Southern View: July 19, 2016

8
Tuesday July 19 2016
Our People
SOUTHERN VIEW
Young leader’s social equality vision
Josiah Tualamali’i is a 21-year-old on the US Embassy
Youth Council, the chairman of a Pacific youth
leadership group and a Canterbury University student.
Fraser Walker-Pearce talks to him about superhero
shows, how he became a leader for Pasifika youth in
Christchurch, and meeting NASA’s deputy director
Hi Josiah. What have you been
up to recently?
Among other things, we
organised for about 280 young
people to come to the Transitional
Cathedral on June 30. It
was organised by some of my
friends and I to generate ideas
about decision-making and
just gather for some food and
a brainstorm session. It was a
really fun night with food and
ideas being shared.
Sounds good. Can you tell me
a bit about PYLAT?
PYLAT stands for Pacific
Youth Leadership and Transformation.
It’s a charitable trust that
supports young people in the
Pacific community, and helps to
make the Pacific youth aware of
opportunities in the community.
And you’re also part of the
United States Embassy Youth
Council. What exactly is that?
Canterbury University and
all universities in New Zealand
hand-pick a number of students
who are then checked by the US
Embassy. So they’re gathering
youth leaders who have access
to different communities in the
city, so the embassy can keep
the finger on the pulse of youth
groups in the city.
So do you have meetings with
the embassy often? And what
happens with that information?
They communicate what we
tell them back to Washington,
because one of Obama’s foreign
policy focuses was to do a Pacific
pivot, gathering up all knowledge
on what’s going on in Pacific
countries. The Trans-Pacific
Partnership Agreement was part
of it, but it was also about bettering
relationships with Pacific
communities. So there are 12
leaders in Canterbury for that,
and I am one of them. We have
a meeting every now and then
with different diplomats, business
leaders and ex-pats. They
help us, and we give them our
knowledge about what’s going
on. It’s kind of cool this week on
Saturday, because we’re actually
meeting with the deputy director
of NASA, and it’s especially
cool because she’s a woman.
We don’t even know why we’re
meeting with her! It’s especially
interesting because of an event
we held last week, where we were
hoping to bridge gaps, like giving
women equal visibility, opportunities
and platforms to excel.
And now we get to meet one of
the top women in NASA. It’s a
secret meeting which we don’t
know much about. We could be
talking about Mars, we could be
talking about anything, it’s very
exciting.
What inspired you to become
a youth voice for the Pacific
community?
I think it was probably the
youth parliament that we had before
the earthquakes. It was that
others took the time to tell me
that I could make a difference. I
guess I was in the right place, at
the right time. Just good people
being around me.
How long have you been
involved with PYLAT?
I’ve been chairman for three
years now, so I started my second
two-year term last year, after I
was re-elected. Before the earthquakes
in 2010, the Pacific community
held a staged youth government
because they noticed
there weren’t many youth voices
in decision-making at the time.
And we loved it so much that
after the earthquakes, we kind
of thought, well, how do we keep
it going after the earthquakes?
So we made it into the trust it is
now. We now have 13 trustees,
with about two-thirds of that as
YOUNG LEADER: Josiah Tualamali’i at the Get FRESH ‘16
event, showing Pasifika students around Canterbury University.
youth and students, and young
professionals make up the rest.
Are you striving to see
Christchurch’s youth have a bigger
input into decision making?
Yes, absolutely, so what we say
in PYLAT is that Pacific young
people have valid information
and ideas that can be useful at
any level. That could be for the
Government, non-government
organisations, anything, but
there’s a big trust element in it.
It can be tough to trust that a
young person can have input to
these conversations, while being
respectful and articulate. I really
liked last year seeing the flag
panel had a young person on it.
You do all of this work for
youth and on boards, do you
have any spare time at all? Any
hobbies?
Yes, I really like to sing. I used
to sing in a choir, but now I just
sing when I’m pottering around
the flat and doing things. I also
like watching TV programmes,
anything with heroes really. The
Arrow and Flash series are the
best ones and I go to the movies
a bit, too. I like to think that we
don’t need a super power to do
cool things in our community,
and it’s cool to watch the people
that we pretend we are, and do
those amazing things.
Where are you flatting for
university?
I flat in Ilam, but my family
home is in Parklands. I just went
back to my flat last night. It’s
all a bit busy, because I also do
some work on campus for Pacific
young people, tutoring them to
help them get their NCEA levels.
It’s cool to see that Canterbury
University cares about getting
them over the line and offering
those classes.
Oh right, so what subjects do
you tutor?
I tutor history, English and
drama. Those were the ones I
was quite good at during school.
It’s also a cool project because
the students can go on to tertiary
education if they want, because
they have the qualifications.
Why were history and English
your favourites at school?
I really liked understanding
why we’re at the place we are
now through our history. Also,
learning about colonisation,
racism, and all of those words
that get thrown around these
days. It’s also quite important to
me because my mum is Palagi
(Samoan word for European),
and my father is Samoan. So for
me, it was quite hard when I was
young to work out my own identity.
After all the classes in history
and English, I kind of learnt
what was right and wrong for me
through those classes. Growing
up as a Pacific person, I could
understand the benefits, and the
strengths of those people.
What high school did you
attend?
I went to Hillview Christian
School for years 9 and 10, then
to Middleton Grange School for
years 11 to 13.
And what primary school?
I actually went to primary
school in Dunedin, to Anderson’s
Bay School for the first few
years, then to Hillview for the
other half of primary.
You study history and politics
at university, so what job would
you have if you could just pick
one and start tomorrow?
I can’t give one answer to that
really. I’d want to be the CEO of
a company that works with Pacific
people and uses the knowledge
the community has taught
me. I’d want to increase the participation
and involvement of the
community. The only problem
is that I don’t know if that kind
of job exits yet. I wouldn’t mind
working in the university for a
while, and I’m enjoying tutoring
at the moment. I could definitely
see myself teaching others as
well.