Honouring Samoa’s stories and celebrating a family’s journey

For University of Otago PhD graduate and Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Auckland War Memorial Museum scholar Wanda Ieremia-Allan, walking across the stage at the Dunedin Town Hall this August was a celebration of more than the culmination of years of research. It was a moment to celebrate her family, her ancestors, and the long intellectual traditions of Samoa that shaped her journey.

“I commenced my PhD research journey in the Ōtepoti archives, so it is befitting and an honour to graduate from Otago University,” Wanda says.

“Graduating at Otago University is the happiest culmination of many journeys.”

Wanda’s research focused on O le Sulu Samoa (Sulu), the first Samoan newspaper, published by the London Missionary Society (LMS) in the 19th century. However, for Wanda, the project was never just academic, it was also deeply personal.

“The Sulu was always present in our home and community,” she reflects.

“My job as a child was to retrieve the shared reading spectacles and the Sulu niusipepa (Sulu newspaper) for an adult to read aloud under the dimly lit hurricane lamp.”

Wanda says, “These stories became part of our fagogo (storytelling) evenings,” she recalls.

“We were enthralled by tales of Aladdin, Sinbad the sailor, and news from across the Pacific. I loved the stories written in Samoan by Pacific travel writers. We were moved by their longing for home, the new worlds they were forging, the vā tapuia (sacred space) they were observing, and their faith in God.”

Growing up in Malua, where her father served as a former lecturer and principal of the former LMS Leulumoega Fou College, Wanda lived the former Malua printing office where the Sulu was compiled during the early part of the 20th century.

“As children we could feel the residual enterprising energy and purpose in its walls.”

That childhood connection shaped her decision to dedicate her PhD to the paper’s legacy and its role in preserving Pacific voices.

Her research journey was also a family journey and Wanda felt it was imperative that her research engaged with her aiga in all aspects.

“My daughters took part in research tasks, my husband and son with research trip logistics; and my father and siblings with translations and church history talanoa,” she says.

“Sharing texts with cousins and friends was also educational and inspiring.”

In the archives, Wanda found not just history but her grandmother’s voice. Her late maternal grandmother, Litara Viliamu Liomatua Alama, contributed fagogo to O le Sulu Samoa.

“Her voice cuts through the paternalistic and patriarchal tones of the Sulu archive,” Wanda says.

“It was extraordinarily rewarding to share her writing with my daughters. Though I never met her, her memory lived in the women of my family. Matching my understanding of this stern matriarch to her mid-20th century fagogo writing was moving.”

Her family’s legacy of scholarship also connects her to Cambridge University. In 2023, Wanda was awarded the Pacific Islander Visiting Fellowship to Corpus Christi, Cambridge University, an opportunity that carried special meaning.

Her father, an inaugural graduate and student president of the Pacific Theological College in Fiji, went on to study at Westminster College in Cambridge, where he imagined alongside African, Indian, Canadian and Caribbean students’ respective postcolonial worlds. He studied under Anglican Bishop of Woolwich John AT Robinson and crossed paths with an English Prince Charles in his public lectures.

“Walking through those halls felt surreal,” Wanda says.

“I quickly understood the institution through the eyes of the Sulu writers. Indigenous Pacific presence was everywhere – embedded in archives, artefacts, and whispered from museum catalogues awaiting their return.”

Balancing motherhood, matai (chief) responsibilities, a curatorship at Auckland War Memorial Museum, and doctoral study has been challenging, but Wanda is quick to acknowledge the prayers of family members, #Indiginerd friendships, and advice that sustained her.

“The PhD initially felt overwhelming because of the deeply personal and professional stakes in the archive, but I came to understand that the PhD is my humble offering: a platform for others to build on.”

Now, as graduation day approaches, Wanda is filled with gratitude.

“I will remember my homesickness struggles as a 12-year-old scholarship student from the islands, I will remember starting this journey for my children to see the beauty of their Indigenous Samoan intellectual inheritance, and I will smile a grateful smile for my elderly aunty who whispered warnings to me that ‘dumbing down’ survival strategies were never survival strategies at all.”

For Wanda, crossing the stage is about more than one degree. It is about honouring generations past, engaging her family, and celebrating the brilliance of Pacific scholarships at the University of Otago.

“I am indebted to my supervisors Dr Jess Pasisi (Te Tumu, Otago University) Tootoooleaava Dr Fanaafi Aiono Le Tagaloa (University of the South Pacific) and Professor Alice Te Punga Somerville (University of British Colombia) for their academic manaakitanga”.