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It has long been established that education is both a colonial and imperial tool that enables colonizing nations to establish themselves in foreign territories. This paper explores New Zealand's historical and contemporary role in the Pacific and how the country has leveraged higher education to both strengthen and continue its ongoing colonial and imperial projects. Utilizing current understandings of critical internationalization this paper will examine the lengths that New Zealand has gone to in order to protect its international standing as a gateway to the Pacific.

Many Pacific Islanders living in Australia have a high regard for education and have high expectations of the capacity of the school system to provide the learning experiences needed for their children to achieve successful education outcomes. However, there are some challenges to achieving this goal; socio-cultural, financial and physical factors such as limited in-home supports for study time, space or schedules have consistently been reported as common barriers to providing a supportive learning environment within the homes of young Pacific Islander (PI) learners. This paper examines notions of relationships and relationality as experienced by a group of PI learners specifically from Polynesia and Melanesia, as they lived and studied in a region of Melbourne from 2012 to 2015. It follows these learners' experiences as they navigate and negotiate the different spaces, structures and systems found within their home and school environments. In particular, it looks at ways that PI learners engage and interact with various players within these two important spaces and how these relationships affect school achievements and outcomes. The paper argues that complex relationship customs and relationality patterns can lead to both positive and negative impacts on learning for some PI learners.

In this article , author(s) reported on the results of the EU PacTVET project, which explored the use of TVET to support resilience in the region with an emphasis on climate change and health. An exploratory design was used to investigate how vocational education supports solutions for climate change and health. The results showed that vocational education plays a significant role in building safety and resilience of people in the region. Most significantly, getting an accredited qualification on health resilience and/or job in the health sector may help them to respond to climate change effectively and efficiently.

The University of the South Pacific is owned by 12 nations in the South Pacific Ocean. The institution provides higher education through its 14 campuses, with at least 1 campus per member country. To be able to overcome the geographical divide and isolation, while ensuring high-quality learning and teaching, the university utilizes Internet, satellite, and mobile devices and other Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools and technologies to provide virtual classroom experience. This article outlines the approaches adopted in offering a first-year chemistry course, in parallel, through face-to-face and distance modes. The novel attributes of bridging the geographical divide are presented. The article concludes with a discussion of new innovations that will further bring the classroom to the student irrespective of where the student is in the world.

Fourteen member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum have adopted The Pacific Education Development Framework as a means of improving quality of education across the region. Within this framework, special education and inclusive education are seen as priority areas that endorse a rights-based approach to education. Aligned with other Pacific regional advances for improving the measurement of the effectiveness of this Framework, is the development of a set of indicators to measure efforts towards disability-inclusive education specifically in the Pacific islands. The aim of this study is to identify existing measures that governments currently employ to report against education outcomes. Data were collected by written responses from relevant ministries in the 14 Pacific member countries to a set of questions specifically developed to address this aim. This paper provides an analysis of these surveys and discusses how these data are informing the development of the indicators to ensure the provision of quality education for children with disabilities in the Pacific islands.

Identity labels are used by in-group and out-group members to define themselves both referentially and socially. This article explores the use of identity labels in interview data from the Pasifika Languages of Manukau Project, a project that examined the language maintenance and use of Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island, and Niuean peoples in Auckland, New Zealand. Fourteen 1 hour interviews were analysed and 3,162 instances of the 2 terms "Niuean" and "Niue" were extracted from the speech of the interviewer and her participants. Although the findings show a strong preference for the use of "Niuean", the interviewer and the majority of her participants use both labels. For most of the participants in the study, "Niue" is a marked form used to express solidarity. The article contrasts this use with that of another participant who associates the label "Niuean" with out-group use. Extracts from the latter interview show how the "Niuean" label is used both for "othering" and for expressing solidarity. The article ends with commentary on the potential effects of these in-group labels on language planning initiatives in the New Zealand Niuean community. (Contains 1 table and 2 footnotes.)

This column focuses on the innovative strategies some teachers from Kazakhstan and Oceania are using to overcome the challenges they face. In Kazakhstan, schools organize reading days to encourage and inspire children to read. In the predominantly oral culture of the Cook Islands, Niue Island, and Rarotonga, teachers and administrators model reading for their students. They also create newsletters to communicate with remote schools and make their own books when resources allow. Despite the challenges faced by all of these teachers, they are finding success through determination and creative ideas.

