Media Release

May 15, 2009
Libraries bring Samoa to Waitakere

Bringing the culture and language of Samoa to a wider audience is the focus of a week of activities at Waitakere libraries later this month.

Waitakere Library and Information Services in association with the Human Rights Commission are holding Samoan Language Week from 26 May to 30 May.

“Samoan is one of the most widely spoken languages in New Zealand. We have a large Samoan community living in Waitakere and we want to celebrate that,” says chairperson of Waitakere City Council’s Culture and Community Committee Judy Lawley.

“This week is about raising awareness of the Samoan language and recognising its use in the home, in education, at work and in the media.”

The week is also a chance to promote the Waitakere Libraries’ Samoan titles which are included in its multicultural collection.

The service has an extensive collection of adult and children books in more than 40 different languages from Afrikaans and Albanian to Tamil and Vietnamese.

Ranui Library will be at the centre of most of the activities for Samoan Language Week, recognition of the large Samoan community who make the area and surrounding suburbs their home.

An educator from the Auckland Museum will lead a series of sessions at the library such as card making using Pacific designs and tapa rubbing.
There will also be demonstrations of traditional pump drills, the use of lavalava – the Samoan form of a sarong and storytime for preschoolers read in Samoan.

New Lynn and Te Atatu Peninsula libraries will have bilingual storytimes.

Programme is as follows:

Ranui Library

26 & 27 May 12pm, Samoan language storytime for preschoolers
28 May 3.00pm – 5.00pm, Tapa rubbing, card making and traditional pumpdrill replicas
29 May 3.00pm – 5.00pm, Tapa rubbing, badge making and traditional pumpdrill replicas
30 May 9.00am – 12pm, Lavalava the Samoan way, card and badge making and traditional pumpdrill replicas

Te Atatu Peninsula Library

26 May 10.30am, Bilingual (Samoan-English) storytime for pre-schoolers

New Lynn War Memorial Library

27 May 10.30am, Bilingual (Samoan-English) storytime for pre-schoolers

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