What is our place in the Pacific?

New Zealand’s connections in the Pacific run deep, from the country’s discovery by the great explorer Kupe to the later arrivals of migrants in waka, and the present diaspora of some 440,000 Pacific people who call New Zealand home.

The All Blacks, for one, wouldn’t be as successful “if we didn't have Pacific Islanders in the team”, says University of Auckland Associate Dean Pacific, Sir Collin Tukuitonga, KNZM.

And broadly, New Zealand and its Pacific neighbours have “a long-term, respectful, mutually beneficial relationship straddling across political and economic development – a whole range of things”, he says.

Current geopolitical tensions, however, have challenged some traditional relationships and raised concerns about China’s growing influence; New Zealand’s strained relationship with the Cook Islands following the latter’s signing of a strategic partnership last year with China, is one example.

As journalist and alumna Sarah Bradley noted in a column for Ingenio last year, China has become the second-largest aid donor and investor in the Pacific region, behind only Australia, and is poised to challenge traditional donors for influence.

However, Sir Collin says China has been in the Pacific “forever”.

What the People’s Republic supports by way of development “is money New Zealand saves and Australia saves that they can use elsewhere”, he says, whereas he describes the influence of the US as “reactive, self-centred and loud – and they make lots of promises that are never delivered”.

As co-director of Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa, the University’s Centre for Pacific and Global Health, Sir Collin oversees a range of initiatives – from a mental health and well-being study in six Pacific countries to improving cancer care and diagnosis, and offering doctoral student scholarship support.

He is also chair of the recently established Pacific Academy of Sciences, which unites scientists, policymakers and Indigenous knowledge holders in a shared mission to strengthen Pacific scientific leadership.

“The Pacific needs to step up and speak out on these issues, whether it's conservation, ocean science, climate change, child development, crime, and the impact of heat on health.”

While the biggest issue facing the Pacific is understanding the “true impact” of climate change, he says “the Polynesian curse of diabetes and heart disease and obesity just seems to roll on, despite our efforts. So, it’s a huge agenda and we're doing what we can.” 

Pacific leadership

Professor Guy Fiti Sinclair, from the Faculty of Law, says New Zealand has long seen itself as part of the Pacific family.

“In some ways New Zealand's interests or policies have aligned with Pacific Island policies on a number of issues, like the Nuclear Free Pacific. However, on others – most importantly on climate change – their approaches have diverged.”

In an opinion piece published last year, Guy flagged the increasing risk of Pacific countries being used as political footballs, as tensions and competition between powerful states such as the US and China reach new heights in the region.

In such a climate, he noted that “New Zealand could, and should, have a role in intervening and protecting our Pacific neighbours”. 

Through its membership of the Pacific Islands Forum, he says New Zealand has a strong opportunity to work with Pacific Island states in navigating their way through increasing geopolitical tensions.

“It can't be a leadership by bullying or by pushing, because that's not part of the culture that's been established among Pacific countries. To be effective, it has to be a more consultative, consensus-based kind of leadership.”

Last year, Guy became the first Pacific person appointed a professor at Auckland Law School. Currently, he is just over halfway through a five-year study, funded by an $800,000 Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from the Royal Society Te Apārangi, that analyses how international legal frameworks intersect in the Pacific on key issues like security, trade and climate change.
 

“These are all areas which are normally seen as distinct regimes in international law, but in the Pacific, they all kind of mesh together. My interest is in unpacking that.”

Given the success of Pacific countries in pushing for international treaties like the Paris Agreement on climate change, and their influence on forcing an expansion of legal protections for oceans at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, he says there’s much to learn from the examples set by New Zealand’s Pacific neighbours.

“Their achievements are remarkable. And so, the question is, what can we learn from that and how can we support those kinds of efforts going forward?”

Associate Professor Gordon Nanau echoes this idea. Having recently co-authored a book called Oceanic Diplomacy, which examines the modern-day use of traditional diplomatic practices between tribes and islands, he says greater understanding of these practices could help resolve current geopolitical tensions.

“The way leaders engage with each other and the type of relationship that they have determines the type of responses that they get,” says Gordon.

In his role as deputy head of the School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies, Gordon says that while New Zealand is very familiar with the Polynesian part of the Pacific, more attention needs to be paid to all sub-regions of the Pacific in university curricula and research.

“There's more engagement or more work that can be done with the Micronesian part of the Pacific and the Melanesian part of the Pacific.”

From a research perspective, he’s involved in multiple studies, including a critical look at the perception that Pacific Island communities are mostly helpless when it comes to issues like climate change.

“Over centuries, Pacific communities have been resilient and they've proven time and time again that they do deal with change that came to them externally or from the environment.”  

You can’t talk about us, without us

For Pro Vice-Chancellor Pacific, Fonoiā Professor Jemaima Tiatia-Siau, New Zealand’s relationship with the Pacific is characterised by a mutual respect and shared understanding that has deep ancestral ties between First Nations people.

It’s an understanding embodied in the University’s inaugural Pacific strategy, which was launched in 2025. Jemaima says the strategy, called Ala o le Moana, or ‘pathways of the ocean’, aims to elevate Pacific-led research through meaningful and authentic engagement.

