Reclaiming Siva Sāmoa through queer, Sāmoan scholarship

For doctoral candidate Iatua Felagai Taito, Dance is more than movement, it is survival, faith and love embodied.

A doctoral candidate in Dance Studies, Iatua is on the home straight to completing his PhD this year. His research has been a deep, personal enquiry pushing the boundaries of academic scholarship and cultural storytelling, to reclaim Siva Sāmoa through a Sāmoan-New Zealand queer lens.

Hailing from the Sāmoan villages of Lano on his father’s side and Sala’ilua on his late mother’s side, Iatua is the youngest of nine siblings. Growing up in a large, faith-centred family, his father Autagavaia Saofa’amau Tuiosalele Fautua Felaga’i, served as a lay preacher. His late mother, Anita Felagai Taito, was a caregiver and support worker with IHC. Iatua was 11 years-old when she passed, the loss shaping his life and artistic practice.

He came to realise that dance was a spiritual practice, allowing him to integrate his queer and cultural identities without the need to cancel one or the other.

A postgraduate diploma in Dance Studies deepened his intellectual curiosity and revealed the possibility of scholarly enquiry, grounded in lived, embodied knowledge, which led seamlessly into a Master of Dance Studies.

Throughout his research, Iatua questioned whether it was possible to be Sāmoan, Christian and queer, and thrive.

“I wanted to demonstrate that you can be Sāmoan, Christian and queer and co-exist healthily, and not be 100% divisive with one another.”

Siva Sāmoa as methodology and philosophy

Using Siva Sāmoa as both methodology and philosophy, he critiqued Christian discourse through a pre-colonial Sāmoan lens while engaging with concepts of tauatāne (embodiment of masculinity) and sexuality. The research also became an act of truth-telling, a way of coming out to his father and family through scholarship and performance.

Graduating with First Class Honours, Iatua was awarded a University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship in 2023 to pursue a PhD in Dance Studies. His doctoral research expands this work further. Central to the thesis is a term Iatua has coined: Tauatānetaga: the concept offers new ways of thinking about gender, movement and expression through Siva Sāmoa from a Sāmoan-New Zealand queer perspective.

His work challenges gender binaries in performance, offering instead a liminal space - neither exclusively “male” nor “female”, but dynamic, relational and self-determined.

On track to become possibly the first Sāmoan queer male to earn a PhD within Dance Studies - and arguably the first in the world to complete a doctoral thesis focused on Siva Sāmoa from a Sāmoan-New Zealand, queer perspective; Iatua's research reclaims narrative authority long dominated by non-Sāmoan scholars.

“There has been extensive writing about Siva Sāmoa,” Iatua notes, “but much of it comes from outsider perspectives.”

His work contributes to a growing movement of Indigenous self-determination in research, placing Sāmoan knowledge, embodiment and voice at the centre.

Beyond academia, the hoped-for impact of Iatua’s research is deeply human. He envisages his work supporting those who exist in gender-liminal spaces, offering Siva as a means of expressing authenticity without the pressure of labels. At the same time, he hopes to show that it is possible to love aganu’u Fa’a-Sāmoa (the Sāmoan way of life and cultural values) while critically engaging with the systems and protocols, that marginalise queer Sāmoans.

Throughout his journey, Iatua has been held by a wide circle of support - his partner Damian, his father and siblings; his nephews and nieces, and in particular his nephew Deandre. He's grateful for the support from close friends, mentors, supervisors and members of the University’s Pacific leadership community.

Above all, he acknowledges the continued presence of his mother Anita Felagai Taito, whose spirit he feels guiding him through dreams and moments of stillness.

As he approaches his submission deadline, Iatua is certain teaching will remain a strong part of his future. Having taught across multiple courses at the University, he finds joy and purpose in supporting the next generation of Pacific creatives and scholars.

Through Dance, research and quiet courage, Iatua Felagai Taito is redefining what is possible.