Fresh from Samoa, Natia Tucker Laurenson found herself thrown in the deep end starting as Executive Officer for the New Zealand Pacific Business Council just a few frantic weeks before its second Pacific International Trade Expo on March 5-6.
But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Working as a translator for the French-speaking regions of the Pacific at the South Pacific Games in Samoa last year was an incredible experience,” she says.
“It was probably the best three-week party Samoa had ever had and we saw Apia transform into this cosmopolitan, vibrant town. To come to Auckland and find myself being part of a team preparing for what will be an incredible event is great timing.”
The NZPBC offices in Papatoetoe, Auckland are just down the road from where she was born and grew up. Natia’s daughter Sophia attends the same primary school, Papatoetoe East, that she attended (she also has another daughter, Leina).
After graduating from the University of Waikato, she travelled overseas to pursue her love of languages; learning French in France, Japanese in Japan, before moving to Samoa for six months to learn the language of her mother Elisapeta, who hails from Papauta.
“It was my grandmother, Natia Tautua, who I’m named after who inspired me,” she says. “I grew up in Papatoetoe as a Kiwi (her father John is a fourth-generation New Zealand-born European) and my conversations with my grandmother would barely last 20 seconds.
I had travelled the world learning to speak other languages and the time had come to learn my own.”
An intended six month stay turned to six years. In Samoa Natia left language teaching to take up a position with Women in Business Development Inc and completed translation work for the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Government organisations (PIANGO).
She met another New Zealand-born Samoan, Tyrone Laurenson, who was working as the registrar for the National University of Samoa (NUS). He now works for the Pacifi c Education Centre (PEC) across the foyer from her in the Pacific Business Centre Building in Papatoetoe.
Natia says from working alongside those who were part of the inaugural event two years ago, she’s confident this year’s Pacific International Trade Expo will build on the initial success.
“This time round, we’ve got plenty of great stallholders, but we’ve gone out to attract buyers to do business with."
