Pasifika capital of New Zealand, academic claims

Gary Kircher.
Gary Kircher.
An Auckland academic says Oamaru, not Auckland, is home to the largest population of Pacific people per capita.

RNZ yesterday reported University of Auckland associate professor of Pacific studies Damon Salesa said one in four Oamaru residents were Pacific people - a substantially larger ratio than in Auckland or Wellington.

While Auckland was described as the world's largest Polynesian city ''if you actually examine people's lives, where they live in particular, this is not true''.

There were areas within Auckland that had high concentrations of Pasifika people, but due to the cost of living in the city, people were looking elsewhere.

Prof Salesa noted one church parish in Oamaru had two Tongan congregations, the rugby clubs had grown with an influx from the north, Oamaru schools had changed, and there was a ''lively'' local Pacific community.

He said horticultural work and the Pukeuri meat works provided employment for households whose pay was sometimes ''very close to the minimum wage''.

The pay in Oamaru might be the same as in Auckland, but the cost of housing was very different.

Rent for a three-bedroom home in Oamaru, could be $250 a week whereas in Otara, he said, ''you will not get change from $600 a week. The average price for a home in Auckland is over $1million. In Oamaru you can buy a nice home for $250,000.''

While the 2013 census found 471 people, of 20,826 in the Waitaki district, identified themselves as Pasifika, many in the community have said that number was ''incredibly low''.

But Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher disputed Prof Salesa's claim. He said he believed of the roughly 14,000 people in Oamaru about 15% were Pasifika.

- Additional reporting Otago Daily Times

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