Lupematasila Misatauveve Dr Melani Anae QSO

Lupematasila Misatauveve Dr Melani Anae QSO – Original PPP member and member of the university intelligentsia, now member of PPPLT - Polynesian Panther Party Legacy Trust – is the Co-ordinator of the Educate to Liberate Programme in schools since 2011, and the Our Living Room Professional Development Programme for teachers since 2020. She is Associate Professor in Pacific Studies, at the University of Auckland.

Dr Anae has been a recipient of the Fulbright New Zealand Senior Scholar Award (2007) and was awarded the Companion to the Queen’s Service Order for services to Pacific communities in New Zealand (2008). Focusing on issues of ethnic identity for 1st/2nd-generation Pacific peoples born in the diaspora, her transformational work has successfully developed strategies for improving research outcomes for Pacific peoples/families and communities across the sectors of education, health and wellbeing to improve well-being for Pacific peoples, families and communities in New Zealand.

She has published extensively in her specialty areas of ethnicity, health, education, and Pacific research methodologies, including several books and articles on the Polynesian Panthers. She has just published a book called The Platform: The radical legacy of the Polynesian Panthers 2020 – which is all about her journey with the Polynesian Panthers. Her academic career over the last 20 years has focused on the PPP platform – peaceful resistance against racism, Pacific empowerment and a liberating education.