Fono aims:

having meaningful talanoa with Pacific educators and teachers with responsibility for Pacific students.
uniting with champions in schools that are making a difference for our Pacific students.
UC collaborating with schools to support the student journey into tertiary education.

When: 5 November 2024
Time: 9.30am – 4.00pm

Where: University of Canterbury, Undercroft 101 (Underneath main library)\

Lunch & refreshments provided.

Amituana’i Fuetanoa Kose Seinafo is a renowned giant in the field of education. As an educator, advisor, and manager in numerous leadership roles, he continues to champion Pacific success in all education sectors with learners, parents, families and Pacific communities throughout the country. Fuetanoa is a huge driver and advocate of Pacific initiatives and programmes in Canterbury or in Aotearoa, that supports Pacific peoples to thrive and grow holistically.

He is currently Manager of Integrated Services at the Ministry of Education. As an Education Manager, he leads the delivery of core Ministry services to schools/kura, early childhood education providers (ECE) and their communities. He also provides leadership and guidance to education advisers, student achievement function practitioners (SAF) and early learning adviser teams to develop and deliver responsive services to school leaders and early learning services.

The Distinguished Professor, Steven Ratuva is the Pro-Vice Chancellor, Pacific as well as the Director of the Macmillan Brown Center for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and Chair of the International Political Science Association research committee on Climate Security and Planetary Politics. Steve is also member of a number of public boards including the Royal Society Te Apārangi, Climate Change Commission, Independent Accountability Group of the Human Rights Commission, and PBRF Sector Reference Group, to name a few.

He has had extensive international engagement as consultant or advisor to UNDP, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Pacific Island Forum, Commonwealth Secretariat, International Labour Organization and others. He has led a number of international research and project teams on global ethnicity, global security, and climate security, amongst others.