WRITER, BUSINESS ANALYST AND RESEARCHER

A couple of months ago, I shared a small chapter of my story as it related to being a member of the LGBT, Christian and Samoan community.

When pinning down our research, we’re encouraged to think of our project in terms of what problem or opportunity we’re responding to. I’m working to realise an opportunity. In my feeling place, I’m pursuing this research to help lift up my Samoan people. But on a day-to-day basis, it’s spite that fuels me and it’s the problems that grease the gears.

Wherein a film review of "Independence Day: Resurgence" becomes a reflection on lazy storytelling and treatment of indigenous communities in film, and I segueway into the Matrix.

Wait. If I tell you this… am I going to see a poor man’s rendition of this coming through in your work? Are you going to be the Christopher Paolini to our Tolkiens and so blatantly borrow to render our heroes, journeys and signature moments as your own? No offence to Paolini, we all show our love for stories and their elements in different ways, experimental play is necessary to growth, and we all have to start somewhere.

Wherein we kick off the new year with an entirely serious study of then-and-now attitudes to academia -- using vegetables.

I don't mind getting old. In fact, I love it. As Maurice Sendack once said, "It is a blessing to get old. It is a blessing to find the time, to read the books, to listen to the music."

When you’re designing new technology, or new ways to use existing technology, I don’t know how many creative technologists’ relationships with friends and family start changing as they grow into more awareness. I wonder how many “agree to disagree” moments lie in my future. I find myself bracing for the way it may ultimately shift some of my closest relationships. And on some days I wish I’d stayed away from a thesis that had anything to do with cultural heritage.

By a rough law of averages, most Samoans still place a high priority on the following three things: 1) nuclear and extended family, 2) some form of spirituality, and 3) a principle of service to your fellow people and community. Samoans, like most human beings, are generally an affectionate, generous and loyal sort of people – provided you don’t cross a line.

If you call out someone as ‘fia poko’, you might not realise how much you’re revealing about yourself and your attitude towards your own community.

As we come to the end of 2015’s Samoan Language Week (O le Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa) in New Zealand, I have to acknowledge a shadow that’s been dogging me all week.