Honorary Associate Professor Dion Enari

Honarary Associate Professor Lefaoali'i Dion Enari is in Ngā Wai a Te Tūī (Māori and Indigenous Research Centre) & Honorary Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences University of Queensland. He is an Indigenous Samoan academic who covers Indigenous, Sport and Pacific issues regularly as an author and interviewed on several International and National media platforms including World news, ABC News, ABC Radio, The Guardian, Thomson Reuters Foundation, New Zealand Herald, Radio New Zealand, Samoa Observer, and The Coconet. He is the 2024 Ministry of Education Pacific Educator of the year and 2025 Le Moana Mua award winner of the Aotearoa Tertiary Educator awards.

His PhD is on Fa'a Samoa (Samoan culture) in the Faculty of Society and Design, Bond University, Australia. His research has been published in a range of academic outlets including the Australian Journal of Human Rights, Genealogy Journal, International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, Journal of Social Inclusion, E tropics: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples and Oceania.

Selected Publications:

Borell, P., & Enari, D. (2025). Native tongue - Indigenous language revitalisation at the nexus of professional sport and culture: how Māori and Pacific sport stars are aiding endangered languages: Sport in Society: Vol 0, No 0 - Get Access 
 
Enari, D., Pale, M., Fainga’a-Manusione, I., Faleolo, R. L., Faleolo, T. G., Stanley, G., ... & Ualesi, Y. (2025). The experiences of Indigenous academics in the diaspora. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 57(8), 725-741.
 
Faleolo, R., Sione, I., Enari, D., & Stanley, T., (2026). Sage Research Methods: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research - Indigenizing Practice: Spirituality, Service, Agency, Vision, and Innovation Collective-Individual Approach to Pasifika Research in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand
 
Fox, L., & Enari, D. (2025). As It Is Above, So It Is Below: Repositioning Indigenous Knowledge Systems within Ecosocial Work - PubMed
 
Pale, M., Enari, D., Tualaulelei, E., Akbar, H., Faleolo, R. L., Ravulo, J., ... & Williams, B. (2026). Indigenizing Research via Talanoa: Vā in Higher Education - Pale - 2026 - Anthropology & Education Quarterly - Wiley Online Library