Pacific media pioneers reflect on 37 yrs of telling the stories of our 'parents and ancestors'

The producer of one of TVNZ’s longest-running shows says conversations around the ownership of 37 years of television content needs to begin.

Taulaleo’o Stephen Stehlin has produced the show Tagata Pasifika since 1992 and wants to discuss stewardship of material that has been filmed and archived since the show began in 1987.

“It’s a discussion that I want to have with Nga Taonga Sound & Vision. These are the archive people. Who owns the archive? Well the New Zealand people do actually.

“Who should have control over Pacific material? Well I think Pacific people should, because it’s their parents, their mothers, their fathers and their ancestors that are sitting in the vaults there.

“We’ve not had that conversation but I think that’s the conversation we should have. So in one way we’re changing but we’ve got to protect our past because our past is what has given us our history and our position in the world today.”

The show’s first presenter, Foufou Susana Hukui says social media has influenced how people consume their news especially during Covid-19.

Hukui was interviewed to be the show’s first presenter after talking about sex education on Ramona Papalii’s show See Here.

After landing the job, she presented the show’s first episode on the 4th of April 1987.

“I had lots of feelings, but mostly excitement and what a blessing that we got our own show.”

Almost four decades later, Tagata Pasifika still plays a pivotal role in celebrating, preserving and documenting Pacific people in New Zealand.

Alongside its essential role within Pacific communities in New Zealand, Stehlin says that the possibility of the show being cut still lingers.

He says that funding through the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and NZ on Air which they have to reapply for every year means the continuation of the show is always uncertain.

“We’re sort of straddling both at the moment. It does mean that productions that might have a traditional cost structure have to think about the young people.

“We have people cutting TP stories down for TikTok, you know all that sort of stuff so that we don’t miss our younger generation who are largely under the age of 30.

“I think that TP will survive but I’m not sure that it will be a half-hour, once-a-week TV show. It might be part of a news bulletin or its own being that is just airing stuff all the time that we can gather.”

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