Gasav Ne Fäeag Rotuạm Ta - Rotuman Language Week

There is a chance that you will have ākonga and whānau with Rotuman heritage as well as speakers of Fäeag Rotųam in your school community who are willing to share their expertise with you and your learners. Work collaboratively with these experts to build your own knowledge of Fäeag Rotųam and to design activities around the language and culture of Rotuma.  

Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group Incorporated: The Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group Incorporated (ARFGI) is a community group that seeks to teach and celebrate Rotuman language and culture, enhance and improve the well-being of Rotumans, and advocate for the views and needs of the New Zealand Rotuman community. The group’s website offers information, news, events, and resources. 

Gasav ne Fӓeg Rotuḁm ta: The Rotuman Language Journey (8 May 2021): Watch this video of Tagata Pasifika producer Ngaire Fuata, who shares her Rotuman language journey and how and others prepared for the second Rotuman Language Week. 

#LoveMyLanguage Challenge: Teach your students how to introduce themselves in Rotuman and join the #LoveMyLanguage Challenge. Upload a video of your students introducing themselves and nominate others to do the same. You’ll find information about the language and pronunciation support on this YouTube video. 

Ministry of Pacific Peoples Facebook page: The Ministry’s Facebook page provides up-to-date information on what is happening each year.    

Ministry for Pacific Peoples regional offices: A range of events take place across New Zealand to promote the importance of Cook Islands language, culture, and heritage. Contact the regional offices of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples to find out what’s on near you. 

Ministry for Pacific Peoples website: Download a range of resources to promote Fäeag Rotųam in your school community.   

Rotuman Language Facebook page: Join this group for news, resources, and events. You could share the celebration of Rotuma here, on a school blog, or maybe even with a school in Rotuma. 

We know that talk is the foundation of all learning, and so it is important to create an environment in which: 

• speakers of Rotuman feel comfortable to use their language and others feel supported to give it a try
• everybody feels safe to share, explore, and debate information and ideas about Rotuma and its place in Aotearoa New Zealand.  

If ākonga or whānau at your school are speakers of Rotuman, you could invite them to model and teach their language. However, be careful not to make assumptions about their language knowledge and use. People may not know their heritage languages or may not feel confident or comfortable in speaking them. 

If you are a speaker of Rotuman, incorporate it into your interactions with students. If you are not, model your willingness to listen and to attempt new words and phrases. 

Fäeag Rotuạm language cards: Use these cards as a starting point for learning the Fäeag Rotuạm. The cards include a pronunciation guide, the alphabet, everyday phrases, a short prayer, and a hymn. 

Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group poster: Learn some common words and phrases in Rotuman. 

Rotuman colours language lesson: Romano Mạurea models the pronunciation of the words for colours in Rotuman. How might this become the basis for an arts lesson?  

Rotuma consists of the island of Rotuma and its nearby islets. It is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, about 500 kilometres north of Fiji. Although Rotuma is its own nation, it is currently administered by Fiji as a dependency. Rotuman people are a separate ethnic group with their own distinct language, culture, and identity. 

• Around 2000 Rotumans live on Rotuma Island, with many more living elsewhere, mostly in Fiji.
• Around 1000 Rotumans live in New Zealand, and of these, around half were born in New Zealand. 

The Rotuman language has unique features that distinguish it from other Pacific languages, including the presence of diacritics, or symbols, in its alphabet. It is listed on the UNESCO list of endangered languages, and New Zealand’s Rotuman community works hard to preserve and promote their mother tongue. 

It is important to note the multiple ways in which people express themselves. The suggestions here include opportunities for you and your learners to explore traditional and contemporary artworks and artefacts and discuss what they say about the culture and heritage of the Rotuman people. 

2018 New Zealand Census: New Zealand’s Census results provide a wealth of information, including about patterns of language use in Aotearoa New Zealand. They show that in 2018, one-third of Rotumans spoke two languages and another third spoke three. You and your colleagues might explore the data further. For example, you might like to consider the benefits of bilingualism from an educational perspective. 

Auckland Museum: Rotuman Language Week: Auckland Museum has curated a range of items from its collections, accompanied by deeply interesting commentary. 

Christchurch City Libraries: Rotuman Language Week: Christchurch City Council’s library staff share links to online resources. 

Fäeag Rotuman Educational Resource: The Ministry for Pacific Peoples created this resource, which introduces history, geography, language, and culture. The language section includes pronunciation and spelling guides and vocabulary for numbers and useful words. 

Ngā Kākano Series, Rotuma talanoa: Auckland Museum’s contribution to the inaugural Rotuman Language Week included a special two-part Ngā Kākano Series focused on Rotuma. These talanoa brought members of the Rotuman community together with museum kaitiaki to showcase and celebrate Rotuman treasures from the museum’s collection. 

Pacific arts in New Zealand: This story on Te Ara explores the work of Pacific artists who have had a significant impact in New Zealand. Students can learn about and respond to art by people who practice a range of art forms, including writers, visual artists, musicians, dancers, and theatre practitioners. As part of Rotuman language week, they might engage with local artists and perhaps have a go at creating their own work of art that says something about their relationship to the Pacific.  

Pasifika Festival: Even if you can’t attend Auckland’s annual festival in person, the website offers a feast of opportunities for learning about the ways Pacific peoples share their histories, knowledge, creativity, and leadership. 

