A Handbook for Transnational Samoan Matai (Chiefs) by Melani Anae

This book is the first comprehensive work on the Samoan transnational matai. It provides a space for diverse perspectives from a number of leading transnational matai about their global journeys, reflections on their globalised identities and how these are connected with each other and to Samoa. The research behind this book is one of the few Pacific Island projects funded through the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Marsden award. Written in a simple and easily accessible style, the book is meant for researchers, policy thinkers, cultural experts and the Samoan public generally and beyond. In a world where cultural identities are subject to constant changes, the book provides an account of how these changes can be managed in creative but culturally sensitive ways.  

Melani Anae is senior lecturer in Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland. A Fulbright Scholar, a Marsden Award recipient and holder of the Queen's Service Order Medal for services to Pacific communities, she has published extensively in the areas of transnational Pacific leadership, the politics of identity, Pacific activism in New Zealand, and Pacific research methodologies and relational ethics.