Farewell Luana, your dreams will live on

By Tupuola Terry Tavita in Apia

It’s always sad when a loved one passes on, but for someone so young and so full of life as Luana Cobcroft, 24, it is heart-wrenching.

In Samoa working on her Masters thesis, Luana, loved daughter of parents Adria and Adolf Arp and Gavin and Miti Cobcroft, was farewelled this afternoon by family and friends at the Anglican Church, Malifa.

In attendance were the Head of State, Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi, and Masiofo Filifilia Tamasese and members of the cabinet.

“Like other young women her age, Luana had many dreams, some yet to be fulfilled,” her mother, Adria, fondly remembers about her youngest daughter (pictured right in the blue dress with cousin Rhoda Young).

“We love her very much and it’s so sad to see her die young.”

Heartbroken sisters Natasha Cobcroft and Nola Adria Cobcroft-Gidlow say they will never forget “our dear half”.

“We are close sisters, we laugh, we hang out and we party together. Her smile and love will always be in our hearts forever, she had so much zest for life.”

A Bachelor of Arts graduate from Victoria University, Wellington, Luana was working on completing a Masters degree before coming home to serve her country, say close friends. She majored in geography and development studies.

And thus sad as today’s occasion was, there was a hint of gala with the hearse decorated with balloons and streamers - perhaps in celebration of a young life.

Barely a fortnight back in Samoa, Luana was involved in a tragic automobile accident at Vailoa early Tuesday morning. Her extensive injuries proved fatal when she died Wednesday night at the Tupua Tamasese Memorial Hospital, Motootua.

“Perhaps she came home to die,” says one of her classmates at Robert Louis Stevenson’s School.

Alhough born in Auckland, New Zealand, Luana spent most of her life in Samoa, a country they say where the moon succumbs to the sea and the fleeting clouds engulf the village in complete darkness when a loved one passes away.

That was certainly the mood at today’s service.

From the Anglican Church, Luana was taken home to Lotopa where she will always be close to her parents and sisters.

She leaves behind a family robbed of a young daughter and a country, robbed of an educated young mind.

Why do the good die young, raged the poet Oscar Wilde. But as long as we remember, loved ones never die, interposes the satirist Groucho Marx.

Tupuola Terry Tavita is editor of Savali newspaper in Apia, Samoa. This article under the title "Happy trails, Luana" is republished by PMC with permission.

Pacific ministry targets women in battle against rising unemployment

A long-term action plan about Pasifika employment in New Zealand is counting on a new report focusing on Pacific women’s demographics, education, and training and labour force deployment in the strategic mix.

By Kacey Maher: Pacific Media Centre

A better deal for Pasifika women in the labour market is a key target for the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs in a new employment strategy expected to be unveiled later this month.

A report about “Pacific women’s work” is expected to be released before June 30 and is likely to have an impact on policy.

Pacific Island Affairs Minister Georgina te Heuheu is finalising the research report “examining the labour market positioning” of Pacific women.

Chief Executive Dr Colin Tukuitonga says the ministry has a long-term action plan and the report focusing on Pacific women’s demographics, education, and training and labour force deployment is part of this.

According to Tukuitonga, understanding the position of Pacific women in New Zealand’s labour market will help lift women’s skills and participation.

“For example, by better understanding the impact of the current recession on Pacific women who own small businesses, the ministry…is better able to develop programmes and initiatives which are effective in sustaining those businesses,” he says.

Compared to a 5 percent unemployment rate for all of New Zealand (a quarterly increase of 0.3 percent from December 2008 to March 2009), the rate of unemployment for Pacific Islanders within New Zealand has now climbed to 13.1 percent.

This not only has Pacific Island community members worried, it also has them searching for solutions, especially starting and only a worsening recession on the horizon.

“It has been suggested that almost 19,000 jobs have already been lost in the manufacturing sector between March 2008 and March 2009,” says Dr Tukuitonga.

Hit by downturn
Pacific workers are concentrated in primary industries (such as agriculture, fishing, mining) and manufacturing - occupations that are among the first to feel a downturn in the economy.

