Nau mai, haere mai | Talofa lava | Mālō e lelei | Kia orana | Fakaalofa lahi atu | Talofa ni | Ni sa bula | Fakafeiloaki | Fakatalofa atu | Halo | Gude | Greetings
I write this at the end of Aotearoa New Zealand’s celebration of Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e lea faka-Tonga – Tonga Language Week.
The 2025 theme for Tonga Language Week is ‘Ko ‘etau lea, ko e fe’unu mahu’inga ia ki he mo’ui ‘a e Tonga – Our language is a vital strand of our Tongan culture.’
For me, this theme speaks to the diversity across our society and our desire to serve our communities and share our findings and insights with as many of ‘our languages’ as possible. OCIES is an amazing group of driven and passionate people who care about our region and education, and I am always grateful to be a part of such a community.
One of the highlights of OCIES is our annual gathering. Last year’s conference team did a stellar job of welcoming us to Melbourne and creating space for us to all connect, learn and share from each other. We are excited about what our next conference team, led by Dr David Small and Professor Cheryl Brown of the University of Canterbury, are putting together for November this year.
I am really excited about the theme for this conference, Education, Knowledge and Power in the Asia-Pacific – this is an important topic, and I look forward to the korero, talanoa, and discussion we will have together in Ōtautahi.
As you will know, we asked for expressions of interest in the vacant co-President position – we received a number of applications and, after a robust process, selected Associate Professor Cherie Chu-Fuluifaga (Victoria University of Wellington) as our interim Co-President until the next AGM in November. I hope you will all join me in welcoming such a distinguished community-focused practitioner and scholar to our Executive Committee.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge and apologise for the issues some people may have been experiencing with respect to conference registration. These have now been addressed. If you continue to experience issues, please contact us.
On behalf of the Executive Committee and Conference Convenors, we are looking forward to welcoming you to Ōtautahi.
‘Ofa lahi atu.
Sonia.