Po Ako, a community-based project, was created to break the experience of absence--cultural alienation and educational exclusion--overwhelming the Tongan students in Aotearoa New Zealand. In January 1991, not a single Tongan student attending Mt. Roskill Grammar School in Auckland passed the national examination for a School Certificate. In May 1992 Po Ako was organized by the parents in response to the enduring absence of their adolescents' accomplishment in the school Kepa. Po Ako drew upon Tongan language and culture in order to strengthen the students' understanding of academic ideas. In this article, the authors discuss the Maori and Tongan people perspectives on Po Ako's role in their communities' language and culture.