Rare language of Rotuma, an island near Fiji: Learn about the Rotuman language and the perspectives and concerns of Rotuman New Zealanders. 

Salat se Rotuma: Passage to Rotuma: In this Tagata Pasifika documentary special, Ngaire Fuata travels to her father’s homeland of Rotuma for the first time. Ngaire had grown up in Whakatane, believing herself to be Māori. 

Why Rotuman is a unique Pacific language (RNZ, 14 May 2020): Christine Rovoi explores the origins of a unique language. 

A great way to get your learners involved in Fäeag Rotųam is to incorporate texts on Rotuman topics and themes within your teaching and learning programme. Along with these texts, you and your learners might also draw upon the knowledge and perspectives of community members as part of a bigger enquiry into significant themes and topics from across the curriculum, such as migration, navigation, climate change, or colonisation. 

Rotuma website: This website is a place of connection for Rotuman people around the world, and you can explore it to find out about what matters to the people of Rotuma. It also collects a vast amount of information about the island and its people, including information about writers and artists and a collection of modern poetry. 

Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories: Our stories: Pacific peoples: This resource provides some examples in the Instructional Series of Pacific histories and a link to the KNOW element in the Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories curriculum. 

Texts written by Pacific people and in Pacific languages are a great way to connect with Pacific people. You can model your own interest and enthusiasm for this learning by working with Pacific knowledge holders, including students, to make it part of everyone’s learning. 

Auckland Council Libraries Pacific book lists: Auckland’s library service has created lists of books by Pacific writers and on Pacific themes and topics. Other libraries do the same.  

National Library lending service: The National Library can help you access suitable texts.  

The Coconet TV: Shares some texts by Pacific writers and illustrators. 

Pasifika Poetry: Includes poems by people of Pacific descent. You might make poetry part of your week, engaging with poems by Pacific poets and writing your own. Or you could look at other art forms that use language, such as plays or action songs. These could become part of a performance for the people who have supported you in planning the week.

The New Zealand Pacific Picture Book Collection: This collection was created by a group of librarians who wanted to raise teachers’ awareness of picture books that carry Pacific knowledge and world views. It includes suggested activities for making the books part of the curriculum learning. The collection is now quite old but includes some treasured favourites.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories: Connections across the Pacific: This resource shows how four texts from the School Journal series can be used to support learning in the context of whakapapa me te whanaungatanga through the topic of voyaging. 

Digital Pasifik aims to empower people in and of the Pacific Islands by enabling them to see, discover, and explore items of digitised cultural heritage that are held in collections around the world. They provide a rich resource for delving deep into the diverse cultural heritage of specific nations and examining similarities and differences across multiple nations.

NZ History: Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori Māori Language Week: Learn why the indigenous land of Aotearoa requires a language week of its own.

Te Tai: Treaty Settlement Stories: Te Mana o te Reo Māori education resources: Learn about the ancient origins of te reo Māori, its history since 1200, and the fight to secure its future. 

The Long Pause: This Connected item explores the mystery of the long pause between the two major periods of Pacific migration. It provides an opportunity to think about some of the connections between Māori and Pacific peoples, particularly in terms of whakapapa and navigation.   

Tuia Mātauranga: Tuia Mātauranga is a programme developed by the Ministry of Education to support teaching and learning about our dual heritage and shared future. It highlights local people, places, and events that have helped shape our nation’s history. It has four main topics: voyaging, first encounters, Aotearoa New Zealand Histories, legacy of learning. 

Potential language loss is an issue facing many New Zealand-based Pacific communities. Work with your learners to understand the issues around language loss and revitalisation and encourage them to consider what action they can take to make a positive difference.

Use questions such as the following to prompt discussion about the purpose of the language weeks and what makes them so important to sustain the heritage languages of the Pacific. 

• Why is it important for all New Zealanders to celebrate and learn Fäeag Rotųam? 
• What benefits will this bring to New Zealanders of Rotuman descent?  
• How can we share what we have learned about the Rotuman language and culture with the wider community?

One of the beliefs driving the Pacific language weeks and other initiatives to value and sustain our heritage languages is that health and wellbeing improve as learners reclaim their language, culture, and identity. You and your students, their families, and community members might include sources such as those below within a discussion about the connections between language, culture, health, and wellbeing: 

Child and Youth Wellbeing: Languages: One of the indicators for the wellbeing of children and youth looks at the opportunities they have to speak and understand the language of their ethnic or cultural group.  

A language worth fighting for: Linguist Wilfred Fimone, University of the South Pacific, warns that the loss of the Rotuman language could affect Rotuman culture. He also talks about how the Rotuman language has been used in cultural practices. 

Kiwi Rotuma’s challenge to keep endangered Pacific Island languages alive: Fipe Salabogi is a Rotuman trying to save her language from being lost forever. 

Language is key to Pacific wellbeing: 11 May 2021. Aupito William Sio, Minister for Pacific Peoples, launches the first Rotuman Language Week. 

Rotumans celebrate language and culture 'together' amid Covid-19 (8 May 2021): A report on the third Rotuman Language Week held in 2021 includes discussion about the importance of keeping the language alive. 

UNESCO Decade of Indigenous Languages: Discussion about how to sustain the Rotuman language in Aotearoa could connect to discussion about the work being done to revitalise te reo Māori and other indigenous languages around the world.