A checklist of the flora and mycota of Niue (https://plantsniue.nu/#!/checklist) is presented using the NaturaList app platform. The Plants & Fungi of Niue NaturaList was compiled from information presented in the flora treatments of TG Yuncker (1943. The flora of Niue island. In: Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin. 178) and WR Sykes (1970. Contributions to the flora of Niue. New Zealand DSIR Bulletin 200. Wellington: Government Printer), with additional literature documenting the indigenous flora, rare plants, and invasive species. International databases such as iNaturalist and Plants of the World Online were consulted for taxa documented as occurring in Niue. Checklist information presented includes biostatus, Niuean vernacular names, synonyms, references, and images. Kingdom Fungi, mainly comprising Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, are included. The majority of fungi records are derived from surveys of diseases of agricultural crops and food plants, along with recent collections of lichenised fungi. Five additional phyla of Fungi comprise 15 records, with the mycota comprising a total of 270 taxa. Also listed are single species of Bacteria and Protozoa, and 9 taxa of Protista. Kingdom Plantae is represented by the vascular Polypodiophyta (ferns), Pinophyta (conifers), Lycopodiophyta (clubmosses), Cycadophyta (cycads) and Magnoliophyta (flowering plants). The Niue NaturaList includes indigenous (191 species), naturalised (376 species), Polynesian introductions (57 species), and cultivated (382 species) vascular taxa. The cultivated flora includes garden ornamentals and crop plants. The non-vascular Bryophyta (mosses) and Marchantiophyta (liverworts) are represented by 41 taxa. With the floras of Yuncker and Sykes out-of-print and recent literature often disparate and not readily accessible, the Plants & Fungi of Niue NaturaList provides a single, electronic and up-to-date compilation. This is necessary to improve knowledge of and access to Niue's indigenous biota and introduced cultivated and naturalised plants. It also informs and encourages further study relating to conservation of indigenous species and ecosystems, invasive species management, food security, and climate change adaptation. An appendix lists 37 new records of naturalised and cultivated plants made in 2024. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culturally appropriate research frameworks are needed for investigating Pacific well-being. This study expanded on existing Pacific methodologies and presented a well-being research framework by studying the Niue community. Traditional storytelling or talanoa methodology, referred to as tala in the Niue context, was used to explore and understand the lived experiences of well-being from Niue elders. The elders described traditional activities and objects that are required to sustain well-being, as well as relationships with family, community, and the environment. Three interconnected principles that influence the well-being of the Niue people emerged from the tala, namely, Vahā Loto-Agaaga Ofania (Spirit of Care), Fakafetuiaga (Inclusive Relationship), and Fakamalolo (Empowerment). Using a Niue lens, the key three principles were developed into the Matalili-Aga Gahua (Matalili Wellbeing Framework), based on a circular woven pattern that is distinctive to the Niue culture. The principles of the Matalili Wellbeing Framework are proposed as a guide in future Niue-centered research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Pacific region stands at the forefront of climate change related impacts, we need to hear from those most affected especially in terms of the mental health and wellbeing impacts for our Pacific communities. This exploratory study is led and carried out by Pacific and Indigenous researchers with Pacific peoples and seeks to place Pacific voices front and centre of its practice and analysis. This multi-country study was undertaken with Pacific experts and knowledge holders in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Cook Islands and Niuē. This paper foregrounds Pacific perspectives, and considers how western concepts, such as eco- and climate anxiety, can be best applied to understand the mental distress of climate change for Pacific peoples. We demonstrate that there is a deep interconnection between climate change and mental health and wellbeing, and the impacts of this link has been cultural nuanced and defined by and for Pacific peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origin of soils on Niue Island, an uplifted South Pacific former atoll, has long been a subject of debate because the soils are highly radioactive. A new assessment of proposed sources shows that content in the soils of major elements such as Fe and Al rules out erosion of the carbonate buildup or pristine aragonite coral. Subaerial volcanic ash has been previously argued to be a major source and according to a newly employed diagnostic ratio of [Fe.sub.2][O.sub.3]/[Al.sub.2][O.sub.3] it is confirmed as a definite minor contributor. [Fe.sub.2][O.sub.3]/[Al.sub.2][O.sub.3] ratios offer evidence that the most likely major soil precursor is pumice rafted periodically from neighboring seamounts or from the volcanically active Tongan Trench. Pumice raftings likely contributed to the soil formation of other uplifted atolls having configurations similar to Niue Island. Keywords: Niue, soils, pumice, calcite, dolomite, NIUE ISLAND (Figure 1) is an uplifted atoll in the South Pacific near the Tonga-Kermadec trench. The other side of the trench is the Tongan islands. Niue is dolomitized (Wheeler [...]

