The 2020 recipients of the Teresia Teaiwa Memorial Scholarships are postgraduate student Kaitlin Abbott and BA/LLB student Esther Patu.

For both young women, these scholarships are giving them the opportunity to focus on their studies without the added stress of how they will manage financially.

“Pacific Studies helped me to see and accept that you can have a Pasifika perspective at university, and it has encouraged me to use that perspective in other subjects. I didn’t think I could do that. I want to show others from the Pasifika community that they can have a university experience that works for them too,” says Kaitlin Abbott.

“After my degree, I want to do everything. I want to write, teach, make films. I want to be creative. Pasifika people are great storytellers and I want to use that to help in the work I hope to do with Pasifika communities here in New Zealand.”

Esther Patu is in her second year of a joint BA/LLB with majors in Pacific Studies and Law and a minor in International Business. She says she plans to pursue a career in law, criminal or environmental, and she dreams of being part of shaping a better future for the Pacific and Pasifika people.

She says that she has found Pacific Studies to be a hugely important part of her study mix, “PASI (Pacific Studies) has allowed me to be more critical in my thinking, especially about all things Pasifika, and more able to have the hard conversations about what the Pacific has and continues to endure.

“It’s made me more self-aware and it’s giving me the tools I need so that I can be a part of shaping the future of the pacific," says Esther Patu.

“Studying PASI and being Pasifika in a system that doesn’t necessarily cater to us means empowerment for me as a Pasifika woman, and it motivates me to strive to achieve my goals and dreams."

“Pacific Studies for me is not just an academic thing,” says Esther, “It goes much deeper and gives me a connection to my ancestors, the people who put me here.”

The Teresia Teaiwa Memorial Scholarship Fund was set up in 2018 in honour of the late Associate Professor Teresia Teaiwa who led teaching of the world’s first Undergraduate Major in Pacific Studies (PASI) at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington from 2000.

As a poet, mother, activist, and scholar, Teresia was a much-loved role model and inspiration for women across the Pacific region. And thanks to the generosity of our supporters the fund—now in its second year— has reached its goal and this year was able to realise Teresia’s dream of providing scholarships for two students majoring in Pacific Studies.