Brown Pride - Island Style Lunch

Housing and Poverty are two of the most pressing issues for New Zealanders.  According to a 2013 census analysis some 40,000 people in New Zealand are either homeless or living in substandard housing. 

Johnnie Timu from Brown Pride believes that us as the Pasifika Community should be doing more, so that’s exactly what he and his Brown Pride Community are doing. 

This Saturday on WORLD HOMELESS DAY, Brown Pride will be hosting it’s first ever “Island Style Lunch” a toonai style menu with Taro, Raw fish etc for the unhomed brothers and sisters in the community.

We asked Johnnie how they came up with the Island Style Initiative;

“We've been blessed to have crossed paths and worked alongside charity directors like Danielle from Sunday Blessing and Eddie from Orange Sky. Danielle and her Sunday Blessings team host free meals in the CBD on Tuesdays and Sundays. She brought up World Homeless Day to our attention. So I talked to our team and they all believed we could put together something special for our unhomed brothers and sisters living rough.”

Although this is their first “Island Style Lunch”, this is not the first time Brown Pride has hosted a meal for the homeless. The last meal they hosted a special request was made but one of their guests Johnnie recalls

“Our last time we volunteered in town, a Maori gentleman thanked us for our time and donations but had a kind request that we bring 'Island' food like taro and raw fish next time we visited, and that's how we came up with the idea.”

Brown Pride obviously has a big heart for the community and helping our Maori and Pasifika people. Johnnie explains how Brown Pride all came about.

"Brown Pride is a Social Enterprise that designs, implements and facilitates activities for the benefit of Pacific and Maori community. 

We use fitness, arts and community to empower our people especially our youth. Brown Prides core business model is fitness and well being then everything else branches from that. We started the idea with six of our closest mates after years of working labouring jobs but not enjoying it. We just felt that we could do something better for ourselves and our families. "

Alongside Timu, Brown Pride is also run by two other young men Peter Faalili aka Tee who handles all admin and Tino Mafoe who is their head trainer. All of these young men are of Samoan Descent and have a heart for their people. 

Although Brown Pride only launched in 2019, their logo proudly sports ‘EST 1929’ the year the people of Samoa sadly lost members of the Mau Movement while fighting for independence.

Timu states 

"For us being descendents of these brave men, it's sad if we were just to carry on with our robotic workaholic life and not try to do something like the Mau did by trying to empower our people. We carry the '1929' as one of our strong cultural roots to remind us what our ancestors did just so Samoa could live independently and hold onto their cultural ethics."

True to their word, the Brown Pride organization is doing all they can to help those in need. Their past work in the community is proof of that, and now again with their Island Style Lunch for the homeless.

Timu explains why it is important for us as a community to care more about homelesness. 

“It's important to us because in the Pacific and Maori culture, family and togetherness is always an important aspect of our culture. To see our own people out on the streets, lonely, cold and hungry breaks my heart. The last time we volunteered in town, the majority of the homeless that came out for a meal were people of Pacific or Maori descent who looked exactly like us, even kids as well and a lot of them mentioned that there's rarely times when brown skinned people would volunteer and serve them.”

“ For me personally, it's important and held close to my heart because as a kid there were nights when I'd sleep in a car with my mum and sister due to having no place to call home.

If you want to get involved in this initiative - please see details below.

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To organize a pick up / drop off of food donations;

IG: brownpride_nz
Email: brownpride.nz@gmail.com
Number: 021 492583 

If you would like to donate monetary gift

BROWN PRIDE TRUST : 02-0108-0531284-000.