Resilience in the Pacific and New Flags Flying launch

I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Māori, Cook Island Māori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.  Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the evening (Sign)

I then specifically greet you: Hon Sir Doug Kidd and Brian Lynch, President and Executive Director respectively of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs; Professor Rob Rabel, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) at Victoria University of Wellington; Luamanuvao Hon Winnie Laban, Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika), Professor Jonathan Boston, Director of the Institute of Policy Studies; Peter Kiely and Meg Poutasi, Chair and Executive Director respectively of the Pacific Co-operation Foundation; Michael Powles and Ian Johnstone; Hon Pete Hodgson, Member of Parliament;  Your Excellencies: Kwang-il Noh, Renate Stille, Thomas Meister, Shemi Tzur, Arie Van Der Wiel and Fernando Escalona, the Ambassadors of the Republic of Korea, Brazil,  Germany, Israel, The Netherlands and Argentina respectively and other members of the Diplomatic Corps; Joris de Bres, Race Relations Conciliator; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen. 

May I add, in the context of this gathering, a number of Pacific greetings: Talofa lava; Malo e lelei; Ni sa bula vinaka, Namaste, Kam na mauri, Halo Olaketa and Mi likum yu tumas. 

Thank you for inviting my wife Susan and me to this gathering to launch these two initiatives. 

The first is Resilience in the Pacific: Addressing the Critical Issues, a compendium of lectures and addresses delivered at a conference organised by the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and the Institute of Policy Studies and held at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in February this year. 

The second is New Flags Flying: Pacific Leaders Remember, which is a project that consists of a CD, booklet and website with the possibility of a book in the offing.  They bring together a series of interviews undertaken by esteemed New Zealand broadcaster Ian Johnstone with the first generation of leaders of the independent Pacific nations.  The interviews are accompanied by background text prepared by Mr Johnstone and author, academic, former New Zealand diplomat and Human Rights Commissioner, Michael Powles.

Before undertaking those official tasks, I would like to comment on the wider significance of this event and these publications.

I come to a gathering such as this from a variety of perspectives.  While many see me as New Zealand’s first Governor-General of Indian descent, I place equal store on my Pacific heritage.  While my grandparents were born in India they migrated to this part of the world and Fiji was the birth place of my parents.  They later moved to Auckland where I and my brother were born. 

While my family subsequently lost contact with our relatives in India, we retain direct links with family in Fiji and also Samoa, where I have had an uncle who lived there who married twice in his lifetime, and thus I have had two aunties and several cousins, the latter of whom I remain in contact.

Those ties with the Pacific and my Pacific heritage have never faded.  Throughout my career I have developed and maintained a host of professional and personal links with the Pacific.

Those ties have been reinforced for Susan and I in our time in the Governor-General role, which concludes in 15 days’ time.  We have visited the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, Samoa, Tonga, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.  We have also supported inward visits by a number of Pacific leaders including, most recently, His Majesty King George Tupou V of Tonga. 

We have also participated in or hosted a number of events that have celebrated the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand.  I also agreed to be the Patron of the Pacific Co-operation Foundation.

These connections have provided valuable insight into both the challenges and opportunities that Pacific peoples and Pacific nations face in 21st Century.   Some of the critical issues have been around a long time and include economic development, the need for better governance and improved social, political and legal conditions for stability, safety and security. 

Others are new issues, including climate change and, following recent destructive tsunamis and the tragic loss of lives in the sinking of ferries, an expansion of disaster risk management efforts.  Other issues, while always present, are now being more openly acknowledged, including the spread of HIV-Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases, family violence and addressing the needs of disabled people and here I reflect what was said by Neroni Slade.

Reading through the papers presented at the conference was at times a little dispiriting.  Many of the papers noted that despite significant effort, in a number of areas little enough progress has been made in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. 

These matters will be further highlighted next year, which marks 50 years since the first of the Pacific nations, Samoa, gained independence from New Zealand in 1962.  Incidentally, Michael Powles was then a schoolboy living in Samoa when his father, Sir Guy Powles, was High Commissioner to Samoa.

But I also noted a cautious optimism that was summarised well in Hon Winnie Laban’s closing remarks.  She noted the Pacific accomplishments in navigation and agriculture and of being proud peoples that no longer wanted to be the passive recipients of aid.   She also spoke of her role at Victoria University and of seeing young Pacific people enrolling to study, many the first in their family to go to University.

A critical point, however, she emphasised was the connections between New Zealand and the Pacific.  She made the point well when she said:  “The Pacific is our place of belonging.  The people of the Pacific are our kin and neighbours.  New Zealand is a Pacific nation. Whatever our origins, we have all travelled through the Pacific to arrive in this land.  We are whanau, aiga, family.”

That sense of being part of a Pacific family so clearly brought home to New Zealanders in the aftermath of the 2009 tsunami that caused such devastation and loss of life in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.  While the disaster was most keenly felt by members of the Pacific diaspora, the response was far more widespread and reflected the long-standing and close relationship.

Understanding the relationship between New Zealand and the Pacific requires an understanding of dynamics and philosophies of some of the key individuals in the modern history of the Pacific.

If Resilience in the Pacific so clearly outlines the critical issues facing the region, New Flags Flying—Pacific Leaders Remember meets this second criterion superbly by bringing together in one collection the voices of many of the region’s first leaders following the achievement of self-government or independence.   

Many of the voices, such as those of Sir Tom Davis, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV and Father Walter Lini, are no longer with us, so to be able to hear them speak of their hopes and aspirations for their people is doubly special.

The collection of interviews, as well as much background material, covers many issues including their own upbringing, the attitudes and treatment of the colonial powers, the move to self-government and independence and their hopes and fears for an independent future.

These two collections—Resilience in the Pacific and New Flags Flying—will make a significant and lasting contribution to knowledge of the issues facing the region.  They are an invaluable resource for students and academics interested the Pacific and development studies, and they provide a challenge to politicians and policymakers throughout the region to “up their games.”

I congratulate the Institute of Policy Studies and the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs for producing the first volume and the editors of New Flags Flying, Ian Johnstone and Michael Powles, on bringing the booklet, website and CD together.  I also thank those who provided funding for these two initiatives.

It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare Resilience in the Pacific and New Flags Flying officially launched.

And on that note, having completed the ceremonial duty, I will close in New Zealand’s first language offering everyone greetings and wishing everyone good health and fortitude in your endeavours.  No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.