For Papua New Guinea community member Norida Perry, learning Tok Pisin has been a journey of connection, confidence and rediscovering a language that brings people together.
Born in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, Norida grew up speaking Suau and English. While Papua New Guinea is home to more than 800 languages, Tok Pisin is one of the country’s three official languages and provides a way for people from different provinces and language backgrounds to communicate.
“There are not a lot of people here in Wellington who speak my mother tongue, so I can’t really have conversations with many people in my own language. I am on my Tok Pisin journey. I’m not really fluent, but it means I’m able to connect and talk with other community members.
Papua New Guinea is very diverse, and there are so many languages. It would be really hard to try and do something with every single language. Tok Pisin is like the common language. It’s a way of communicating with people from other provinces. I’m still learning and I’m getting more confident with the language,” says Norida.
Norida is part of the Wellington Papua New Guinea Community Inc, which supports Papua New Guinea communities in the Wellington region and helps create opportunities for the community to celebrate and share their culture and language.
“Papua New Guinean people have been in New Zealand for a long time, but we’re not really an out there community. This week is a way for us to say to people, 'Hey, we’re here, we exist and we’re excited to celebrate our culture’”.
For Norida, language revitalisation is closely connected to culture and the everyday things that help people maintain a connection to where they come from and their history.
“For me, revitalisation is through the things we talk about, the artefacts, the weaving, the food, the art, those sorts of things. It’s what keeps us connected to each other.”
As Papua New Guinea Pidgin Language Week celebrates Tok Pisin, Norida hopes the language week creates an opportunity for younger generations to connect with their language and culture.
“This week is really for the young people, the next generation coming along. We’ve got lots of new young families here now, and this is a way to involve them and get them engaged.
You don’t have to be fluent to start learning. Whether it is through speaking with family and community, learning new words or simply becoming more confident using the language, it is never too late to reconnect with Tok Pisin or your own mother tongue.”