Former New Zealand Sevens rugby player, Jason Tiatia, is a man with a heart to promote the Samoan language in Aotearoa. 

Mr. Tiatia, who is now a senior academic staff member at Ara Institute in Canterbury New Zealand, is doing his best to ensure the Samoan language is taught to as many people as possible.

Speaking to Chris Barclay of Star News, Tiatia said his inspiration came from Hana O’Regan, a Māori language advocate and academic, before he went to play rugby overseas. 

"We (Tiatia and his wife Tate) went to this workshop around indigenous languages at the end of 2003 and listened about how they’re declining," he told Star News.

"Hana spoke about how it takes one generation to lose it, and three to try and reverse that process. She kept telling us – we didn’t have kids at the time: 'Do you want to be responsible for the generation that lost it, and didn’t do anything about it, because your grandkids or great-grandkids will ask you: ‘How come you didn’t teach the language to your kids?’ I was like: ‘I don’t want to be that guy’. 

"When we got home we thought we should start practising what we preach and what we believe in. My core business now is teaching the Samoan language. We’re trying to grow that space with the Tongan language, Niuean and the Cook Islands languages as well."

Asked by Star News about who are interested in obtaining a Certificate in Samoan language, Mr. Tiatia explained that it is diverse.

"Some were born on the island, raised here and were disconnected from the language," Mr. Tiatia said.

"Others are just connecting with their language and they want to teach their kids, pass it on. I’ve had an 80-plus year-old Pakeha, Palagi woman. She said: ‘I love Samoan people, I just want to learn the language’. 

"We’ve got young mums and a lot of our teachers, Māori, Palagi, even Filipinos who have lived in Samoa, loved it, and want to carry on the relationship."

He added that the aim of the courses was to get New Zealand-born Samoans to keep their language alive. 

"This is a space to do it in. If you don’t go to traditional Samoan churches anymore, you don’t hear it," he said.

Mr. Tiatia revealed that one of his students is a teacher who had married a Tongan-Samoan.

"She teaches at a predominantly Samoan school in Aranui. She loves the kids so much she wants to speak the language but her main motivation was when she has babies they’re going to be trilingual," he said.

"Her vision is so far ahead (in New Zealand); the Europeans have been doing it for years, learning four-five-six languages at a time. Imagine an Aotearoa where we’ve got all our kids speaking Pacific languages? They go into a restaurant, speak to a Tongan serving them in Tongan and they’d probably get even better service."

He went on to tell Star News that he likes to think teachers are more open to new students coming from abroad.

"I’ve done some professional development in schools and I keep hearing the same question: ‘What if they don’t know?’ I tell them: ‘That’s your job’. Your skill is to grab what they don’t know and turn that into something that will inspire them to keep going," he said.

With his full name being Jason Apelu Tiatia, he was asked by Star News about contemplating dropping his Christian name, given his passion for the Samoan language, he said: "No. I love Jason. My mum always said you’re a healer, that’s what it means (in Greek)."