Of the 164 people that attended the When Culture and Care Connect fono on 10 June 2011, the majority identified as managers, professional leaders, advisors or clinicians. Eighty-two per cent were from Auckland with the majority of attendees being Samoan (44 per cent) and then Tongan (25 per cent) making up the largest ethnic groups in attendance.

You can download the 'Va' Oration Epilogue - Fa'amatuainu Tino Pereira's keynote speech given at the fono.

Following the fono, we have run three workshops in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington with over 40 people from the sector invited. The workshops were held to honour a commitment made to the sector to build on key findings from the fono, and report back on work underway to meet some of the challenges identified. The following initiatives were tabled at the three regional workshops with support from the sector regarding our role.

• Youth component – Le Va will work on developing a 'youth' approach to its current Engaging Pasifika training programme.
• Ethnic specific suite of resources – Le Va will investigate development of a suite of ethnic specific resources starting with Tongan.
• Engaging Pasifika training – Le Va will continue to deliver more Engaging Pasifika training to mainstream services and develop an enhanced version.
• DHB training support package – Le Va will continue to work with DHBs to support the incorporation of Engaging Pasifika in their own in-house Pacific training.
• Philosophy statement – Le Va will develop a broad teaching and training philosophy statement in partnership with the sector.

We have begun to intertwine the various complex and multi-faceted issues into one larger discussion, and for the first time this 'talanoa' is occurring in one space. Although the challenges ahead are huge and no doubt fraught with obstacles, Le Va has the support of the sector and community to lead this work. As the Samoan proverb goes:

Ua uma le Amouta ae tali le Amotai o le toe aso nai Moamoa

- When you have overcome the battle at Amouta, Amotai awaits you and then there is Moamoa (associated with the brave feats of victory attributed to the son of Fe’epo called Leatiogie, ancestor of the Malietoa chiefs).