Glorious Oxenham teaching a Pidgin class to children in the Wellington Solomon Islands Community. 27 April 2024 Photo: RNZ Pacific / Koroi Hawkins
A long-time educator and Solomon Islands community elder in Wellington hopes to continue passing down her knowledge of the language to the next generation.
This week, New Zealand's Ministry of Pacific Peoples concludes its Pacific Language Week series with Solomon Islands Pijin Language Week.
Wellington Solomon Islands Community's secretary Glorious Marie Oxenham, affectionately known as 'Aunty Glo', told RNZ Pacific that many children of Solomon Islanders who were born in Aotearoa or who migrated here at a very young age did not speak the language.
"The children may hear their parents speak Pijin [but] they don't speak it," Oxenham, who is a Queens Service Medal recipient, said.
In recognition of this the Wellington Solomon Islands Community this year started Pijin language classes for oketa pikinini and Oxenham said the children were "all very eager" to learn.
"People must continue to teach their children the language of where they come from," she said, adding that the youngest child she taught Pijin in Wellington is now four years old.
"He is speaking it a lot now with his parents. He loves to sing Pijin music.
Slomon Islands is a Melanesian nation and has 74 local languages, 70 of which are living languages, and four of which are extinct, according to the Solomon Islands Trade, Investment and Culture Office.
Wellington Solomon Islands Community’s secretary Glorious Marie Oxenham, affectionately known as ‘Aunty Glo’. Photo: Facebook / New Zealand High Commission- Honiara, Solomon Islands
Oxenham, who has lived in New Zealand for over four decades, said that while Pijin is the common language - or lingua franca - in the Solomon Islands, "people speak three or four languages of their own."
"In the Solomon Islands, Pijjin is English based. It is a mixture of English words and local dialects similar to Bislama (the national language of Vanuatu), and Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea," she explained.
"One of the things people must realise is that languages in our own country are still very much being used by our own people."
She pointed out that in the Solomon Islands, there are many intermarriages among different provinces with various languages, indicating connections between cultures, where some can speak three to four different languages.
"People back home are starting to realise that they must teach their children the languages of the families of where they come from and not just to speak Pijin."
Oxenham is conducting weaving demonstrations this Saturday supported by Solomon Islands artist Selwyn Palmer Teho at the Pataka Museum in Porirua where some Solomon artefacts which she and others from the community provided to the museum and helped to set up will also be on display.
"I love weaving and I hope to weave all of my knowledge in my culture through language and workshops to pass down to the next generation."