Tongan youth leaders hold local board to account on crime hike

30 arrests, a drug bust and a hit-and-run happened right outside the Auckland offices of the Tonga Youth Trust within a matter of weeks.

Late last month, the trust took matters into their own hands and sat down with the Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board to ask them what they could do to help reduce crime.

Simulata Pope has been involved with the To'utupu or Tonga Youth Trust all her life.

Her biggest frustration was with elected officials, who are nowhere to be seen when their young constituents asked for help.

"We vote these community leaders in. We vote all these adults in and the only time we see them are during elections," she said.

"So once they're voted in, we never hear them or they never pick up the mantle of what it is to actually ensure safety in our community."

Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board chairperson Lemauga Lydia Sosene has been approached for comment.

Pope said the recent string of violence outside the Tonga Youth Trust's doors was the last straw.

"The imagery of Pacific policemen you know, with massive firearms. Telling people 'get down otherwise something's gonna happen'. Sirens everywhere. Helicopter's on, arresting our Pacific brothers was just really ironic just outside the office."

She got to the drawing board with a group of her younger peers and came up with Fanongo - a night for talanoa between young Tongans, wider kainga, Police, local board members and MPs.

St Peters College Year 13 student Nalesoni Maiava (Kolomotu'a, Ha'apai, Samoa) is disappointed with the violence in his neighbourhood, and the lack of leadership to stop it.

"I just think witnessing such things," he said. "It's poor. Because it's a stereotype I guess for South Auckland. So yeah, I really don't like to see it."

Nalesoni said the issue starts in school where teachers are often ill-equipped to help vulnerable students resist pressures to get involved in crime that come from outside the classroom walls.

He said children can come to school with emotional baggage that when not addressed, manifests into toxic behaviour.

"I think teachers, no matter what skin colour they are, I think they should at least try to understand," he said.

"I guess just having understanding teachers who are willing to listen, it's good to have in your school."

Onehunga High School Year 12 'Uluakimaka Fulivai Kaivelata (Kanokupolu) loved being able to sit down with the local board for constructive discussion.

"We just talked about how we can help our Pacific Island youths stay out of trouble and find them a better past time," he said.

"And it created an environment of intergenerational conversation."

"We had age groups from children to youths to adult to elderly, talk on how they feel."

Allen Foliaki (Ma'ufanga, Vaini), a Year 13 student at Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate, is keen to have more Fanongo moving forward.

She said the next generation are expected to lead the world out of issues they didn't start.

"We walk to school, we see these conflicts happening at school," she said.

"We see these, you know from our perspectives at home. Everywhere we go, we just see it."

The Tonga Youth Trust's Simulata Pope said their local board have avoided getting involved.

"Immediately when crime happens in South Auckland, it's a young person issue or it's youth being unsupervised, or drugs are going around, the organised crime, the gangs. It's all young people," Pope added.

"But at Fanongo, we had young people at the forefront of saying 'actually no one's listening to us and we know the answers'."

Talks between the Tonga Youth Trust and Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board are ongoing.