“We should be encouraging Pacific-led research and Indigenous knowledge systems. It's about building this workforce or pipeline to be able to have traditional knowledge systems and Western scientific frameworks that coexist.”

It’s also about shifting attitudes and enabling Pacific researchers to lead their own projects – and ultimately grow workforce capacity and capability, she says.

In step with Sir Collin’s assessment that understanding the impact of climate change is the region’s biggest issue, Jemaima’s current research explores the impact of climate change on mental health and well-being in Niue, the Cook Islands and New Zealand. The project, funded by the Health Research Council, also looks at how well prepared the mental health sector is to manage climate-induced migration.

“You can't talk about us without us. And so, for me, it was hugely important that my team was Pacific led, that we built capacity, that there were researchers on the ground in those sites that provided some career opportunities for them.”

Li’amanaia Dr Roannie Ng Shiu knows better than most about the challenges of being on the front line of research to understand the impact of climate change on the well-being of Pacific people. 

“We just don't have the capacity to be dealing with these issues on our own, and we need to be collaborating more with international partners in filling these quite critical data gaps so that we can adapt faster to a changing climate.”

Roannie, who alongside Sir Collin and others, is a co-director of Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa, is currently based at the National University of Sāmoa, where she is an adjunct associate professor. She is also executive director of the Pacific Academy of Sciences and part of the global Lancet Countdown, which tracks up to 60 indicators on health and climate change.

In collaboration with the University of Sydney, she’s conducting research to better understand the impact of rising heat in Sāmoan schools.

“We know that days are getting hotter. What we don't know is how this is impacting the learning outcomes for children in the Pacific, so numeracy and literacy are really important in terms of better outcomes.”

A key objective is to gather baseline information on a range of issues, and Roannie is also consulting with Professor Russell Foster, a British expert in circadian neuroscience, to investigate how better sleep can improve mental health outcomes for young Pacific people. “We know it's definitely a problem, but there's a solution already out there that's non-pharmacological and what we need is some funding to help us scale this project out.”

Building workforce capacity is core to the mission. The challenge is to upskill health workers without luring them out of the islands to more lucrative roles in New Zealand and Australia.

“If we can help Pacific people to take the time to get qualified, but then fill the gap with people from the University of Auckland, that's a win-win situation.”

PhD candidate Dr Sainimere Boladuadua from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences is among a group of female researchers and health practitioners advocating for more inclusive, externally funded research that builds local capacity – and gives credit for it.

“We're grateful for the funding, we're grateful that it's addressing our health issues, but we'd also like to gain some of these qualifications or the credit that’s due there.”

In a recently published paper titled Re-imagining global health: Perspectives from the next generation in the Pacific region, Sainimere and her colleagues propose increasing Pacific people’s sovereignty, connectivity, and equity and participation in health systems, as well as integrating world views, including those of Indigenous communities. 

The Fiji Oxygen Programme is a case in point. In partnership with Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Cure Kids, the University of Auckland is making medical oxygen more accessible and cost effective in health facilities – and training members of the clinical and biomedical workforce in its use.

“Our partners first listen to what our health service needs and priorities are, then they come alongside and work with us. And from this partnership, there’s capacity building for the health workers as well.”

For her thesis, Sainimere is investigating how to improve access to care for Fijian children suffering from acute respiratory infections, like pneumonia, which are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for Pacific children under age five.

In addition to examining multiple-year data sets to assess the true extent of the burden, she’s also diving into the experiences of patients by interviewing families, health practitioners and policymakers about their journeys in a very Western model of healthcare.

“I would like to see that the way we deliver healthcare is more fit for the population that we serve.” 

A shared geography

Alongside climate change and health challenges, understanding and mitigating the impacts of natural disasters is a major focus in the Pacific.

The Faculty of Science’s Professor Shane Cronin was the first overseas volcanologist to be allowed into Tonga after the January 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai, a volcanic island 65km north of Tongatapu, Tonga’s main island (see Ingenio, Autumn 2022).

He’s now leading a five-year MBIE-funded study worth $7 million, which has a major aim of increasing the resilience of infrastructure following that powerful volcanic and tsunami event.

“Just between New Zealand and Tonga there’s something like 150 volcanoes that we don't know much about,” says Shane, “so we’re trying to figure out which of those are the most dangerous and learn how to prepare for those dangers.”

Saving lives with early-warning systems for tsunami, and protecting vital communication links, such as undersea cables, is a priority. The study, he says, could result in a combined cable-satellite system rather than more vulnerable undersea cables.  

“If countries get knocked off the internet, the banking system, supply-chain systems, all these different things really go down and that’s a big deal. The delay in repairing these things is quite long and the costs are astronomical.”

Shane’s research is also looking at the way people in Tonga quickly escaped to higher ground in 2022 without any official warning.

“It's the most gracious evacuation I've ever seen, so we're interested in that aspect. It's obviously knowledge put into practice in a way that saves a lot of lives.”

To establish long-term research partnerships, the University of Auckland is pairing its PhD students with those at the University of the South Pacific, as well as hosting visiting fellows from the Pacific.

In keeping with the idea of being a good neighbour, it’s about building positive, reciprocal relationships.

“We're bringing in trusted background scientific knowledge and new techniques and capabilities that can be adopted in-country so that we can provide specialist support and a general increase of the local capability,” says Shane.