Dr Tukuitonga says also that the predominantly youthful population of the Pacific Islanders is among reasons they are among the hardest hit.

With a recent increase in Pacific Islanders reaching a working age combined with a corresponding fall in the jobs they are most likely to enter, it is no surprise this leads to unemployment.

Dr Tukuitonga, previously the Director of Public Health as also head of Pacific and international health at the University of Auckland, has been chief executive of the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs since June 2007.

According to him, this increase in unemployment will have many greater consequences, putting Pacific Islanders under increased financial pressure and making them less able to provide basic food, housing, education, and health requirements - all areas where Pacific Islanders are already statistically struggling.

Recent studies have shown Pacific Island children are more likely than their European counterparts to contract infectious diseases and suffer from childhood obesity - results inflated by a higher ratio of Pacific Islanders living in low socio-economic status.

Situations such as these will only be exacerbated by high rates of unemployment.

“All this makes the current situation a high priority for the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs,” Dr Tukuitonga says.

So what is the ministry doing to help?

“We have put in place a number of initiatives and pilots to combat redundancies and an increasing unemployment rate,” says Dr Tukuitonga.

Jobs fono
This includes the February 2009 Pacific jobs fono.

The jobs fono was a conference focused on brainstorming possible solutions for the immediate concerns facing Pacific workers.

According to Dr Tukuitonga, the fono addressed such questions as “how do we protect employment for Pacific people?” and “what support is there for those people who have lost their jobs?” - similar questions to those being asked now.

The fono also addressed the need for Pacific workers to adapt to current job openings and new job requirements.

Instead of remaining in fields historically dominated by Pacific workers - fields that are now seeing a sharp decline - workers must train for new fields or develop specific skills that increase their value as employees.

These suggestions combined with other conferences and surveys provide the basis for the ministry’s action plan, says Dr Tukuitonga. This plan includes:

• Training in literacy, numeracy, and financial literacy
• Administrative and management training
• Seminars and workshops to help businesses survive the recession
• Research on what industries will stabilise and grow the economy
• Promoting modern apprenticeships to Pacific youths

All these developments answer the question “how do we protect employment for Pacific people?”

However, none answer the more immediate question about what support there is for people who have lost their jobs.

Dr Tukuitonga says that Pacific unemployment will continue to rise as the recession takes a stronger hold on New Zealand.

He also says the ministry has many more programmes in the works - all of them targeting a wide array of problems caused by unemployment.

“The challenges faced by the Pacific workforce in today’s recessionary climate require innovative and creative solutions which not only keep Pacific people in work now,” says Dr Tukuitonga.

“But they also also equip them with a range of diverse skills which will see them well placed in a future labour market requiring different skills and abilities.”

Kacey Maher is an American student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course as part of her Study Abroad programme at AUT University. The photo is by Daquella Manera (Creative Commons).

Pacific jobs fono

Planet FM - from minority broadcasting to mainstream

By Terri Byrne

In 1987, the Auckland Ethnic Council founded a radio station that would:
- allow non-English communities to hear their languages, their news, music and literature that
- would represent their culture, values and beliefs, and
- would allow them to have a public presence in a land they had lived in for decades if not generations.

Today that station is 22 years old and the most diverse medium in the country. Planet FM has full schedules, broadcasting in 50 languages, all made by the language groups concerned. It is multicultural and cross-cultural. Radio represents 42 percent of the media day. It is portable, intimate, comparatively inexpensive to make and always free-to-air.

Sadly though, this public broadcasting service is not adequately funded. The major constraint on its content is the need for the programme makers to pay to air their material.

One of our hopes for 2020 or much sooner is that those with the least ability to pay are no longer the only ones who have to pay for media that’s relevant to them.

Currently the station is obliged to choose those who pay, rather than those with the best ideas or the most needed content.

However, they are often the same thing and the programmes are vigorously supported by their contributing communities, with research revealing figures between 60 and 80 percent of targeted communities listening to their shows.

