Finding Our Way to the Island: Critical Reflections from Two Emerging Pacific Legal Academics in Aotearoa

Dylan Asafo; Litia Tuiburelevu

doi:10.26686/jnzs.iNS33.7382

Authors

Dylan Asafo University of Auckland
Litia Tuiburelevu University of Auckland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26686/jnzs.iNS33.7382

Abstract

This article offers critical reflections regarding legal scholarship on Pacific peoples in Aotearoa from two Pacific early career academics in the legal academy. It explores why very little legal scholarship focusing on the issues facing Pacific peoples in Aotearoa exists by examining and illustrating the systemic barriers that prevent Pacific legal academics from producing such scholarship. It then examines the detrimental impacts this lack of legal scholarship on Pacific peoples in Aotearoa has on both Pacific law students and Pacific communities in Aotearoa. Lastly, it imagines a Pacific jurisprudence for Pacific peoples in Aotearoa located within Pacific communities, committed to fulfilling the obligations that Pacific peoples have to Māori as Tangata Whenua of Aotearoa.

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Author Biographies

Dylan Asafo, University of Auckland

Dylan Asafo (Sāmoa -Salani, Satalo, Siumu, Moata‘a, Leufisa; he/him) is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law in the University of Auckland. His areas of interest include racial justice, human rights in the Pacific Islands and climate change. He received an LLM from Harvard University in 2020.

Litia Tuiburelevu, University of Auckland

Litia Tuiburelevu (she/her) is a research fellow at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Law. She is of Fijian, Tongan and Pākehā ancestry. She is the lead investigator for the research project Pacific Peoples and the Criminal Justice System in New Zealand, funded by the Borrin Foundation. She received her BA/LLB(Hons) from the University of Auckland in 2018.