Interview
Bill
Afeaki
Q: In two or three words, how would you describe a Polynesian?
A: Polynesians are fun, loving people.
Q: What is the Polynesian gift to Utah?
A: I think the Polynesian gift to Utah is our children, and our culture. That is what we would like to think that we are bringing to Utah.
Q: What is the Office of Polynesian Affairs?
A: The Office of Polynesian Affairs is part of the state ethnic offices. There are four of them: Hispanic, Asian, Polynesian, and black affairs. They were created by executive order from the government. What we do here in this office is we work for the government, we work for the state. We are trying to assure that other state programs are being accessed by our various population, in my case the Polynesians.
Q: What kind of programs have you been able to implement as you have been the director?
A: Here in the ethnic offices, we have a joint work plan, that we take up to the government. The issues that we deal with in the work plan, we initiated from the community. In others words the community tells us what issues we should work on for the next twelve months. That's how we put together our work plan. So we stay pretty much with that work plan. The nature of these ethnic offices is such that we need to focus because there is so much to do with the ethnic people. So if we wont focus, it means that we'll end up chasing the ends of the rainbow. So we pretty stay with our work plan, but we try to handle and help the community with their needs.
Q: What have been the challenges of the Polynesian community?
A: I think the main challenges of the Polynesian community, just like what we have in the work plan, number one issue is education. If we are to be a culturalated and get into mainstream education is very, very important. Health is important. Criminal justice, very important. There is too much overrepresentation of Polynesians and ethnic people in our secured facilities. And the fourth one that we are working on, the plan, is economic opportunities, trying to move them to a better paying jobs and start their own businesses and so forth.
Q: Let's talk about the awards banquet, and what that was all about.
A: We have from the ethnic offices what we call young achievers program. This was started quite a few years back, and then it died. since I came into office, realizing the need to motivate the young Polynesian kids, I've brought it back. What I am doing with it is that I've got all-state sports award, where we recognize all the kids that have attained all-state status in all sports. Of course, the one we had March 5th had football, volleyball, and track. Recently the announcement for basketball, both boys and girls, has been done, so I'm actually going to do that in May. But along with the sports award, we have academic and leadership awards.
In the academic awards I network with all the school districts and the schools and ask them to give us a list of students that have attained a 3.0 accumulative grade point average for the school year. And we give them awards. So according to the actual GPA, we give them four different kind of awards depending on their GPA. As far as leadership awards are concerned, we are trying to push the Polynesians into student body leadership offices in the schools. So those that serve as student body officers, we also give them an award. I think that this is a great program. When I started it, it was just senior classes graduating, last year I started form seventh grade to twelfth grade.
Last year we gave out over four hundred, about four hundred and forty awards from Logan to St. George. Parents are just so appreciative. I think that recognition is good, and we are going to be seeing a lot of these parents pushing their kids because of the awards. There's nobody else, it's just the Polynesians, and it's a big thing. You should see them dressing up with garlands and stuff with their students. It's just breathtaking.
Q: Going one step further with this, in trying to encourage more Polynesian to be student body officers, now culturally a lot of times they're more reserved and held back. So what you are trying to do is empower them to know that they can be the leaders and that they can be outspoken. Is that it?
A: Yes indeed. A lot of Polynesian used to, coming from an authoritarian society, where directions are given and you just quietly do it. Our people need to understand that you have to speak out in this society. The kids that are born and raised here are not all the same with us who have been born and raised in the islands. And this is part of what I am trying to do is to get them into the mainstream.
I'm very happy to tell you that many of the middle schools in the Salt Lake School District and the Granite School District where there presidents are Polynesians, vice-presidents are Polynesians. So I am very encouraged that the new crop coming up from school, that's my main concern is to track them to make sure that they make it all the way to the top. Because you find that with ethnic students here in Utah, they go to middle school and as soon as they go into high school, the first year they start dropping out. By eleventh and twelfth grade most of them are gone. So we must try to keep this trend now with the kids who are doing so well in middle school to make sure that it goes all the way up to twelfth grade.
Q: What's happening? Why are the other ones dropping off? Is it because the parents are struggling and working?
A: I think that is part of the reason, but is not the main reason. I think the main reason is that the public school system is failing out with our kids. Basic fundamental skills in elementary school and middle school are not being, I'm not going to say "not being taught", but they are not being learned by many of our kids for very many reason. Part of them language, part of them is actually method. By the time they go through that transition in middle school and they go into there first year as freshmen in high school, they're already far behind.
We are accustomed to an educational system where students are tested to make sure that they pass certain requirements before they go from one grade to the next. We are subjected to a system over here that it goes by age. You automatically move kids from one grade to the other, and no one can say whether they are able or capable of certain skills. That is what is happening to our kids. By the time the hit tenth grade in high school, they are frustrated already. By eleventh grade they are shocked. They have got no business of being there. But economics is also another reason. The reason is, parents are not making all that much money. Many of them are doing landscaping. So the sooner a able-bodied son can help the father, he won't mind. But that's short-sighted though.
I'm trying right now to work with students in high school to try and steer them more into apprenticeship, technical education. The majority of them are not equipped for university studies, because of this laxity that I've been talking about through elementary through. I think they will do well. Polynesians copy things very quickly. They see once they touch. They are very physical people in that sense. There are needs for white-collar jobs, but we all need a plumber, electricians and so-forth. So hopefully I can be instrumental in steering them in that direction.