Around today’s forum I hear a lot of references to “mainstream” media, which I believe is an increasingly dinosaur concept.

Already SKY brings 80+ channel options to 50 percent of NZ households, there are another seven free-to-air and two digital-only TV channels and a range of regional channels. A number of our broadcasters have satellite dishes to pull in own-language television.

There are 212 radio stations in NZ and Auckland, with 50+ radio stations has more than New York or London. The commercial stations run an array of brands over about 140 stations. The national public broadcaster is on frequencies throughout the country including for a select minority on Concert FM. There are 11 community access stations nationwide, as well as student radio stations and countless LPFM stations.

About 60 percent of NZ homes are web-connected, more than half are broadband connected. The online population of this country is equivalent to 85 percent of the population.

So the market – or the audience as I prefer to think of us – has splintered into dozens of niches.

Minority is Mainstream and in 2020 will be more so.

To quote Bob Geldof, a man who has led the way in many areas of media:

“The future belongs to those who build their own media.”

We’re delighted that Planet FM is ahead of the curve on all this.

• We recognise the hundreds of niche broadcasters and their listeners …
• We facilitate the making of their own media
• We do not exercise editorial control, ensuring freedom of cultural and social expression…
• We support local.
• And we ensure their productions are archived for on-demand, online listening 5 minutes after broadcast – along with a range of other multi-lingual information services for settlers.

It is our belief that in 2020 we’ll all be shopping for our media on multiple platforms and the content will often be of our own devising rather than from a schedule devised for advertisers
addressing matters deemed relevant by programmers with a narrow cultural focus.

Already music radio is an iPod, but informational, entertaining and community-enabling content is flourishing.

Already NZ is fabulously diverse and when what was once mainstream media catches up with that, it will:

• hand over the tools,
• Relax the editorial controls,
• Embrace the new aesthetic
• And discover the riches already being expressed in a thousand ways.

It will not be about “them” becoming like “us” or hopefully by 2020, it will not even be about “them” explaining themselves to “us”. Hopefully it will be about all of us discovering who we are becoming as a nation.

And we should not imagine that only non-English audiences are interested in so called “ethnic” content. Māori Television attracts between 50 and 70 percent non-Māoriviewers.

In discussing the aging of PBS’s demographic with Gareth Watkin, Leslie Rule at KQED in San Francisco says:

“It’s about changing the idea of what public broadcasting is. It’s now more about “broadcasting the public."

This will require funding policies that are about where we are headed, rather than where we’ve been. Policies that promote equity of access to services.

Government agencies with responsibilities to non-English populations will take a leaf from the efforts of our Pacific people and make it mandatory for information campaigns to be extended - so if cervical screening is best understood in Farsi or Russian it is aired that way, that Tamil and Arabic communities are alerted to social policies, that education projects are broadcast in Tagalog and Amharic.

In 1975, SBS Radio came into being as a three-month experimental service to explain Australia’s new healthcare system. Now, independent audience surveys of Australia’s largest language groups show that for the majority, SBS Radio is their primary source of information about government and community services.

The Australian government spends in excess of $20 million of Vote Broadcasting on non-English radio and more again in information campaigns.

The least we can do is add existing multilingual broadcasters to government agency advertising budgets.

Terri Byrne is broadcast manager of Planet FM, run by Access Community Radio Inc. It was an address delivered at the NZ On Air seminar on diversity - "Screen and Heard: NZ Broadcast Audiences in 2020" in Auckland on 4 June 2009.

Pacific Beat producer calls on ethnic groups to 'break into' mainstream

Thakur Ranjit Singh: Pacific Media Centre

Ethnic communities need to break into the mainstream media by telling inclusive stories and giving the message that Pacific people are part of New Zealand, says a leading television producer.

Stan Wolfgramm, producer of Pacific Beat Street, says his own German, Tongan and Cook Islands heritage prepared him for a balancing act of operating in a commercial as well as a cultural environment.

