“The strength of the Tongan culture is in the kava.” For 45 years, one of Grey Lynn’s last remaining Tongan families has proudly hosted their fofo’anga faikava kalapu (kava club) from their home. Each week the Koloamatangi family welcomes generations of Tongan men to drink kava, sing songs and share history with each other. In 1978 this fofo’anga was the first faikava club established outside of Tonga, the same year the United Church of Tonga was opened up the road – the first Tongan church established in Aotearoa New Zealand.

“The Richmond Rovers and Grey Lynn Park go hand in hand. It wouldn’t feel the same anywhere else.” The Richmond Rovers Rugby League Club is a Polynesian mecca, bringing back generations of Pacific players and their families to Grey Lynn Park every week. For 110 years the club has been based in the park. That central city legacy continues despite 95% of the members now living out of inner-city Auckland. The club survives by its values of loyalty, family, and service.

“It’s important that we move quickly to restore the mana of this fale” - Bonni Tamati Samoa House hides in plain sight on Auckland’s Karangahape Road. It was built with funds raised by the Samoa House Appeal Fund and opened in 1979 as a response to the Dawn Raids. The site includes the first fale built outside of Samoa and previously housed the Samoan consulate. The future of Samoa House - in particular, the Fale - is uncertain as Pacific community groups no longer have direct or priority access to the space. This episode of STILL HERE explores the future of Samoa House amid a rapidly gentrifying Karangahape road.

“When we come to this house [Ariki Street], it’s like the whispers of our ancestors are in the walls” - Leki Jackson-Bourke The Fineone Hakupu community house has proudly sat at the top of Ariki St, Grey Lynn, for over 50 years. Tucked under the shade of the large apartment complex, the house serves as space for generations of Hakupu members to meet, sing, celebrate, and practice their culture. In this episode of STILL HERE we met Leki Jackson-Bourke (28, Niuean, Samoan, Tongan), a multidisciplinary creative and teacher at Marcellin College fighting alongside his family and community to revitalise the endangered Niuean language and culture.

Tyla Vaeau is an award winning artist dedicating much of her research and practice to Sāmoan tatau and wider Moana tattoo motifs. She is the first Sāmoan woman tattooist to be gifted the ‘au and is widely considered to be the only female tufuga tatau practitioner working in Aotearoa. She co-runs Vaeau family studio with her brother, Hiram, out of their family home in Grey Lynn.  -  “Coming full circle and setting the studio back up in the family home in Central Auckland in Grey Lynn has been really significant because it's maintained and reconnected a lot of the Pasifika connections to this area. And the significance of growing up in this area during that time with those communities and being back here and being able to give back to those communities through the work that I'm doing has been really important” - Tyla Vaeau

Mother-daughter duo Selu-Kian and Moevasa Faletoese delve into White Ponsonby’s Brown history fortifying their resolve to hold onto their family home no matter what. “We still love the suburb that we live in because it's home for us. But yeah, it's very different from what we used to see when we're growing up.” - Selu-Kian Faletoese

Following the recent passing of their beloved matriarch, the Folau family reflect on their family’s 50 year legacy in Herne Bay and consider what their future holds. “I feel like we're kind of low-key taking a stand with our house that looks exactly the same. It's not flash. Our garden is the same garden that it was a long time ago. It's not one of those flash white fences that everyone has. It's the same steel fence that Tongans put in.” - Boopc Folau, Queen of Herne Bay 

Follow acclaimed rapper Diggy Dupé and the City Boys using music, fashion and entrepreneurship to reclaim and rebirth the inner-city Pacific identity.  “There's kids like us that are still here. With all the changes that's happening, all the apartments and all the houses being sold, there's still some kids around from the old Grey Lynn or the old inner city, Central Auckland that still have their family homes and that are still kind of keeping those old traditions alive.” - Diggy Dupé, City Boys