”

Interviewing villagers with the crew of MaiLife magazine “was amazing”, Archer says.

“The whole major part of me wanting to do this internship was actually to give, or see, that human side of climate change and development that we don’t see.

“We just see the high-level talks, so having access to the villagers through a magazine that they trusted, people that they trusted, they warmed up to me and were able to speak to me about their experiences.”

Archer also interned with CFL Radio, FBCTV, and Fiji Television.

But while Ulfsby and Archer enjoyed the slower place of newsrooms in the Pacific, Filiai, Lafoai and Mala say they enjoyed the switch to New Zealand’s faster-paced industry.

“We were all over the place. We did print, radio, television,” says Lafoai of the National University of Samoa.

‘That was intense’
“We did a week’s work in our first two days at NZME. I did three stories alone, that was intense.”

Filiai reflects New Zealand’s fast-paced media industry also plays into access of information and sources.

“In the Pacific, if we were to work on a story it would take days, weeks, even up to a month because we find it really hard to chase our sources. It’s so hard to get information out of the government ministry.

“Here, I find it really interesting because you send an email and they will respond to you and you can work on your story in a day or a few hours.”

Filiai, Lafoai and Mala all agree they will be taking what they have learnt over the past two weeks back to the Pacific.

“We have a really big challenge ahead of us. We need to match up, we need to step-up our game in journalism. Not just in writing or reporting, but in also how we do our job,” says Lafoai.

Cultural, media experience
For young journalists thinking of covering the Pacific region, Ulfbsy advises them to snap-up the PCF’s unique opportunity, both for its cultural and media experience.

“For me the exchange is more of a cultural experience as opposed to a media experience, but that’s essential to being a journalist who wants to cover the Pacific.

“Go to the Pacific itself and gain that perspective and that understanding so that we can authenticate our stories.”

• See Brandon Ulfsby‘s work while at the Samoa Observer here and here. Read his Talamua (Radio Samoa) stories here and here. Ulfsby’s Asia Pacific Report internship stories are here and here.
  
• See Linda Filiai’s NZ Herald story
• See Shivika Mala’s NZ Herald stories here and here.
• Watch the Filiai, Lafoai, and Mala’s Tagata Pasifika broadcast
• Pacific exchange journalists begin NZ media ‘awareness’ internship
• Pacific media internship offers chance to follow regional issues