He was speaking in a panel of television journalists and producers speaking about “finding the ethnic voice” at the diversity broadcasting forum in Auckland today hosted by NZ On Air in association with the Office of Ethnic Affairs.

Julia Parnell, producer of Minority Voices, said she sought to create programmes that provided opportunities to recent migrants, minorities giving their version of experiences in adjusting and settling in a new country.

She said her programmes allowed people to say what they wanted to say and to help them assimilate.

Her programmes were meant to be a springboard to promote cross-cultural understanding, assimilation and true diversity.

Bharat Jamnadas, senior reporter of Asia Downunder, said his programmes produced a magazine style, topical, relevant and entertaining - primarily targeted at the Asian communities but also to anybody wishing to get information on diverse people of New Zealand.

He said his programmes showed positive people stories with general interest.

'Freak stories'
They could easily be taken on board mainstream television programmes, but the networks tended to show “freak stories that may not be necessarily reflective of the Asian community”.

He said programmes needed to be more integrated, as ordinary stories about ordinary people should be part of the mainstream media and showed at prime time.

Jamnadas called for more diversity to be included in the mainstream media programmes.

Rachel Jean, head of drama in TV3, had ventured on making a drama series but ended up making a story on diversity depicting South Auckland, based at Otara Market, entitled, The Market.

She said drama was helpful in changing ethnic perceptions of people.

She criticised lack of funding and the programme being slotted late at night.

Her other drama, Ride with the Devil, involved a core Chinese cast and she said “true representation happens through drama”.

However, Jamnadas was critical of the programme, saying "it was too much of a stereotype with a Chinese boy racer as the lead role".

The panel argued that diversity ought to be incorporated in drama series and TV programmes.

NZ on Air was praised for organising such forums to air the views that would contribute to promoting change in funding policies to introduce more diversity in broadcast media.

Thakur Ranjit Singh is a postgraduate communication studies student attached to the Pacific Media Centre. Photo of Stan Wolfgramm and Bharat Jamnadas by Del Abcede.

Asia Downunder
Minority Voices
NZ On Air
Pacific Beat Street
Ride With The Devil
The Market

NZ media faces growing challenge over 'ageing, more ethnic' population

By Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Watch

The New Zealand media is expected to tackle some major changes over their audience base within the next 20 years due to a population transformation, says a leading demographer.

The director of the Population Studies Centre at Waikato University, Professor Richard Bedford, says the New Zealand population as a whole is not only growing older, it is evolving quickly in terms of ethnic diversity.

In fact, by the year 2021, current statistical projections show that the Asian population will have increased by more than 70 percent, the Pacific Islander population by 44 percent, and the Māori population by about 24 percent since 2006.

New Zealanders of European or “other” ethnic backgrounds (including from African and South American and other nations) are altogether predicted to increase by just below 6 percent in the same timeframe.

The number of people aged over 35 is also set to swell for all ethnic groups. Figures showed that between 2006 and 2021, those aged 35 and over will increase by 22 percent, compared to only about 5 percent for those under 35.

Professor Bedford presented his seminar as part of today’s forum on ethnic diversity in broadcasting, hosted by NZ On Air in association with the Office of Ethnic Affairs.

Titled “Screen and Heard, New Zealand Broadcast Audiences in 2020”, the event brought together decision-makers and leaders from various broadcasting backgrounds – including regional, mainstream and indigenous media - to discuss how the country’s changing demography will be served and represented on TV and radio.

Speakers included Minister of Ethnic Affairs Pansy Wong; managing director of Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service Shaun Brown; ethnic and English network manager from the BBC World Service, Murray Holgate; and Triangle TV chief executive Jim Blackman.

Professor Bedford added that despite the increase in ethnic diversity, “the reality of New Zealand’s population dynamics is that… the great majority is going to be older Pākehā descent people.”

At the same time, trends varied greatly by area and ethnic group. For instance, Dunedin and Hamilton had a disproportionately large population in their late teens and early 20s, reflecting the effect of universities.

Pacific Islander and Māori populations were also predicted to have a much younger population in 2021 than other groups.

