Debra Frampton | World Communities Instructor | 15 August 2007
AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Places are fascinating, facts are interesting, landscapes breathtaking and food delicious, but nothing sticks to memory like people: Ordinary people doing remarkable things, or remarkable people doing ordinary things — it matters not.
Establishing relationships and strengthening connections with the people of the Pacific Islands, particularly members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and BYU-Hawaii alumni, was one component of the recently completed BYU-Hawaii history professional development tour through Fiji and New Zealand.
The group was particularly fortunate to be able to spend their first day in this country at the Church College of New Zealand, which will close its doors in 2009. After a sentimental alumni reunion, students and faculty of the college mingled with the BYU-Hawaii group and listened to a presentation given by Rangi Parker [upper left], who has dedicated decades of her life to preserving and sharing the history of the Maori and early LDS Church missionaries in New Zealand.
Sister Parker showed the group some of her collections of artifacts, clothing and photos in the Temple Visitors Centre and read stories from numerous journals gathered over the last 20 years. Parker recently created two remarkable interactive CDs documenting stories of the early LDS missionaries by enabling the user to hear original audio recordings and music, view photos and video clips, and read text simultaneously in hopes of helping young New Zealanders appreciate the role the early LDS missionaries played in preserving the Maori language and recording period in history which wasn't otherwise documented.
"I know that we are ready to tell the story of the history of the Church in New Zealand," said Parker. "I myself feel that this is a world story. It's a story about Mormon missionaries who kept the history of an indigenous culture through the language, through the films, through their journal entries and through their photographs that nobody else kept." Sister Parker left the group strengthened by sharing her firm conviction of the gospel and a song she had written and recorded for her children.
Other LDS members also left inspiring impressions. One couple in particular was Clive and Rachel Bourne, who attended BYU-Hawaii over 20 years ago. When they moved back to New Zealand they had a new baby and an idea. They wrote a proposal to the government and, with eight trainees, started up a sewing school. Before long they began an ESL training program, a preschool, a beauty school, a youth center and music recording studio, SPI Soundz, which offers free studio recording sessions to young talent. Now they own SPI (South Pacific Institute) Surf Wear, an extremely successful T-shirt business with original designs of Raglan surf spots. "A lot of our designs go back to 1988," said Rachel Bourne, "and Clive designs most of our screens himself."
The local school noticed he had a successful T-shirt business and asked Clive if he would take on an apprentice — a kid who was falling through the cracks. Soon he had 10 successful kids and the school began giving high school credit for working with Bourne. Now students can actually receive a high school diploma for going through the SPI program.
Another example is Junior Samuela, a Latter-day Saint the group met at a fireside in Auckland on Sunday night. Samuela developed a program called AIS St. Helen's, which takes a holistic approach to helping Pacific Island students learn to gear up, take college seriously and see themselves as more than an entertainer.
"I want those students who are sitting at the back of the class cracking jokes at the teacher to become a teacher!" declared Samuela. "It's about teaching them how to be engaged and making them see that they can do this. They can learn."
His model reaches beyond the student who isn't coping well with school and into the families and classrooms of the student, encouraging parents to care about and support their children in academic pursuits and teachers how to foster skills, understand different learning styles, and identify struggling students.
Clearly, Church members in New Zealand are making a splash in big ways. Important contributions abound. But they are making little splashes, too.
For example, up North it's very cold, but the members of the LDS Branch [small congregation] in Paihia gave the visiting professors from BYU-Hawaii a warm welcome when they hosted a family home evening, complete with home cooking and a haka [war dance]. "It was so good to eat a home-cooked meal after eating fish and chips and meat pies all week," said one member of the group. The menu also included BBQ steak, shepherd's pie, and, of course, trifle for desert. And most impressive was watching the priesthood, who set up, cleaned up, and picked everything up in between. To top it all off, the sisters in the branch were warm and welcoming, and it wasn't long before the two groups were fast friends. (That's what I call girl power!)
Before departing, the BYU-Hawaii group chanted a solid oli, I Ku Mau Mau. However, the Paihia branch upstaged them with the most intense haka I've seen. Just between me and you, I nearly jumped out of my chair.
— Photos by Debra Frampton: (upper left) Rangi Parker; (middle right) BYUH professor Michael Murdock and Junior Samuela; (lower left) Paihia Branch haka
