Tagata Pasifika is an

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

programme which screens on

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's TV ONE and on

Māori Television Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

, first broadcast in 1987. This programme is made to specifically meet the niche market of New Zealand's Pacific Islander ( Pasifika) population.

Content

Tagata Pasifika features current events from both New Zealand and Polynesia. The show features report coverage of Pacific Island cultural events such as the annual Pasifika festival along with arts and profiles.

Naming

''Tagata Pasifika'' was first coined in the mid 1980s as a reference to people with genealogical connections to islands within

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

and all others scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean but had chosen to live in Aotearoa New Zealand and identified Aotearoa New Zealand as their home base. There has been some dispute over the correct spelling of 'Pasifika', sometimes spelt Pasefika, Pacifica, Pacifika. ''Tagata Pasifika'' is generally accepted as correct and publicly reinforced by the Television New Zealand programme now also known by the same name but was previously spelt ''Tangata Pasifika''. Samoan = Pasefika Tongan = Pasifiki

Reporters

*John Utanga (Cook Islander) *Marama T-Pole (Tuvaluan) *John Pulu (Tongan) *Soana Aholelei (Tongan) *Karima Fai'ai (Samoan) *Alistar Kata (Cook Islander) *Johnson Raela (Cook Islander) *Taylor Aumua (Fijian Samoan) *Moana Makapelu Lee (Niuean/Cook Islander)

References

External links

* Websit

Television shows funded by NZ on Air New Zealand television talk shows 1987 New Zealand television series debuts {{NewZealand-tv-prog-stub