Photo: Supplied / PCF
An organisation formally touted as the Pacific arm of New Zealand's foreign ministry is looking for donor partners after being cut off by the government.
Pacific Cooperation Foundation (PCF) chief executive Joanna Bourke is working to prove that they are worthy to work alongside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) in advocating for the Pacific.
Funding for the foundation was scrapped, along with many other initiatives, leaving Pacific peoples NZ$26 million worse off in this year's New Zealand Budget.
The finer details have taken some time to be hashed out, with Bourke only speaking out now.
"We don't get anything [guaranteed] now, so we're on the hunt for new funding," she said.
Bourke said it is unfortunate the NZ$1.4 million in guaranteed funding has been slashed, but the door is not completely shut.
"The programs that they know align with their Pacific policy, they will fund, but we just have to go through the normal contracting and procurement processes.
"MFAT and the Ministry of Finance have allowed us to retain the funds that we'd saved from program delivery in the last year, and we've carried that into this financial year to upscale our internship program, run another perceptions report, but also to keep the office running."
That saved amount is around NZ$200,000.
"PCF kind of lost their way and were complacent in the funding that they were receiving, and as a result, they were being a generalist versus being a specialist," she added.
She said the organisation must prove to government and its stakeholders in the wider region that "we actually bring a voice to the table, and that we have something we can actually add value."
PCF provides a number of services, including helping small island developing states with tourism marketing and supporting young peoples through internships.
"When you look at our vision, it's around how do we contribute or facilitate the reimagining of the Pacific narrative, because we're not all criminals and we're not all, you know, actors and actresses, and we're not all sportspeople."
She said there is a lot of great work happening that Pacific people do that often does not make headlines.
Joanna Bourke Photo: Pacific Cooperation Foundation
"It's reimagining that narrative and demonstrating that the Pacific brings so much more to the New Zealand landscape than what we have been known to provide."
"We've got to step away from this Dawn Raid mentality, where we had all these Pacific that came to New Zealand in the '70s to work in factories and contribute to the economic development of New Zealand.
"Yes, that has happened, but we need to move beyond that and look at these people who are prospering, running their own businesses, looking after their families, but also the beauty that we're seeing is people like myself, born and raised here in New Zealand, but we also return back to the islands and contribute where we can," Bourke added.