Social Issues

Damon Salesa: Pākehā are Pacific Island people too

*Watch the full story in the video player above*

Associate Professor Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa is the University of Auckland’s first Pro Vice Chancellor Pacific.

Of Samoan-Pālagi descent, Salesa has become a leading author and historian of Pacific studies and race relations. He is also the first person of Pacific Island descent to become a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University.

In an interview with Newsroom, Salesa discusses his new role, and why New Zealand needs to embrace its position as a leading Pacific nation.

He also touches on Auckland’s growth as a Pacific city, and how the school decile system, “white flight” and the Don Brashes of the world are detrimental to a healthy and productive New Zealand.