Cultural diversity ‘shouldn’t be a tick list item’

New Zealand has “not fully come to terms” with its place in the Pacific, and continues to isolate its Pacific Islands communities through poverty and limited access to education, according to Samoan academic Damon Salesa.

In his book Island Time: New Zealand’s Pacific futures, Salesa says the country is struggling to deal with demographic changes that will make Māori, Asian and Pacific Islands people more socially and culturally dominant in the future.

Salesa says a commitment to genuine cultural diversity “will require more than just the inclusion of a few Pacific people” in NZ government policy initiatives and education programmes.