This article critically considers how existing social power relations are reified in the stories we're using to tell stories about gender and climate change. Throughout, I draw on Donna Haraway's argument that 'it matters what stories make worlds, which worlds make stories' (2016, 12) to explore some of the theoretical possibilities for re-storying gender and climate change offered by feminist and critical scholars. I work through two contextual examples: i) United Nations and associated governmental policy on 'gender mainstreaming' in our climate responses; and ii) climate change legislation and Indigenous women's voices on environmental relationships in Aotearoa New Zealand and the South Pacific. I argue that alongside our need for urgent climate action, we must also disrupt the social power relations reified through hierarchical binaries in our climate change texts, such as Global North/Global South, masculine/feminine, and developing/ developed, if we are to ethically and relationally respond to our climate crises., 1. INTRODUCTION: RESISTING HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM Feminist scholarship has long recognized the ways in which Western logocentric and androcentric narratives have dominated the stories we use to tell stories about ecological [...]

El Niño–Southern Oscillation dynamics affect global weather patterns, with regionally diverse hydrological responses posing critical societal challenges. The lack of seasonally resolved hydrological proxy reconstructions beyond the observational era limits our understanding of boundary conditions that drive and/or adjust El Niño–Southern Oscillation variability. Detailed reconstructions of past El Niño–Southern Oscillation dynamics can help modelling efforts, highlight impacts on disparate ecosystems and link to extreme events that affect populations from the tropics to high latitudes. Here, mid‐Holocene El Niño–Southern Oscillation and hydrological changes are reconstructed in the south‐west Pacific using a stalagmite from Niue Island, which represents the period 6.4–5.4 ka BP. Stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios, trace elements and greyscale data from a U/Th‐dated and layer counted stalagmite profile are combined to infer changes in local hydrology at sub‐annual to multi‐decadal timescales. Principal component analysis reveals seasonal‐scale hydrological changes expressed as variations in stalagmite growth patterns and geochemical characteristics. Higher levels of host rock‐derived elements (Sr/Ca and U/Ca) and higher δ18O and δ13C values are observed in dark, dense calcite laminae deposited during the dry season, whereas during the wet season, higher concentrations of soil‐derived elements (Zn/Ca and Mn/Ca) and lower δ18O and δ13C values are recorded in pale, porous calcite laminae. The multi‐proxy record from Niue shows seasonal cycles associated with hydrological changes controlled by the positioning and strength of the South Pacific Convergence Zone. Wavelet analysis of the greyscale record reveals that El Niño–Southern Oscillation was continuously active during the mid‐Holocene, with two weaker intervals at 6–5.9 and 5.6–5.5 ka BP. El Niño–Southern Oscillation especially affects dry season rainfall dynamics, with increased cyclone activity that reduces hydrological seasonality during El Niño years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Niue represents one of many important steppingstones facilitating the dispersal of marine organisms across the tropical Pacific Ocean. This study is part of a collaborative expedition involving National Geographic Pristine Seas, the government of Niue, Oceans 5, and the Pacific Community. We present the first survey documenting the species richness of foraminiferal communities in Niue and nearby Beveridge Reef and explore their significance for ecosystem integrity. A substantial portion (59%) of Niue's foraminiferal assemblages is Large Benthic Foraminifera (LBF), a symbiont-bearing group known as ecosystem engineers and indicators of coral reef regime shifts. LBF species reported here reflect the gradual decrease of tropical diversity from the Coral Triangle towards the central Pacific Ocean. Calcarinidae, an LBF family represented in this study by two species, is the easternmost ever recorded in published literature, and the biogeographical dispersal of this temperature-controlled group is of great importance to future global warming related studies. Foraminifera are an important component of beach development in Niue, with a close relationship between source and depositional zones. These essential ecological–sedimentary linkages highlight the importance of habitat conservation not only as a means to safeguard biodiversity, but also for its role in the island's physical framework.

