'Community comes first' for Tongan educator honoured by Queen ^Featured

Siale Faitotonu is happy and surprised to be made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his more than 30 years of service to Pacific education.

But he has so many roles in Pasifika services that the first time he learned which hat he was being honoured for was when the official list was released om Monday.

He was offered a job as a technology teacher in Greymouth but decided to “get familiar with the Kiwi way of life” first, taking up a job for the Ministry of Works helping to build the Clyde Dam.

“Tongan papers were saying I was the first Tongan to enter Antarctica.”

In 1986, he started at Canterbury University as a lab technician and “they haven’t kicked me out yet”.

He felt privileged to work with students, running geomechanics laboratories, and assisting PhD, masters and postgraduate students.

But it was his mainly unpaid work that Faitotonu has been honoured for.

Siale Faitotonu with his wife, Milika, outside their Riccarton home, which welcomes many in the Christchurch Pasifika community.

After marrying and having his own five children, he started a play group at Rowley School, and a computer programme for parents in the low decile area.

He started a voluntary after-school homework programme about 30 years ago to help year 3 to 8 students from about 15 Christchurch schools raise their education from low achievement using the Tongan language.

He was influential in starting Lea Faka-Tonga (Tongan language) as an NCEA subject, and stayed on as an NCEA moderator for about three years.

He also started a course for students from about 16 high schools to learn Tongan and gain NCEA credits.

He is a Pacific adviser for Ara Institute and Canterbury University, helping to improve outcomes and campuses for Pasifika students.

Faitotonu has also run a Tongan radio show on Plains FM for 31 years, delivering messages about education from the government to families.

But his wife Milika – also a preschool teacher – said that was “only a snippet of what he does”.

“Our house is like a 24-hour petrol station.”

Faitotonu is a justice of the peace, is called upon to help with immigration and police issues, and sits on many boards and committees – wanted for his “straight, honest feedback”.

He used the term talanoa, talking to solve issues, within the homework group. It was a bridge between families and schools, translating messages about what issues their children might be having, so families could be part of helping them achieve.

“It is a triangle of communication, so the three parties can understand the child.”

They were seeing the difference it made in improving the achievement of Pacific students in Christchurch.

“Otherwise, reports get thrown in the rubbish because parents don’t understand them,” his wife said.

Faitotonu said the award was not just for him but for others who paved the way in Pasifika education like Niuean Tufuga Lagatule, and Cook Islander Rangi Oberg.

For him, it was important to help teachers understand how they could help Pacific students achieve and retain their Pacific roots, and for their parents to achieve in their own way too.

“Yes I am happy but I think there is still lots of work to do.”

His wife told him many times to resign “but he is not listening”.

“Community comes first in our family.”

- Stuff