Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands language weeks to be celebrated from 2024

Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands languages will be officially celebrated in Aotearoa from next year, Minister for Pacific Peoples Barbara Edmonds has announced.

The two languages, PNG Tok Pisin and Solomon Islands Pidgen, join nine other Pacific languages already celebrated in New Zealand.

Edmonds said the annual Language Week series was vital, aimed at revitalising and supporting Pacific languages, cultures and identities.

For years, the Melanesian community had asked for the inclusion of their language in the series, saying that countries such as PNG, Solomons and Vanuatu had been overlooked since it started in 2010.

Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania in the southwest Pacific and includes Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia.

It represents the largest indigenous population in the Pacific and the largest cohort of Recognised Seasonal Workers to New Zealand.

Edmonds said the decision to include the two Mela languages was reflected in the passion from the Melanesian communities.

More than 800 Solomon Islanders and 1200 Papua New Guinean people call New Zealand home, with both groups fast-growing and increasingly born here.

“That’s why it’s a critical time for their inclusion in the Pacific Language Weeks,” Edmonds said.

“Experiences of other Pacific and migrant nations illustrate the risks of languages and cultural identities being lost amongst our young people if we don’t act now. We know that it only takes one generation to lose a language and three generations to gain it back.”

National Melanesian Steering Committee in New Zealand chairperson Leina Isno acknowledging the Melanesian diaspora who’ve worked hard to get some formal recognition of Melanesians across New Zealand.

“That our Melanesian cultures are just as important as everyone else in the moana nui,” she said.

Edmonds said MPP would provide tailored support to the two new language weeks through creating resources, engagement with community groups, and funding to enable year-long language learning initiatives.

“I look forward to seeing more of our Pacific languages being spoken, heard and celebrated in 2024, as we continue to raise awareness of how diverse our Pacific communities truly are.”

Samoan Language Week was the first to be officially celebrated in New Zealand in 2010.

The celebrations have since grown to include nine Pacific languages. The most recently added were the Kiribati and Rotuman languages in 2020.