Background: Bycatch mortality in longline fisheries is a major contributor to global declines in shark populations. The duration of time that an animal is hooked and the impacts of hooking on behavior affect the likelihood of mortality. However, limited information exists on the behavior of sharks to longline capture because of difficulties observing hooking events. Using a fortuitous recovery of an archival satellite tag, we describe the movement of an oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) and examine the behavior prior to its mortality in response to hooking on a longline. Results: A 1.5 m (fork length) C.longimanus was tagged and released in good condition by a fisheries observer following initial capture on a US longline fishing vessel. After release, the shark resumed normal vertical behavior within 5 h. Over 198 days, the shark undertook wide-ranging movements throughout the Pacific between Samoa, Niue, and Tonga. The shark was hooked by a second longline vessel while conducting routine yo-yo diving between 0 and 120 m depth. For the first hour after being hooked the shark exhibited high swimming activity with rapid vertical movements between 20 and 40 m indicative of an initial struggle against the line. After this, the shark struggled at the surface for approximately 5 h, until it succumbed to exhaustion and died on the line. Conclusion: Fight time has a strong influence on the mortality rates of sharks captured in commercial longline fishing operations. Data obtained from this shark offers further understanding of capture behavior and time to mortality on a longline for C.longimanus which may assist managers as they work on options to reduce mortality rates for this threatened species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology and digital platforms have become essential for people and communities to interact because of COVID-19. Despite its benefits, digital exclusion disproportionately affects Pacific communities living in New Zealand. This article provides insights into how Niue mamatua (older adults) used their gifted mobile phones and mobile data as part of a COVID-19 digital inclusion initiative. It begins with an overview of the digital inclusion needs of older adults, followed by a description of the digital vā (relational space) and negotiating a new way of maintaining connection in an online world. The tutala (a Niue method of conversation anchored on respect) with 12 mamatua highlighted the benefits, support factors, and challenges of how they were able to use their mobile phone. Importantly, mobile phones provided the necessary access and connectivity to interact in a digitally connected world, namely the digital vā, when in-person connections were disrupted because of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to decipher the diversity and distribution of benthic dinoflagellates, as there are many morphologically indistinct taxa that differ from one another in production of potent toxins. To date, the genus Ostreopsis comprises twelve described species, of which seven are potentially toxic and produce compounds presenting a threat to human and environmental health. In this study, isolates previously identified as "Ostreopsis sp. 3" were sampled from the area where it was first reported, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, and have been taxonomically and phylogenetically characterised as Ostreopsis tairoto sp. nov. Phylogenetically, the species is closely related to "Ostreopsis sp. 8", O. mascarenensis, "O. sp. 4", O. fattorussoi, O. rhodesiae and O. cf. siamensis. Previously, it was considered a part of the O. cf. ovata complex but can be distinguished from O. cf. ovata based on the small pores identified on this study, and from O. fattorussoi and O. rhodesiae based on relative lengths of the 2′ plates. No known palytoxin -like compounds were detected in strains investigated in this study. Strains of O. lenticularis, Coolia malayensis and C. tropicalis were also identified and described. This study advances our knowledge of biogeography, distribution, and toxins of Ostreopsis and Coolia species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incredibly, Niue has been able to maintain its COVID-19-free status while more than 90 percent of countries throughout the world continue to grapple with the pandemic. Despite the impacts of [...]

Introduction Hearing is a primary sense that facilitates the development of spoken language, social connection and an appreciation of sounds within the natural world. Hearing loss has multiple adverse effects across the life course. Understanding the worldviews of ear and hearing health in Pacific peoples is crucial to inform responsive and appropriate hearing health and primary healthcare services. Aim To understand the worldviews, knowledge and beliefs held by the Niuean community in Niue towards ear and hearing health, and the use of healthcare methods to contribute to service development. Methods Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with Niuean community members. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using thematic analysis methods. Results Niuean people value hearing health as an important way to communicate and connect with each other. They are proactive health seekers, have good knowledge about ear disease and hearing health and use mainstream medicines alongside spiritual practices and traditional remedies to maintain good ear and hearing health. The hospital system is responsive and accessible to the community’s needs, contrasting with Pacific people’s access to hearing health services in New Zealand. Discussion There is a high level of awareness of the importance of hearing health amongst the Niuean community and good accessibility and utilisation of healthcare services. There is potential to implement locally focused ear and hearing health strategies in Niue and conduct hearing health research among the New Zealand-based Niuean community to improve primary healthcare services delivery.

The tsunami that occurred after the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano eruption on 15 January 2022 was unusually fast and large, particularly at large distances from the source. Here we use an observation-calibrated air-wave model to generate ocean waves using a tsunami model. We used pressure data observed at 94 stations in Niue, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand's main and outer islands to obtain a simple air-wave model. The modelled air-wave travels at an approximated constant speed of 317 m/s with an amplitude that decays with distance from the volcano. We then simulated the generation and propagation of tsunami due to the propagating air-wave in the atmosphere above the ocean. The leading sea surface displacement excited by the pressure disturbances travels at the same speed as the air-wave. This leading wave is then followed by subsequent water waves that travel in the same direction as the leading wave but at the conventional tsunami propagation speed. In the model, the air-wave was more effective at generating a tsunami when it travelled over a deep bathymetric feature like the Kermadec-Tonga Trench. The tsunami amplitudes observed at gauges do not decay as rapidly with distance from the volcano as would be expected for a localized tsunami source. This is due to the continuous excitation of the tsunami as the air-wave propagates across the ocean. In shallow water, the leading water surface displacement can often be much smaller than the later waves that were most likely to have been generated in the deep ocean. A better understanding of the complexity of tsunami generation and propagation of this kind is important to help improve future tsunami disaster mitigation from such sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]