13 Epilogue Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni and Tuivalu Lauganiu

As the first in my family to pursue higher education and attain a bachelor's degree, I had the privilege of accessing and engaging with critical knowledge, including the settler colonial history of Aotearoa New Zealand and its enduring impacts. [...] This knowledge was especially relevant in my undertaking of criminology as a major at The University of Auckland, where I explored and applied criminological theories to understand the overrepresentation of Indigenous (Māori) and ethnic minorities (especially Pacific peoples) in the New Zealand criminal justice system. [...] In the Pacific, for example, investigating the actions of the Indonesian state in West Papua, the British in Australia and New Zealand and its other former Pacific Island colonies, the French in French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, the Chilean state in Easter Island (Rapa Nui), and the United States in its current and former territories. [...] Over the years, this love for and engagement with things Samoan evolved and has become a strong influence and source of inspiration for my work in the criminology space and with Pacific Indigenous communities at large. [...] The Christian Church, Indigenous culture, and the institution of family, in all their varied and sometimes contradictory manifestations in the Pacific, are imbued with a Pacific spirituality and sensibility.