Pacific-Indigenous Psychology

This book provides an overview of Pacific-Indigenous knowledge as insights of Oceanic citizen-science to inform culturally-safe practice for psychology. It profiles contemporary Pacific needs in areas of crisis such as family violence, education disparities and health inequities, and points to ancient Pacific-indigenous knowledges as tools of healing for global diasporic communities in need. The historical evolution of psychology’s knowledge base and practice illustrates a fundamental crisis in the method of producing knowledge for psychology - the absence of Pacific-indigenous cultural knowledge. It suggests more effective research methodologies grounded in Pacific-Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies for psychology and overall community capability. It fosters practice perspectives and strategies based on NIU-psychology (New Indigenous Understandings) for innovative solutions to modern-day crises of humanity.

Siautu Alefaio (Samoan lineage of Matautu-Tai, Sāsina, 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.