Q: How can the Caucasian population of Utah do a better job of understanding the Polynesian community?
A: I think first of all there needs to be a clean up of the perceptions that is already there. I recall when I was young, in the late sixties early seventies, we walked proud to be a Polynesian, here in Salt Lake City, Utah. I come back twenty years later and it's not the same. It's because of everything that has happened between then and now, that there is a perception out there that we are rude, that we are very physical, that we are very temperamental. I think there needs to be a closer interaction between Polynesians and the mainstream people. And we as a people need to reach out to the white Caucasians.
When we talk about a lot of these ethnic problems, it's two camps, it's the ethnic people and the white people. I think it's going to take reaching out from both ends. We're different, but there's nothing wrong with being different. It's the acceptance of that difference that I think is what we're looking at. It's not just going to take a measure from us, we would like to call on the white mainstream people, " Come half-way, we're not going anywhere, we're here for good", and we need to come half-way so that we can have a better feel for what we are.
I think Polynesians are bringing a lot of good to Utah, aside from diversity. There are certain values and so forth that we bring with us that would be good for white mainstream people. Let me just tell you one. Polynesians do not hold back their feelings, they openly show their feelings. This can be negative. For example, white mainstream people, when they get on the pulpit, if they are going to cry they try very hard not to cry. You find that when Polynesians get on the pulpit, and they talk and they feel like crying, you'll see tears streaming through.
I think it's a great thing to show your love, to show your feelings to people. It's a human thing, people feel what you feel. When you try to hold back, I guess, white mainstream people are more private in their feelings and what they think. We're not, we share. We share our feelings. We share out love. We share everything that we have.
Q: Let's talk about tattooing, about the history of tattooing.
A: As far as I know with tattooing, tattooing was very common in central Polynesia. When I talk central Polynesia, I'm taking about Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji and all those central islands. Tattooing was there way, way back. Even the Tongans had tattoo. It seems that in the nineteenth century Tonga actually discontinued tattoo. Samoa is very much into tattooing. In fact, they tattoo a good part of their body from the knees up to their midriff. Actually you can not officially become a Somoan chief without having a tattoo. Girls and ladies of chieftain birth in Samoa, also have a tattoo. Not as extensive as the men, but they still have the tattoo. That's to show that they are from royal birth.
Nowadays, in our youth, there is a revival in tattooing. It seems that it has been misinterpreted over here in the states that it is a gang symbol. But it's not. It's more of a cultural thing, it's a cultural identity that these kids are looking at. Many of them want something o show that they are truly still Tongan, or Somoan, or Polynesian for that matter.
Q: Let's talk about navigation, about how traditionally Polynesians have always been adventurers?
A: Polynesians have always been adventurers, because they had to sail the high seas. If you look at the vast Pacific Ocean you cannot help but recognize the skills that these people had. Irreguardless of the varying theories of where the Polynesians come from, the mileage that they did cover to go from island to island is phenomenal. The skills, I think, have been lost with the import of outboard motors and everything else.
I remember when I grew up, there were a lot of sail boats in Tonga. The people were still no engine, sailing by the stairs. the would look at the current. There have been stories about master navigators in Tonga. There was even a blind person. He would reach over the huge outriggers and put his hand in the ocean and just by feeling the ocean from how warm or how cold the water was, he would tell where they were. He could feel the current, the way it was going to tell exactly where they are. Many of these skills I'm afraid to said are slowly being lost. I think it should be revived and kept actually for our future posterity.
It is also interesting to see that Polynesians would go from one island to the next. They were adventurers in the sense that they were never really happy with one place. There would be others that would go and seek another home. I must say that our coming here to Utah is just a continuation of centuries of adventure where our people will sail an beyond the horizons to find a better home. We've found a home here in Utah.
Q: Let's talk about the celebration of food in the Polynesian culture.
A: Polynesian love food. I think that I would like to preface those comments with the fact that we lived in islands where the food was bountiful. We raised our own food. Our meat we raised. Our fruit crop we raise. And the ocean is all around us, so we go fish for our food. So I think that this is where everything started from. When you are in the islands and it's warm, it's cool, what else can you do but be happy and be festive? We dance and automatically we eat. Everybody brings in their food there's always been plenty of food in Tonga. We are bringing that culture over here. It doesn't matter what we do, we must have food. We enjoy eating, as you can see (chuckle).
Q: Is there one thought or method that you would like to impart to the viewers of this program to help them better understand?
A: Yes. I have a message, and the message is: We are here as Polynesians, but we are here as Americans. Sometimes I wonder whether the Polynesians have there loyalty to here, to America, or if they still bring their loyalty to the islands that they are from. I think it is good to cherish our culture and where we come form. But I think more important, we as a people must try to become better Americans. We need to contribute to this society first. There are so many of our people who send money home. Fundraising that come from the islands, they donate money that they cannot afford. This is good because of the great love, but we will get nowhere in this country. There are certain lifestyles that we need to pick up. And one of them, actually, ought to be budgeting and money management, so that we can become better Americans.
It's good to love and have a big heart, but the end of the day we need as Polynesian parents to have a clear vision for our children, to establish a higher plateau in our own live so that they can use that as a stepping stone to something that is better and higher, something that is closer to mainstream living.
The Polynesian Gift to Utah is made possible by a generous grant from the R. Harold Burton Foundation.
