Faculty of Asian Studies, The Australian National University

PASIFIKA AUSTRALIA FORUM PANELIST (OCT 30, 2008)

I am currently a graduate law student at ANU College of Law, having previously completed a Bachelor of Arts (International Relations) at ANU in 2005. I also completed 1 year exchange in Trondheim, Norway from 2001-2002. I am a member of Pacific Islands United (PIU). The PIU grew out of a Pacific Islands dance workshop which I took part in on behalf of the Tongan Association of Canberra and Queanbeyan (TACQ) along with around 50 youth from other Pacific Island backgrounds. I have been a youth leader in both PIU and the TACQ as well as a youth leader in the Tongan Catholic Youth group or the 'Lataki Youth Group'. As a youth leader for the PIC and TAQC I have attended forums run by the ACT Local Government as well as helped organise and MC the 'Pacific Spectacular' during the National Multicultural Festival. From 2000-2001, I was also the Youth Representative in both the ACT Multicultural Council and the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia.

Personal: Born in 1983 in Suva, Fiji to a Fiji-Indian (Indo-Fijian) father and Tongan mother. We migrated permanently to Australia in 1993. I've experienced first hand some of the challenges of being raised in a multicultural Pacific family while also adapting to a new home/culture, Australia.