It’s Fijian Language Week
To celebrate Pacific Language Weeks, AUT works alongside its students to elevate their experiences of Pacific culture, practices and language through visual storytelling, focusing on taonga to be preserved, protected and sustained.
These taonga are often ancient and deeply significant from cultural, spiritual and social perspectives and are practices shared by others in the University’s community.
The taonga being showcased by AUT students for Fijian Language Week are tabua; traditional Fijian cultural treasures made from whale teeth.
Traditionally presented during important ceremonies and occasions, tabua hold deep cultural and spiritual significance.
Worn like a necklace as an adornment, they represent respect, relationships, connection and cultural value, and continue to play an important role in Fijian traditions today.
AUT Bachelor of Engineering student, Lleyton Koroiwaqalevu says, “As well as wearing the tabua, it is the language we use around it that is equally as important, reflecting peoples’ cultural beliefs and a deep respect for their traditions.”
AUT Bachelor of Design student, Elizabeth Raitaci says of the Fijian language, “Let us speak it with pride, teach it with love and preserve it for generations to come.
“My advice to my fellow students here at AUT is to never be ashamed or embarrassed of how little knowledge you may have of the Fijian culture. We are all on a different journey and all in it together. Just be proud and embrace who you are as a Kiwi Fijian.”
The 2026 theme for Fijian Language Week is "Na noqu vosa me tekivu mai vale ka me'u na vosataka e na veisiga" - My language starts at home and I need to speak it every day.
Fijian greetings and other resources for Macawa ni Vosa vakaViti, including email signatures and printable posters, are available on the website of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples.
AUT’s 2026 AUT Pacific language video series as they are launched, watch on the AUT Pacific YouTube channel.