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Island Time: how Pacific people and cultures are changing NZ
Right now in New Zealand, according to Damon Salesa, the largest proportion of Pacific people in any given population is not Auckland, but Oamaru. One in four Oamaru residents are Pacific people – a substantially larger ratio than is so of Auckland and Wellington. So large, says Salesa, that one church parish in Oamaru has two Tongan congregations in it, and the rugby clubs have burgeoned with this influx from the North. Schools there have changed, and there’s a lively local Pacific community. Salesa identifies this social change as another marker of Pacific peoples' readiness to think creatively, and find a thoughtful solution to the cost of living in Auckland. But why Oamaru in particular? Because there is a lot of horticultural work and a very large meatworks to provide employment for households whose pay is sometimes very close to the minimum wage. The pay in Oamaru may be the same as in Auckland, but the cost of housing is very, very different. For $250 a week you can rent a three-bedroom home in Oamaru, whereas in Otara, he says, "you will not get change from $600 a week. The average price for a home in Auckland is over a million dollars. In Oamaru you can buy a nice home for $250,000." So a new Pacific future is under development, involving Pacific people pioneering living in different parts of the country.