Thursday, 8 July 2021, 5:21 pm
Survivors of abuse from the Pacific community will give
evidence before the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of
Inquiry at an upcoming public hearing, Tulou - Our Pacific
Voices: Tatala e Pulonga . Experts will also give
evidence.
The public hearing, starting on Monday 19
July, will open with a traditional Pacific ceremony and be
held at Fale o Samoa in Māngere, Auckland. See below for
the witness list and full schedule.
‘Tulou - Our
Pacific Voices: Tatala e Pulonga’ is the first of its kind
not only for New Zealand, but for Pacific survivors, Pacific
communities and the wider Pacific region.
auckland scoop co nz » Dawn Raids A Focus As Pasifika Survivors Of Abuse Give Evidence
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Community Scoop » Dawn Raids A Focus As Pasifika Survivors Of Abuse Give Evidence
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While the conch shell is passed between living legends Tigilau Ness, Dr Melani Anae, Will’ Ilolahia and Wayne and Alec Toleafoa, you move across the narrative as a witness, ally, confidant, and teina. It feels humbling to share in the inner world of this movement and those brave enough to pay the high price of fighting for justice at a time when it wasn’t fashionable. Some of the Polynesian Panthers did time, some hid from the world for years, they bear the scars of a path forged for those who came after them, and by some miracle, their spirits are not broken.
The previous year, when she was in her final year at high school, Anae lost seven members of her family – five in a plane crash in Samoa that killed everyone on board. She was left searching for answers she couldn’t find in the Bible. She openly questioned God’s cruel intentions but admitted she felt his favour in another way. “I had taken six months out of school to look after Mum, who had Hodgkin’s disease, so it was a miracle when I passed the exams and got a bursary to get into university,” she says. “I was on a destructive, agnostic pathway because I was just so angry. How could God take away my family? Seven of us, gone.”