Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e lea faka-Tonga - Tonga Language Week
This page contains suggested activities and curated website links to help you and your learners learn about and celebrate indigenous Tonga language and culture.
About this resource
This resource includes suggested activities and curated website links to help you and your learners learn about and celebrate indigenous Tonga language and culture. It will help you demonstrate that you value lea faka-Tonga as a heritage language and are willing to partner with learners, families, and communities to make it part of learning at and beyond school. The suggestions are consistent with culturally responsive pedagogy as described in Tapasā: cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners.
Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e lea faka-Tonga - Tonga Language Week
Mālō e lelei!
Tonga Language Week is part of an annual series of Pacific language weeks that aim to promote and raise awareness of the diversity of our Pacific languages in Aotearoa New Zealand.
To find out the date and theme for this year’s Tonga Language Week visit the Ministry for Pacific Peoples website.
Pacific language weeks: More than a celebration describes more about the purpose of the language weeks and suggests links to help you build your knowledge and competencies as an effective teacher of Pacific learners.
How can you get involved?
You may have learners and whānau with Tongan heritage as well as speakers of lea faka-Tonga in your school community who may be willing to share their expertise with you and your learners. Work collaboratively with these experts to build your own knowledge of lea faka-Tonga and to design activities around the language and culture of Tonga.
Ministry for Pacific Peoples website: Download a range of resources to promote Tonga Language Week in your school community.
Ministry of Pacific Peoples Facebook page: The Ministry’s Facebook page provides up-to-date information on what is happening each year.
Tonga Language Week Facebook page: Join this Facebook group for specific news, resources, and events about Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e lea faka-Tonga.
Ministry for Pacific Peoples regional offices: There are a range of events taking place across New Zealand to promote the importance of Tonga language, culture, and heritage. Contact the regional offices of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples to find out what's on near you.
The Teaching and Learning Lea Faka-Tonga resources include language guidelines and storybooks with teachers' notes to support language learning. Use the storybooks to provide opportunities for students to extend their language and cultural knowledge.
Senior secondary guides – Tongan
This guide helps secondary teachers create quality programmes for teaching and learning lea faka-Tonga.
You don’t need to be a speaker of lea faka-Tonga to make dual language texts the focus of reading, discussion, and activity throughout Tonga Language Week. Activities might include supporting learners to read some of these texts with younger children at home, school, or in a community setting, like an early learning centre. There could also be time for games and sharing food and music.
Pasifika dual language resources: These texts in lea faka-Tonga support the early language and literacy learning of Pacific new entrant learners in English-medium classrooms. Teacher and parent support material accompany the resources. Many of the dual language books are available as PDFs and all the books are available as MP3 audio files.
We know that talk is the foundation of all learning, and so it is important to create an environment in which:
- speakers of lea faka-Tonga feel comfortable to use their language and where others feel supported to give it a try
- everybody feels safe to share, explore, and debate information and ideas about lea faka-Tonga and its place in Aotearoa New Zealand.
If learners or families at your school are speakers of lea faka-Tonga, you could invite them to model and teach their language. However, be careful not to make assumptions about their language knowledge and use. They may not know their heritage languages or may not feel confident or comfortable in speaking them.
Lea Faka-Tonga language cards: Use these cards as a starting point for learning lea faka-Tonga. The cards include a pronunciation guide, the alphabet, everyday phrases, a short prayer, and a hymn.
Tonga language activity book: This resource, co-created by Te Papa Tongarewa and the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, includes:
- an exploration of themes related to identity, love, respect, and humility
- lea faka-Tonga pronunciation, support, and access to helpful words and phrases
- activity ideas and resources
- details of how to take part in a nation-wide initiative to recognise lea faka-Tonga champions.
Tongan language online games: Learners can use these free games to explore numbers, phrases, colours, and other vocabulary.
Tongan language quiz: This online quiz uses Tongan objects from Te Papa’s collection to test your knowledge of lea faka-Tonga.
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 Tongan people.
Watch this video as a whole staff to hear different perspectives about being Tongan. Use the reflections on the video page to consider best ways to meet the needs of Tongan learners and whānau at your school.
Tagata Pasifika: Tongan Art: Older learners can watch this video to see artworks by a group of Tongan artists in New Zealand. Learners can examine and discuss how the artists have reflected traditional patterns and personal life experiences in their creations to represent their culture through contemporary art.
TALES OF TIME: Passing Down The Art of Tongan Tapa: This online article about making ngatu (decorated bark cloth) is suitable for older learners. Discuss with learners how the tradition of making ngatu is passed to younger generations and why this tradition is important to Tongan New Zealanders.
Pasifika poetry: This resource includes poems by people of Pacific descent. You might make poetry part of your week, engaging with poems by Tongan 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 to plan the week.
2018 New Zealand census: New Zealand’s Census results provide a wealth of information, including patterns of language use in Aotearoa New Zealand. They show that in 2018, around 39% of the 82,389 Tongan people living in New Zealand could speak more than one language. You and your learners might explore the data further. For example, you might like to consider patterns of migration and what that reveals about the need to ensure this rich language use is sustained.
Poto series: This set of storybooks in lea faka-Tonga helps to grow and enhance Pacific learners’ language and literacy capabilities, and supports teachers to work in partnership with families and Pacific communities. The Poto book series is for learners from years 4 to 8.
A great way to get your students involved in Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e lea faka-Tonga is to incorporate texts on Tongan topics and themes within your teaching and learning programme. Along with these texts, you and the students 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.
The Instructional Series offers a range of texts with a Tongan theme.
Ngatu: Keeping the tradition alive: Share this School Journal story with primary aged learners to learn how a group of Tongan New Zealanders come together each week to make ngatu and pass cultural traditions down to the younger generation. Research the patterns used in ngatu and the meanings they convey. Learners could create their own ngatu artworks and explore the reflectional and translation symmetry through the following resources:
- South Pacific Journey – NZ Maths activity
- Home Learning TV – Middle Maths: Tongan Ngatu
- Tūhura: Migration and settlement stories (refer to slides about ngatu)
Learn about Tongan settlement to Aotearoa New Zealand through the following resources:
Your learners could interview Pacific peoples in your community whose families have also migrated here to find out:
- when and why their families moved to Aotearoa New Zealand
- how the stories are similar and different to each other.
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: This website 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. Your learners can use this resource to explore the diverse cultural heritage of specific nations and for examining similarities and differences across multiple nations.
The Long Pause: This article from Connected explores the mystery of the long pause between the two major periods of Pacific migration. Use this text with learners to explore 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 histories. It has four main topics: voyaging, first encounters, Aotearoa New Zealand histories, and legacy of learning.