‘Everyone has a family story’: Pacific and Māori families in NZ urged to explore their heritage

Pacific families living away from their homelands are finding out where they come from and this can mean much more than building a family tree, says the New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG).

It can also mean tracing village connections, land, chiefly names, churches, songs and the stories carried through generations.

The Society is encouraging Pacific and Māori families to explore their history at this year’s Auckland Family History Expo in Ōtāhuhu.

Cecilia Lea Cowley, NZSG director, says Pacific genealogy can look very different from Western ideas of family history.

“We've got a broad definition of what family is in the Pacific and with Western definition it's absolutely different from our viewpoint, our cultural viewpoint,” she told William Terite on Pacific Mornings.

She says family history can stretch well beyond written records.

Listen to Cecilia Lea Cowley's full interview below.

“And I think that kind of definition with songs, with hymns, with churches, all that's part of the history whether it be from Sāmoa, Tonga or Cook Islands and it's attached to village, which is attached to family, which is attached to chiefly names, attached to land, but all that is part of that genealogy and family history.”

That wider connection between culture and identity is also reflected in the work of Salā Marie Young, New Zealand-Sāmoan academic and entrepreneur, who spoke about Pacific identity and intergenerational connections in an August 2026 profile about the launch of Pacific civic organisation PaCIVICa.

“When identity, culture, and civic skill meet, our communities don’t just participate in Aotearoa’s future - we shape it," Young, the chief executive of PaCIVICa, said.

New Zealand-Sāmoan academic and entrepreneur Salā Marie Young says strong connections to identity and culture can help Pacific communities shape Aotearoa’s future. Photo/PaCIVICa

The Family History Expo in South Auckland, from 9 to 11 October, will bring together genealogists, academics, museums, ancestry and DNA providers and others working in family history.

Cowley says the event is also an opportunity for Pacific families to learn how to find information that may already exist in archives or through oral history.

“I think the stories of our ancestors or our great-grandparents or our grandparents need to be told.”

She says those stories can become harder to access for Pacific people living in the diaspora.

“So when we talk about the diaspora away from our homelands, I think those stories are not necessarily known.”

Archives New Zealand (Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga) also encourages people researching their whakapapa to explore government records, including birth and immigration records, and offers access to archivists who can help with family-history research.

Archives New Zealand holds records that can help people research their whakapapa, including family, birth and immigration records. Photo/Archives NZ

The Society of Genealogists has been operating for 60 years and has an office in Panmure with archival resources, a library and research support.

Cowley says the organisation also runs courses on writing family histories and finding and using archival material.

She has become involved in the work through her own family research, including tracing her Kaule family connections and learning more about ancestors linked to Sāmoa.

Her own journey has also connected her with relatives overseas, including a niece in Brisbane.

Now she wants to encourage more Pacific families to begin their own searches.

“I'm passionate about it, I'm very interested in, and trying to stimulate that interest amongst my own family.”

The New Zealand Society of Genealogists supports people researching their family history through archives, resources, courses and research assistance. Photo/NZSG

Cowley says interest from Pacific communities is already growing, including among teachers and younger people in the diaspora. “Everyone has a family story.”

The expo will offer a chance for people who are already researching their whakapapa to learn more, while also helping those who do not know where to start.

Cowley’s advice for first-time researchers is simple. “Get in contact with us and have a chat.”

The Society is also looking at establishing a specific Pacific interest group as part of its work to give families another way to share knowledge and support each other in tracing their histories.

Cowley says the journey into genealogy can be a way of keeping those connections alive and making sure the stories of previous generations are not lost.