'Finding the balance'
“The challenge [for media] is finding the balance in meeting the needs of these different communities,” he said.

Associate director of programming for TV3 Andrew Szusterman commented on the changing trends in demography, saying that as broadcasters, the media industry had to appeal to the broadest audience and reflect popular demand.

“We try to represent the populace – it’s about being with them at the same stage,” he told Pacific Media Watch.

According to Szusterman, TV3’s target demographic was mainly 18-49 year olds, and popular shows such as Outrageous Fortune, Target and Moneyman appealed to such a broad age group.

However, the commercial focus of the mainstream trade also meant that some ethnically based shows such as bro’Town and A Thousand Apologies would not have succeeded even five years ago because there was too little demand.

This had since changed.

“[Commercialism] is not a criticism, but an actuality of mainstream media,” added Szusterman.

'Coffee-colour' mix
Meanwhile, regional broadcaster Triangle Stratos chief executive Jim Blackman saw the profit-driven element as a threat to diversity.

“As long as you have a commercial imperative, you’ll never see true representation – just lip service,” he said.

He called for more multicultural representation on a mix of programmes to reflect New Zealand’s “coffee colour”.

The latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review with the cover theme “Diversity, identity and the media”, published by the Pacific Media Centre, was also launched at the conference.

NZ Human Rights Commission principle adviser on race relations Samuela Sefuiva launched the edition, complimenting AUT for its contribution to diversity affairs.

Josephine Latu is contributing editor of the PMC's Pacific Media Watch. Bro'Town graphic from NZ On Air. Picture of Sam Sefuiva by Del Abcede.

NZ on Air
NZ Population Studies Centre
Office of Ethnic Affairs

Pacific health groups tackle breast screening barriers

Many barriers face Pacific Island women over breast screening in New Zealand, including problems accessing transport, different languages and a lack of information and understanding.

By Kara Segedin: Pacific Media Centre

Front line health organisations like the West Fono Health Trust in Waitakere city are making progress directly in their communities by addressing the unique barriers to health care facing Pacific people in New Zealand.

Earlier this year, the West Fono Health Trust was recognised for services to breast screening by Health West PHO. It won an award for most improved practice for breast screening after being contracted by BreastScreen Waitamata Northland to bring Pacific women into the national breast and cervical screening programmes.

Soana Havili is from the community team working with cervical and breast screening.

“We contact women and give them information,” she says.

Havili says there are many barriers for Pacific Island women attending screening, including problems accessing transport, different languages and a lack of information and understanding.

“They don’t know where to go,” she says.

The team helps by offering support and assisting with bookings, transport, and assessment.

“Sometimes their husbands don’t want them to go because there is a lack of understanding,” says Havili.

“The women also don’t want to go to male doctor.”

Wider community
The trust visits Pacific Island groups and churches to bring information to the wider Pacific community.

Havili has seen an increase in the number of women coming for screening in the last year.

“If we do well now it will be much better in the future,” she says.

Pacific Island women in New Zealand continue to be over represented in statistics for breast and cervical cancer. Breast cancer is the most common cancer for Pacific Island women and has a relatively high mortality rate.

Over the past 25 years, figures from the Ministry of Health show ethnic disparities in cancer survival have increased.

In a 2004 report, the Ministry of Health said barriers to breast screening for Pacific Island women included fear, procrastination and pain, whereas a GP’s recommendation was a major motivator to get a mammogram done

Figures from the National Screening Unit (NSU) show only 50 percent eligible of Pacific Island women had mammograms in the 24 months to May 2008. To address the low rates of screening, late last year the NSU ran an ad campaign specifically targeting Pacific Island women and their communities.

The aims were to raise awareness about breast screening, increase understanding of the benefits of early detection and the importance of two-yearly screening.

Graham Bethune of the NSU says for BreastScreen Aotearoa's programme to be effective they must screen 70 percent of the eligible population.

“We are currently at 61 percent for total New Zealanders, but only 50 percent for Māori and Pacific people,” he says.

