Una | Māngere

“My name is Una and I live in Māngere, which is my home in Auckland. I think for me something that I didn’t achieve before, and that I’m striving, and want to achieve later on in the future is to give more to the community, and to see what’s happening around me, and think of ways, what I can do as a person to be able to benefit these people and the circumstances that happen here in my community.

I don’t really live in Auckland. I’m actually from Hawke’s Bay, but I’m studying here in Auckland University, and so my sister and we’re just living in Māngere with our family. I’m Tongan, full Tongan. Both my parents are from Tonga, and I come from a family of six. I love church, and I love my family.

I think because to me community is like family, I feel when I look around, especially here in Māngere, although I was raised in Hawke’s Bay, but when I look around, and the people in Māngere, I see a lot of Tongans. I see a lot of Samoans. I see a lot of people that look like me, I also see the circumstances that we have, and a bit of the disadvantages that we experience, and I kind of just want to be able to help them out and find ways in which, we all live happy, equal lives, with everyone else, if that makes sense. 

It mainly came from my parents, because they were always very giving people. I also think it comes from my culture. The Tongan culture is very giving. We love to freely give and expect nothing in return. One thing that has influenced me like wanting to give back to my community is a certificate that I was studying this year, was the Certificate in Health Science and it just basically helped open my eyes to see how I can be able to give back to the community, like the Māori-Pasefika community, but also everyone around me.”