For the last 15 years, Peter Bumseng has travelled to New Zealand to work under the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme to help provide for his family back home in Vanuatu. Video / Pacific Cooperation Foundation
Every year, for more than a decade, Peter Bumseng leaves his home in Vanuatu to travel to New Zealand to pick fruit - all for the betterment of his family.
The veteran seasonal worker is a well-known face and a success story for the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme, which sees people from around the Pacific arrive here to work in various orchards and vineyards around New Zealand.
Bumseng has been a part of the scheme from the very start - racking up 15 seasons as the programme enters its 16th year.
For the proud Ni-Vanuatu, the work has provided great opportunities not only for his family but his community back in the motherland. But he also speaks of the hardships over the years.
“The first time I came, I found a little bit of racism in the community. It was the first time that locals had seen more coloured people in their communities and I think that they were wondering about [us] taking their jobs.
Peter Bumseng, of Vanuatu, is a seasonal worker under the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme. Image / Pacific Cooperation Foundation
“But then we tried to connect to the community. I organised concerts and shows and we displayed our culture and our music and who we are.”
Bumseng is featured in a new documentary series - Voices Of The Pacific - that sheds light on the lives of RSE seasonal workers from five different countries: Samoa, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Tuvalu. It is the brainchild of the Pacific Cooperation Foundation and HortNZ.
The Vanuatu edition includes the stories of fellow Ni-Vanuatu RSE workers Phoebe Willy - one of the few women involved in the scheme - and Joseph Teh, an ambitious young man who bought a bus in Vanuatu after completing his first working season here.
That bus has become another form of income for Teh and his family in the motherland.
Peter Bumseng acknowledged that business mindset and entrepreneurship that has fostered among the group while working under the scheme.
“I always say this to the workers - that it’s good to have the money, but the ideas and the knowledge that they get here will stay forever.”
Many of the RSE workers in New Zealand call Vanuatu home. Image / Pacific Cooperation Foundation
His family back in the islands include his wife Regina and their young children.
Regina Bumseng works as a primary school teacher in Port Vila and said it was only when her husband started working overseas that they were able to save enough money to purchase a piece of land and build a house.
“Life is expensive. My job as a teacher - I enjoy it. It’s a challenge, though, because my husband is not here.
Regina Bumseng tends to the garden outside her home in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Image / Pacific Cooperation Foundation
“When I’m here and he’s working overseas, I know that he’s doing something overseas to support me and I and the children can enjoy life here in Port Vila.”
About 12 years ago, the couple started a special group to help workers and their families deal with the challenges of separation.
Strengthening ties among workers and families back home
It was about strengthening those ties and encouraging workers who may feel homesick.
“If the family are not well back home, the boys don’t enjoy their work. The idea for the support group is to help the workers to have a good work environment.
“We meet regularly just to make sure that the boys are on track with their course and their family are happy back home.
“The men meet here in New Zealand and the women meet back at home as well - so the programme is two-way.”
Regina Bumseng said their women’s group came up with different projects each month; sewing or weaving items that were then sold to help raise funds for families.
“We meet together to encourage one another.
“We keep busy doing these activities so that we are not so worried about our husbands working overseas. The key point is our communication has to be very good.”