Reducing deaths
BreastScreen Aotearoa aims to reduce the number of women developing and dying from breast cancer by early diagnosis, allowing treatment to begin sooner.

The goal of their ad campaign was to encourage Māori and Pacific Island women to make appointments to have breast screenings and to show them how to do this.

A campaign that simply targeted all New Zealand women would have been unlikely to significantly increase the percentage of Māori and Pacific Island women having breast screens.

Embarrassment, a lack of understanding of the benefits and where to go all make it difficult for Pacific Island women to attend screenings.

“Many Pacific women weren’t aware it was free,” he says.

The attitudes of husbands, families and the community can be a barrier.

“The ads help get the message into all families’ living rooms,” Bethune says. “It’s on national television, it’s not hidden or secret in anyway.”

The ads could be seen on TV3, Māori Television, iwi radio stations, Nui FM radio network, Mana magazine, Tu Mai, and Spasifik. They show breast screening as an “everyday part of family health”.

While not available in other languages, their advertising material is Pacific orientated, tested with Pacific women and addressing Pacific cultural issues.

It will take 12 months to get statistics to show whether the campaign been statistically significant.

“It’s too early to say, but anecdotally it’s been really positive,” he says.

Meremana Beconici, GSL Network, worked on the advertising with the NSU. The priority audience was Māori and Pacific Island women aged 45-69 who have never been screened or who do not have regular biennial screens.

“There is a secondary target,” says Beconici.

“The family, friends and community members who support and influence these women.”

Research showed women liked straightforward messages, which removed any mysteries associated with screening. They decided to use real people, stories, and experiences.

Suzanne McNicol, marketing and communications manager of the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation (NZBCF), says “we do know that Pacific women are 20 per cent more like to die than other New Zealanders (excluding Māori)”.

She does not know exactly why Pacific Island women along with Māori are more like to die from breast cancer, but “part of the problem is late diagnosis”.

The foundation’s goals are that all Pacific Island women and all eligible New Zealand women attend biennial breast screening.

“Screening doesn’t stop breast cancer, but does reduce the chances of dying from the disease by 33 percent,” she says.

“We recommend all women are breast aware, this is recommended for women of all ages. They need to know what’s normal for them,” says McNicol, and seek assistance from their doctor if they notice any changes.

“They need to attend screenings. That’s the key thing that’s not getting through. We want women to know that biennial screening is free for all New Zealand residents.”

McNicol says they had difficulties reaching the Pacific community in the past because “we’ve been using one message for all women”.

Previous health campaigns have not recognised that “different communities need different communications”.

Māori and Pacific people are more receptive to aural and verbal messages and not the pages of data and reports usually supporting health campaigns.

The NZBCF has partnered with community groups, churches, health groups and schools to get information to Pacific people. They are also changing their model of health education to better target the Pacific Island audience.

Kara Segedin is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.

NSU ad campaign [video]

PJR praised for 'diversity' edition

Pacific Media Watch

New Zealand's Race Relations Commissioner, Joris de Bres, has awarded Pacific Journalism Review a citation in recognition of its latest edition dedicated to the theme of "diversity and identity".

The May edition of the journal, published by AUT University's Pacific Media Centre, highlights some of the complex diversity issues across the Asia-Pacific region, and De Bres says the issue "unpacks and focuses on the place and role of the media in facilitating diversity".

Topics include "culture clash" faced by Western journalists and foreign correspondents entering the Pacific region; diversity reporting in Aotearoa and the rise of "ethnic media"; and a review of the controversy over last year’s media report that Pacific peoples were a "drain on the New Zealand economy".

A feature article is written by a media "insider" in the People's Charter process in Fiji and examines censorship and its impact on freedom of expression in Fiji.

Managing editor and Pacific Media Centre director associate professor David Robie notes that “this edition provides some challenging and fresh insights into diversity reporting in New Zealand, from Fiji to Asian stereotypes … but it also celebrates some important achievements.”

Pacific Journalism Review