From its colonial foundations to its increasingly neoliberal frameworks, academia has given little space for Pacific scholarship to thrive internationally. Building an academic career for Pacific scholars is therefore fraught with inequities, cultural (un)safety and structural exclusion. Despite this, Pacific scholars continue to carve out pathways through the academy, with many journeys centred on acts of service and knowledge production that serve their communities.

In this research seminar, Lefaoali’i Associate Professor Dion Enari (Unitec) and Seuta’afili Dr Patrick Thomsen (University of Auckland) weave together personal narrative, cultural knowledge and academic life to reflect on how Pacific scholars navigate and transform academic spaces while holding firm to Pacific indigenous ways. Through storytelling, the presenters showcase how their journeys in academia - which span Australia, Samoa, Korea, Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States - have been shaped by lived experience and personal discovery.

Presenter bios

Lefaoali’i Associate Professor Dion Enari (Lepa, Malaela, Vaiala, Safune, Nofoali’i, Vaiusu) sits in Ngā Wai a Te Tūī (Māori and Indigenous Research Centre) and School of Healthcare and Social Practice, Unitec. He is the first and only Pacific Associate Professor at Unitec and is the current Sunpix Ministry of Education 2024 Pacific Educator of the Year. His research explores Indigenous, Sport and Pacific issues and he is regularly featured in international and national media.

Seuta’afili Dr Patrick Thomsen (Vaimoso, Vaigaga) is currently a Senior Lecturer in Global Studies and a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medical Health Sciences at Waipapa Taumata Rau (The University of Auckland). He was the first Samoan scholar to receive his PhD from the Center for Korea Studies and Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is the Principal Investigator for the award-winning Manalagi Project, New Zealand’s first Pacific Rainbow+ Health and Wellbeing Project funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.