Natasha Urale-Baker is the first Pacific student to complete her education from undergraduate to doctorate in the social work faculty at the University of Auckland's Epsom campus.
She speaks to Jesse Mulligan about her learning journey.
Natasha Urale-Baker Photo: University of Auckland
Related: Natasha Urale Baker performs songs from her debut album 'Across an Ocean' (NZ Live)
At 46 years old, Urale-Baker decided it was time to start a new journey and enrolled in an undergraduate degree.
“I had always been a decent student, I had always had a philosophical bent but life – you're a parent, you’re a wife, you’re an elder child of six children in a Samoan family,” she says.
“I’m so grateful because I met so many interesting, wonderful people on my journey and I ended up being a teacher as well – that wasn’t part of the plan, but it turned out that way,” she says.
“It was hard, but life is hard.”
Ten years on, she has now graduated with a PhD in social work, with a focus on Samoan funeral rituals.
In 2014, when Urale-Baker's father passed away, she conducted the service for his funeral – something he had insisted on for 26 years.
“I ended up singing an original song for his funeral and that was how [my PhD] topic came about... I started wondering how else are other people doing their funerals? How are Samoan people doing their funerals? This is very unusual – unorthodox to say the least.”
As a songwriter and musician, she decided to focus on song.
“You notice when we go to funerals, there’s almost a canary in the mine moment for people, it’s that kind of realisation, even for young people, that there’s an inevitability about it and there’s a door through which we all must cross. There’s a kind of a humorous thing that happens with Samoans in my experience, funerals are just where we meet and reconnect.
“It’s not only singing the songs together, you all remember singing the song in the past and the person that you’re farewelling, chances are they know these songs.”
Funerals offer a social and spiritual connection, she says.
“In that connection, you’re firming up, strengthening those kinship bonds – especially when we come from big aiga, it’s an opportunity to culturate our children.”
Samoan self-identity and what Fa'a Samoa means to the diaspora living in Aotearoa were two areas of research that Urale-Baker found exciting.
As was the way that songs and funeral rituals provide meaning.
“The research was a tapestry and [if I] pick out a thread, it’s the importance of meaningful ritual for human beings and it has always been.
“Samoan people, like any other group, it’s really important to have those rituals because it’s part of culture and it relates to identity, and it relates to being grounded and wellbeing and being able to navigate the world because you have some solid ground about who you are.”
Urale-Baker is now manager of Youth Development at Youthtown - “It’s with children, how hard can it be?” she laughs.
“I love people and I have a real deep love for young people, so here I am.”
