By S. Akaiti
“O Sa’iliemanu, le afafine o Lilomaiava Niko ma Fa’alenu’u”
([I am] Sa’iliemanu, the daughter of Lilomaiava Niko and Fa’alenu’u)
(Lilomaiava-Doktor, 2004, p. 48)
Dr. Luafaatali’i Luamanuvae Sa’iliemanu Lilomaiava-Doktor is a well-accomplished Human Geographer and an honourable Samoan intellect. She was born and raised in the village of Salelologa, Savai’i Samoa, to Father Afioga Tinousi Lilomaiava Niko and Mother Fa’alenu’u and is one of sixteen children (Lilomaiava-Doktor, 2004).
Education was the ‘first priority’ (Lilomaiava-Doktor, 2004) in the Lilomaiava home. With a Father who served as Samoa’s Minister of Justice and Minister of Education from 1973 to 1980 (531 PI, 2021) and a Mother who was a primary school teacher, it was inevitable for Education to be prominent in Sa’iliemanu’s life. Lilomaiava and Fa’alenu’u Niko were not only devoted to their children’s education; they ensured their children were grounded in the indigenous epistemology of fa’a-Samoa (Samoan way of Knowing or way of Life). The Samoan concept of ‘self’ and one’s place and responsibility as a member of the ‘aiga (family) constitutes the “conceptual framework” (Lilomaiava-Doktor, 2004, p. 9) for Sa’iliemanu’s research.
Consequently, with such a moral upbringing, Sa’iliemanu was the first student from Logo’ipulotu College and Savai’i to be awarded the Samoan Government Australian Development Assistance Bureau (ADAB) scholarship, to which she completed a BA degree in Geography at the University of Newcastle NSW, Australia. In 1990 she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for her MA in Pacific Island Studies, then shortly after, her PhD in Geography, all at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa (Lee & Francis, 2009). Sa’iliemanu is now a Hawaiian and Pacific Studies Professor in the Humanities Department at the University of Hawaii West O’ahu. She leads a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to teaching courses centred on the Pacific Islands region to encourage ‘culturally appropriate and socially responsible teaching and learning’ of migration, development, transnationalism, and diaspora of Pacific Peoples (University of Hawai’i West O’ahu, n.d.).
Bibliography
531 PI. (2021, May 31). Early Edition with Ete; Luamanuvae Sa’iliemanu Lilomaiava-Doktor – Professor of Hawaiian and Pacific Studies at the University of Hawaii [Video]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/531pi/videos/588815912087836
Lee, H., & Francis, S. T. (Eds.). (2009). Contributors. In Migration and Transnationalism: Pacific Perspectives (pp. vii–x). ANU Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24h8c7.3
Lilomaiava-Doktor, S. (2004). Faʻa-Samoa and population movement from the inside out: The case of Salelologa, Savaiʻi (Doctoral dissertation, [Honolulu]:[University of Hawaii at Mānoa],[August 2004]). https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/98ef0f94-f30c-45d6-8ec1-327b43c49520/content
University of Hawai’i West O’ahu. (n.d.). Sa’iliemanu Lilomaiava-Doktor. University of Hawai’i West O’ahu. https://westoahu.hawaii.edu/facultyprofiles/user/sailiema/
Images
University of Hawaii at Mānoa. (2022). University of Hawaii at Mānoa [Photograph]. University of Hawaii at Mānoa. https://www.kitv.com/news/local/university-of-hawaii-at-manoa-programs-receive-top-rankings-in-international-and-national-ratings/article_9918226e-b5f1-11ec-8a6e-8b7c8e0a1164.html
Yuen, J.F. (2016). Associate Professor of Hawaiian and Pacific Studies Saʻiliemanu Lilomaiava-Doktor [Photograph]. University of Hawai’i West O’ahu. https://westoahu.hawaii.edu/ekamakanihou/?p=4283
Saʻiliemanu Lilomaiava-Doktor 