Emily Maea’s parents persuaded her to be a lawyer, rather than work in a shop
From a young age, Emily Maea and her siblings knew that their parents were willing to go to great lengths so their children could achieve their potential.
"My parents always wanted 'something better' for us. We changed our name because in the 1970s there were rumours going around that children with Pacific-sounding names weren’t getting School Certificate. Our name was Tuliloa and we changed to Hartson.
"My father worked very hard – double shifts – in quite a dangerous place. I remember he would come home with blisters from aluminium spills. And my mother was a nurse and worked at a rest home for 20 years. They did this for our future.
Emily wanted to leave school – but her mother had other ideas
"I would have been happy to work at Woolworths, but my mother wanted us to go to university. She told me I was going to be a lawyer. I remember sitting in the back of our blue station wagon arguing that Woolworths was OK, and my mother turning around and just saying, ‘You are going to do law’.
"And I said, 'Oh! OK'. Like a good daughter.
"My parents were happy to support us. They weren’t keen on us having any kind of holiday or part-time job. My older sister went to teachers college and my younger brother did an arts degree and my two other sisters went to university.
Emily's parents struggled to make sure the children didn't have to
"My parents' thoughts were, they were struggling now to make sure that we didn’t. And so if we didn’t do well – the guilt was there!"
When you ask Emily if she found this a pressure, she smiles. "Yes, it was! It was! I’m just smiling because even at university my parents would say: 'As long as you know you’ve done your best, we’ll be happy'.
"My father is 79 and he’s doing theological studies. He had an exam, so I said to him, 'Just say your prayer before your exam, take a deep breath, and you know – all we want is to see you do your best!' "
Emily says her story is typical of many Pasifika families
Emily is modest about her own success. “There are hundreds of Pacific families in New Zealand who can show the same type of achievements, all grounded on love of God and our families. As we say at church, ‘God is good – all the time, all the time – God is good’.”
Read more about how Emily juggles her work, church commitments and family life
