Pacific-Indigenous Psychology

Siautu Alefaio (Samoan lineage of Matautu-Tai, Sasina, Manunu ma Fagamalo) is Associate Professor at the School of Psychology, Massey University in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her research specialty is Pacific-Indigenous (PI) psychology. Drawing on PI psychology she combines extensive practice and academic experience to re-inform psychology from Pacific-indigenous knowledge frameworks, especially in forensic rehabilitation, family violence, disaster resilience and humanitarian response. Siautu has been awarded major research grants from, and acted as advisor to, various New Zealand bodies including the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), Health Research Council, Ministry of Education, Police and Department of Corrections. She has published extensively on issues concerning Pacific diasporic resilience and well-being for over a decade. She is a Rutherford Discovery Fellow and Global Fellow of the Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Studies, Brown University. As a scholar-practitioner, Siautu has worked across various applied psychology contexts in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific. She founded NIUPATCH (Navigate In Unity Pacific approaches to Community-Humanitarianism) in 2016, to shine a light on the Pacific diaspora as mobilisers of sustainable village-resilience in a climate of complex disasters.