On Being a Pacific Island

Way back when I was a traveller I was often confused and mildly insulted by being called a 'Westerner' as I felt that, in reality, I came from the East. Confused, folks in Asia would then ask me 'But you're European, aren't you?'.

As lessons in childhood geography taught me, my island, Te Wai Pounamu, was (and still is!) exactly opposite to Europe: if we dug and dug and dug we'd arrive in Spain. That, as far as I was concerned, was about as close as we got to being European. On arriving in Europe I was further convinced.

Europeans have a particular way about them. Their culture, celebrated for its generation upon generation of rich histories, obliged them to be a certain way. We can, and often do, imagine clichés of the French man and his beret, an Italian woman serving delicious pasta and a Scots in a kilt. But, be that as it may, I met a Scot in a kilt on Christmas day on the beach facing the cold North Sea, busy being Scottish. I think he greeted me, although I'm not sure. I replied with as cheery a 'Kia ora' as I could muster, given the circumstance.

One thing that my travels taught me was that despite my heritage, I am not a European. I'm a Kiwi and I live on a Pacific Island. While I may not be exactly opposite to being European, I feel I'm a lot closer to my Pacific island neighbours in cultural identity.

I look at my community: the thing I love the most about New Brighton is its evolution. Like many New Zealand towns and villages, what life was 50 years ago doesn't reflect where we are now. Things have changed, we continue to evolve; with each generation, what it means to be Kiwi develops further into its unique identity.

Where are we now? Folk talk about globalisation constantly but I'm not convinced it's a good thing. Being able to change and adapt is good; change is good! But losing one's identity? Brighton is unique- it always has been. It's long been the city's playground and for a while it was the Saturday morning mecca, but what about now? What would you consider are Brighton's assets? The beach at the beginning of the world? Our Pacific views? We're on the cusp of a new beginning; it's not often we're given the chance to reinvent ourselves like this. If we join in sharing the vision Greater Brighton celebrated as a thriving, vibrant, self-reliant village then, together we can create something that folk, (not just Brighton folk, either) can identify with.