A Samoan academic has decried what he described as the "exploitation" of Samoan and Pasifika identities in mainstream Australian society.

Speaking in a recent interview with Radio Australia, an Auckland University of Technology (AUT) lecturer, Lefaoali'i Dr. Dion Enari was defining the meaning of fa'a-Samoa for listeners and indicated that his 80,000-word PhD thesis revolved around explaining the Samoan concept.

"Fa'a-Samoa is the Samoan way or could also be interpreted as the Samoan culture. I wrote 80,000 words just to answer that question but in a nutshell, fa'a-Samoa is Samoan culture and that's holding onto the Samoan values of love, respect and service," said Lefaoali'i. "It also means to me, maintaining and sustaining the Samoan language as well. In a nutshell that's what it means."

The AUT lecturer was then asked why the Samoan diaspora living off-island still identified very strongly with family and the culture on the island. 

In response, Lefaoali'i said he believes it is due to the Samoan diaspora's strong beliefs in their ancestral roots in the islands, regardless of where they were originally born or raised.

"It is because they hold their blood, our ancestry and roots are not here in Australia, our ancestral roots are in Samoa so irrespective of if we were born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, as my studies showed, some of them have never been to Samoa before but the blood type they had and the connections and links they have back to the islands, that's why they are still claiming Samoan 685 all day every day!"

The stereotyping of Samoan and Pasifika identities then came under scrutiny with Lefaoali'i decrying how they continue to be "branded" in mainstream Australian society.

"Samoan and Pacific people have been branded by mainstream society as troublemakers in the media and only good at rugby and singing," said the AUT lecturer. "Our cultural identity and our values, yep, we absolutely hold on to them stronger, particularly being in a foreign land. 

"It's so interesting how we are positioned in the mainstream media, we win you a gold medal at the Olympics, we are Australian, but the moment we commit a crime or something, we are Samoan.

"Seeing just how our identity has been exploited, you know, in the Australian context and again that's what makes it even more important for us to hold onto our cultural identity, our cultural values, and our knowledge systems in our cultural values to better inform how we move forward in these somewhat dangerous and tricky spaces."

Lefaoali'i was born in New Zealand to Samoan parents and migrated with his family to Australia at the age of 10. He was raised in Australia for most of his life, initially in Perth, Western Australia where his family spent two years before settling in Brisbane, Queensland. He did his PhD thesis at Bond University which looked at perceptions of Fa’a-Samoa (Samoan way) held by New Zealand-born Samoans living in Brisbane. He is currently a lecturer at the School of Sport and Recreation at the AUT.