The Boy Who Loves Niue by Susan Paris is an inspiring, informative article that introduces Lexyan Kulatea-Ryan, a young Aucklander with a deep love for his Niuean language and culture. Through public speaking, music, cultural events, and online language tutorials, Lexyan shares his passion for vagahau Niue and encourages other children to speak it. The article explores how his family and community nurture his confidence and sense of identity, while highlighting his determination to keep his language alive. Through personal quotations, photographs, a vocabulary feature, and facts about Niue, readers discover the connections between language, heritage, and belonging.

Blending an engaging personal profile with cultural and geographical information, the text supports students to think deeply about identity, language preservation, and the difference young people can make. It invites discussion about valuing diverse languages, learning from family and community, and sharing cultural knowledge with others. Lexyan’s enthusiasm and hopeful outlook make this a strong and relatable text for upper primary learners exploring their own identities and connections to the wider Pacific.

 

This pack contains wide range of response activities including:

• A guided reading plan exploring key literacy elements including inference and deduction, language use, making connection and text organisation, along with key questioning to promote emotional intelligence, metacognition and compassionate inquiry. 
• An independent learning contract complete with explainer videos for activity clarity
  
• A wide range of response activities to support developing and embedding key literacy skills including sentence and word work, spelling, and cloze activities. 

Curriculum Phase: Phase 2

Year Level: Year 5

English: reading for meaning, identifying main ideas and supporting details, inferring personal qualities and motivations, exploring how quotations develop a personal profile, using headings and vocabulary features, summarising information, and supporting ideas with evidence from the text

Health and Physical Education: cultural identity, belonging, confidence, positive family and community relationships, pursuing interests, and contributing to others’ wellbeing

Social Sciences: Niuean culture and heritage, Pacific communities, migration and connections between Niue and Aotearoa New Zealand, language preservation, and the geography and ways of life of Niue

Learning Languages: exploring everyday words and phrases in vagahau Niue, valuing bilingualism, and understanding connections between language, culture, and identity

Non-fiction: biographical article, personal profile, informational text

Key words include: Aotearoa New Zealand, Auckland, belonging, bilingualism, community, cultural identity, family, heritage, language, language preservation, leadership, migration, music, Niue, Niuean culture, Pacific, personal profile, public speaking, traditions, vagahau Niue, young people, YouTube