Filipino-New Zealanders
17th June 2010 by Andrew Matheson, Manila | 7 Comments
There’s a lot of Filipinos in New Zealand, around 1% of our population according to some counts. What that will do for the bilateral relationship over time makes an interesting story, which I’ll come back to in a future post.
But for the moment, I was amused to hear from a friend in New Zealand that there’s even a new word to describe Filipinos living there — Piwis. It’s easy to see where that came from. The colloquial name for a Filipino (male)/Filipina (female) is Pinoy/Pinay, and of course New Zealanders are known as Kiwis. I like it — Piwis.
Thats an interesting term isnt it. I always related that to my sons first soccer team, as a group of eager 6 year olds charging in every direction but thye right one. A lot of fun was had though. Nice to see you tackling a new technological area Andrew. Cheers John
Yes, ‘peewee’ is slang for short people, but I’m sure that if whoever coined the phrase was playing on words it was out of humour rather than as a critical comment on the average height of Filipinos.
By the way, this comment isn’t a put-up job! John and I aren’t related, though we’ve been friends for years.
Hi Andrew. I look forward to all sorts of wisdom issuing forth. We have a number of Filipino workers in the local dairy industry.
Dairy workers have been at the bottom of the heap in many ways – most kiwis don’t like the hours. Dairy farmers are frequently heard complaining about the difficulty in getting reliable workers, with drug and alcohol problems commonly cited. For at least one local farmer, getting a Filipino crew has been a godsend. They are reliable, hard working, pleasant people. I guess the problem is that people from different cultures need live in a community, so this tends to favour large dairy operations or co-operatives.
Anyway, what’s your word for kiwis living in the Philipines? Kiwipinos?
Greg
It’s good to hear first-hand of your impressions. This supports the reporting I’ve seen about Filipinos working in New Zealand, which has been overwhelmingly positive, especially in rural areas such as on dairy farms. Hard workers as you say, and good members of the community. They’re sometimes even present in enough numbers to make a big difference to school rolls or attendance at the local Catholic church.
Kiwis living in the Philippines could be Kinoys/Kinays, to follow the same format as Piwis, but I like Kiwipinos better. You might have just coined a new word.
Hi Andrew
I reckon Kiwis living in the Philippines should be called Pinewz
pronouned peenews and when a Piwi and a Pinewz have a child its called a Piweeny or if you stay with the above theme-Piwipuny!
We watched yesterday’s historic inauguration of President Noynoy on TV. I think the term ‘Piwi’ sounds good. My husband Warwick Mathieson (a kiwi and a retired dairy farmer) and I (a piwi or kiwipino) are now living in Bulacan, Philippines since 2007.
I like the new term, I am going to update my facebook status page and use the new term Piwi.
Anniebelle
http://filipino-nz.blogspot.com/