Fa'asalele helped students to cross back to the 'other side' to be law-abiding citizens
Henney Fa'asalele, Pacific educator.
Died aged 55.
For 15-year-old student Salese Veti, his teacher Henney Fa'asalele was "like my shortcut to the other side".
In almost 20 years as director of Tagata Pasifika, an alternative education provider in Karangahape Rd, Auckland, Mr Fa'asalele helped hundreds of young people excluded from mainstream schools to cross back to that "other side" - law-abiding work and family life.
"That's what Henney lived for - changing lives, giving the kids the best opportunities that we had growing up," said the Rev Mua Strickson-Pua, a fellow tutor.
As a first-generation NZ-born Samoan, Mr Fa'asalele was marked out for leadership as an elder of the Newton Pacific Island Church at age 18 because of a perceived need for local-born leaders.
He studied social sciences at Auckland University, served in Youth With A Mission in Hong Kong, Hawaii and Samoa, then spent the rest of his life serving some of the country's neediest youngsters at Tagata Pasifika.
He used computer technology, short film-making, arts, music and writing to re-engage them in learning, inviting in writers such as John Pule to bring their books to life. Youngsters who switched off conventional schooling found themselves learning English from the subtitles on Asian kung fu movies. A few years ago they took part in an opera with the NZ Opera Society.
"They would ask us, 'What's the name of this course?"' said Mr Strickson-Pua. "We'd say, 'The meaning of life. We're going to do it on a hip-hop level looking at what does Scribe's album The Crusader say about the meaning of life.'
"Sione's Wedding, Albert Wendt, Hone Tuwhare - it was what are these writers saying about the meaning of life? And then tell the students: 'What do you want to do with this information or experience for your life?"
When Mr Strickson-Pua took part in Sione's Wedding, one student a week from Tagata Pasifika was allowed on the movie set. Mr Fa'asalele's commitment went beyond the young people themselves. "When you gave him a student, he would adopt the family and make the family aware that we are a community," Mr Strickson-Pua said.
"He would bring these individualistic young people belonging to different gangs, and point out that we are all Pasifika and that there is an even bigger gang called humanity. The kids thought he was weird, a gentle giant."
Many students thrived at Tagata Pasifika and went on to university or into business. One of them, Michael Meredith, now runs an award-winning restaurant in Mt Eden. Mr Fa'asalele kept teaching despite chronic diabetes and heart problems through the past 10 years. He is survived by his wife, Lina.
