Numbering almost 17,000 in 2006, this highly educated group call themselves Fiwis (Filipino Kiwis), and embrace both Filipino culture and Western trends. Traditional songs and dances, basketball, and beauty contests are all featured at their annual festival.
Although the majority of Filipinos are well-educated professionals who arrived during the 1990s, a handful had settled decades earlier – the 1936 census records six people born in the ‘Philippine Islands’.
By 2001, there were 11,091 residents, 57% living in Auckland, 14% in Wellington and 13% in the South Island.
Students began arriving in the 1960s under the Colombo Plan, a Commonwealth scholarship scheme. In 1962 the Philippines became one of the first Asian countries to have New Zealand visa fees waived.
Filipino students formed close links with Wellington’s Philippine embassy, and became its unofficial cultural troupe. Touring the country during holidays, their performances featured folk dances and pangkat kawayan (bamboo orchestra), using the embassy’s musical instruments.
A Filipino student in the early 1980s reported meeting an isolated Filipino woman in the South Island:
‘I met Filipino women everywhere … One poignant meeting was with a woman in a small town near Lake Pukaki …The hotel manager told me that their kitchen help was Filipina, so I asked him to bring me to her … She was stunned meeting me (I was too). She cried. She … hadn’t seen or spoken to a Filipino for more than two years … It was so sad as a few miles south in Dunedin and in Invercargill were several Filipinas who were always looking for other Filipinos in the area.’ 1
By 1981, the Filipino population totalled 405. Filipino student Ken Ilio, living in Palmerston North at the time, felt these immigrants were ‘mostly the better half of Kiwi-Filipino pairings’. Until the 1990s, most migrants were young women, who had often met New Zealand men through friends or by answering newspaper personal advertisements. A few were even ‘mail-order brides’.
There were over twice as many Filipino women as men in New Zealand by 1991. Not all the marriages lasted; issues such as sending money to relatives in the Philippines could cause tension. Children of these marriages were of mixed ethnicity, and their parents’ approach largely determined how much Filipino culture and language they retained.
Filipino immigrants are highly educated, and the immigration rules of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which favoured skilled migrants, made it easier for them to settle.
Many worked as professionals and office workers. In the mid-1990s Auckland Filipinos were settling in suburbs such as Henderson and Mt Roskill.
Among Asian ethnic groups in the 2001 census, Filipinos had the lowest unemployment rate and the highest average income. However, doctors struggled to get their qualifications recognised and often had to undertake further study.
Among Filipinos, traditional values of pakikisama (smooth social interaction), amor propio (self-esteem), utang na loob (reciprocity) and the extended family are important. The American influence is also strong – shopping at malls and sports are popular. What rugby is to New Zealanders, basketball is to Filipinos.
In the mid-1990s Auckland’s Bayanihan Club ran a basketball league every Sunday at the Mt Albert recreation centre. Teams such as ‘Prime Steak Beef’ and ‘Geyserland’ battled it out:
‘Going to these games is like being in Manila …There are people selling Filipino food and delicacies throughout the game; Filipino magazines and newspapers are also available, and Filipino movies are available for hire. A Filipino hairdresser is also around’. 1
The first Filipino club was established in Auckland in 1976 with just 20 members. By the 2000s there were also groups in Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch. The name of the Club Barangay Wellington incorporates a Filipino term: barangay (village) is the traditional community group.
One legacy of over three centuries of Spanish rule is that the Philippines is the only predominantly Christian nation in South-East Asia. In 2001 most migrants were Roman Catholics.
Initially many found the Kiwi accent difficult to comprehend. Today almost all Filipinos speak English and the majority are bilingual. In New Zealand’s Filipino homes it is common to hear ‘Tag-lish’, a mixture of Tagalog (the main Filipino language) and English.
A short-lived newsletter, Filipiniana, appeared in Wellington in the early 1980s. Auckland’s Diario Filipino, first printed in 1999 with a circulation of 200 copies, went online in 2000. By the early 2000s, Auckland Filipino radio show Tinig Pinoy announced community events, played Original Pilipino (Filipino) Music (known as OPM), and featured presenters with colourful names such as Ela ‘the Flame’ and Niño ‘Woofman’ Deomano.
Filipino restaurants have operated since the early 1980s, when Mrs Bautista’s Blades restaurant offered Wellingtonians paksiw na lechon (pork in liver sauce).
The Filipino festival known as Octoberfest is held each Labour Weekend. In 2001 some 1,000 people gathered in Rotorua. Over 50 teams entered in the Festival of Sports, and a cultural night showcased Filipino dances and songs. The event culminated in the crowning of the Miss Philippines–New Zealand beauty queen, which is considered the traditional way to end the festivity.
Although New Year’s Eve is traditionally observed with a ‘merienda media noche’ (midnight snack), most New Zealand Filipinos celebrate with fireworks. The community also gathers to mark Philippine Independence Day (12 June). With a foot in each culture, by the 2000s many Kiwi Filipinos had dubbed themselves ‘Fiwis’.
The New Zealand census figures listed here show the number of residents born in the Philippines.
In the 2006 census, people were asked to indicate the ethnic group or groups with which they identified. The numbers include those who indicated more than one group.
Baral, H. ‘Filipino migrants in Auckland.’ In An ethno-geography of Taiwanese, Japanese and Filipino immigrants in Auckland, edited by Hong-Key Yoon. Occasional paper 28, Dept of Geography, University of Auckland, 1995.
Bell, Daphne, ed. New to New Zealand: a guide to ethnic groups in New Zealand. Auckland: Reed, 2001.
http://nz-philsociety.wellington.net.nz/index.htm
The website of the New Zealand Philippines Society, with newsletter, activities and links.
http://diariofilipino.50webs.com/
This website provides a newsletter for Filipinos living in New Zealand.
http://www.geocities.com/tauranga_filipino_society/
A website for New Zealand Filipinos.
A monthly online newspaper for Filipinos.