for example, as Pacific advisors or leads – and they
would be the only person with those responsibilities.
This placed them under pressure to be everything
to everyone while seldom having their contribution
appropriately recognised or given the status it
deserved. At our healthcare talanoa, we heard:
When I started as a practice leader, I know the
role the organisation put me into a national
role meaning I look after all the regions of the
organiser because it was just only one Pasifika
practice leader, that was just me … And it’s a
big organisation. Not only I look after the whole
organisation in terms of the cultural competencies
and training, blah blah blah, but also I look
after all entities … within the organisation. It’s
a big thing. It’s a big job, but they never, never
acknowledge the role as a national role. They
just call me as a Practice Leader Pasifika … I
compare my role to other national managers of
the mainstream. They only look at 11 regions.
They only look at one entity like mental health and
disability and they become national managers …
It is frustrating and it’s rewarding at times. I know
it’s because it’s just only one person in the role
and I was the pioneer of the role. I was asking can
I be able to look at the work of the person who
started before me so that I can follow up with
that? All the strategies and blah blah blah. They
said no, you are the first one in the role. You do
your own, you create everything, and I said, oh
OK, it seems like it’s a lot of work, but they don’t.
They don’t recommend there or acknowledge
that. (T014)
Insecurity of employment
Pacific workers shared stories of how their
communal responsibilities were taken advantage of
by employers and resulted in exposure to insecure
work as they knew they needed to provide for their
families no matter the cost. People identified that
they stayed in their jobs so they could provide for
their families. This puts a different complexion on
the loyalty many people described above. One health
worker told us:
And I think because we don’t have the luxury to
negotiate, you know, because if you turn that job
down, that’s like your rent is not going to get paid,
your car could get repossessed, so it’s not as easy
as – like you know, if someone offers you a job,
you’ve got to take it. Because that could mean
living on the street, you know, not being able to
pay for stuff. So negotiating is not possible for
us, because, like in my family, I’m the only person
who’s qualified, so I can’t afford to say no because
of a five grand difference. (T015)
Some received threats concerning what might
happen if they tried to assert their rights. At one of
our talanoa, we heard:
We can’t raise our voice there. As soon as we raise
our voice, we have been threatened many times
– “Oh if you can’t do this, maybe its better for you
to be sent home” – and give us two months to go
look for another job instead of saying I’ll cancel
your visa. That’s the threat. (T005)
Those who worked on short-term contracts or doing
seasonal work experienced anxiety about getting the
support they needed to make ends meet. One person
who contributed at our Gisborne talanoa spoke
about the difficulties her family experienced in the off
season. She found it hard to navigate WINZ processes
“due to overlapping time periods with pay and WINZ
process, WINZ are not able to help and the process
is very long and unhelpful” (T009). With no other
options, this caused her and her family more stress
and worry.
Voices of Pacific peoples
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