Resilience in the Pacific: Part 3 - ‘Not a Loss: Diaspora and the Reimagining of Pacific Development’

Welcome to Part 3 of our series focused on the resilience and infrastructure challenges currently facing the Pacific Islands. Here are Parts 1 and 2. 

Diaspora Pacific Islanders are not a loss. We are not a loss to the Pacific, nor to the places we now call home. We are not caught between allegiances; we are shaped by many. Our identities are layered, not divided. Like the folds of a tapa cloth, or shifting depths of the moana, each part holding memory, movement and meaning. 

I was born in Tonga. Not in a textbook, nor in the pages of a development strategy, but in a village, where the air hummed with the rhythm of life, the thud of ike on tapa, like a heartbeat through the village, hymns echoing through the evening light, and banana leaves crackling on Sunday fires as families prepared the umu. We would exchange food with our neighbours each Sunday, not as charity, but as connection. The village raised me. Not with speeches, but with presence. 
 

The value we carry 

The cultural teachings of Tonga, fakaʻapaʻapa (respect), tauhi vā (relational harmony), loto to (humility), and mamahi‘i me‘a (commitment to cause and people), shaped the lens through which I see the world. These values cannot be taught in any development course, yet they are foundational to the success of any Pacific-led initiative. As Epeli Hauʻofa reminded us, these systems of meaning and identity are “not relics of the past, but frameworks for our future.” 

This is the first truth I want to offer: our knowledge systems are living, and they travel with us. 
 

Climate Vulnerability assessments underway for the Ministry of Infrastructure Tonga, in partnership with the World Bank

Learning, returning and leading 

Following this, I worked in the Cook Islands where I supported the delivery of clean water systems in Rarotonga. One moment has stayed with me, watching clear water run from a tap into the hands of a grandmother who once relied on her grandchildren to fetch it from a communal tank. That was not just a pipeline, it was justice. 

“One moment has stayed with me, watching clear water run from a tap into the hands of a grandmother who once relied on her grandchildren to fetch it from a communal tank. That was not just a pipeline, it was justice.” 
 

The power of listening 

I have also learned the power of pausing, of talanoa, of repeating what others say to truly hear them. In the Pacific, the outcome is rarely in dispute. What’s often missing is space, for conversation, for mutual recognition, for dignity. Dr Henry Ivarature reminds us that true governance begins in the ability to hear others clearly — and build inclusive systems around them.
 

Living in Australia. Leading with the Pacific  

Today, I live and work in Australia, where I support development and infrastructure projects across the Pacific. Australia is my home now, a place that has given me the tools to return to the region not just with skills, but with purpose. Though Australia is now my home, the Pacific is my compass. I carry both with me, not as a conflict, but as a bridge. I am not a consultant looking in, I am a Pacific Islander who left, learned, and returned in purpose. 

My story is not exceptional; it’s a template. And this is the core message of this piece: Diaspora Pacific Islanders are not a loss. We are an asset, strategic connectors, cultural carriers, and ready leaders. 
 

Sione Likiliki (R) with two friends on the sidelines of the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, Tonga 2024

Diaspora Pacific Islanders: Not a loss, but a resource  

As Foreign Minister Penny Wong has stated: 

“The Pacific Engagement Visa will strengthen people-to-people links and encourage greater cultural, business and educational exchange.” 

We are those links. We speak both the language of policy and the poetry of our elders. 

“Diaspora Pacific Islanders are not a loss. We are an asset, strategic connectors, cultural carriers, and ready leaders”. 
 

What this looks like in practice  

This is something I’ve experienced at Beca, an employee-owned professional services firm delivering across New Zealand, Australia, Asia and the Pacific. What sets Beca apart is not just what it does, but how it does it. With long-standing staff, embedded relationships, and commitment to working alongside, not above, it offers a model of what respectful, Pacific-aligned development can look like.  

At the heart of this is Beca Pasifika, a leadership collective of staff with Pacific Heritage and deep lived experience in the region. Whether it’s Port of Apia, the heart of Neiafu, the lush highlands of Lae, the quiet dignity of Alofi, or the ocean-wrapped charm of Majuro, we have been there.  

And we don’t arrive as strangers. We draw on people who may now live abroad but carry with them the scent of rain on coral soil, the stories whispered by grandparents, and a deep enduring understanding of what makes each island more than a place, a home. This is not occasional engagement, it is continuous presence, dispersed across oceans but united in purpose. This is our approach to localisation, not transactional, but rooted in belonging and long-term commitment.  

This work is not done alone. Many of my colleagues are not from the Pacific, but they choose to listen, learn, and walk beside us.  

Too often, we see models of development that are short-term and extractive, bringing in external experts on rotating contracts, drawing local talent away from Pacific government roles, sidelining local business, and creating unsustainable dependency on aid cycles. When the project ends, so does the support, and the community is left waiting for the next one. 

“Beca offers something different: enduring relationships, cultural alignment, and a belief that Pacific-led work must include Pacific voices, wherever they live”. 
 

Sione (centre, rear) with government officials and colleagues in Tonga for the early stages of the National Sustainable Spatial Planning Framework

Beca Pasifika network: True Pacific partners 

In a sector where short-term, hire-and-fire models are common, Beca instead builds lasting relationships. Its success in the region is not defined solely by technical delivery, but by cultural integrity and trust. It is not perfect, but it is intentional. As Theresa Meki and Jope Tarai argue, development must shift from asking who participates to asking who holds power. Pacific Islanders, including diaspora must be supported to wield authority in decision-making, design, and delivery. As professionals who straddle both regional and international spaces, we are well placed to lead. Not as representatives, but as rightful architects. 

This is a model not of extraction, but of embedded collaboration. It is, in every sense, a living example of tauhi vā, the nurturing of sacred relationships across time. 

Beca Pasifika is not the exception, it is what partnership looks like when it mirrors the region it serves. 

To truly reimagine Pacific development, we must move beyond donor recipient models and center regional belonging. This includes actively supporting diaspora engagement, not as a side story, but as a strategic pillar. As Hauʻofa wrote, “no people are islands; we are connected by the ocean, not separated by it.” 

We are the sons and daughters of the Pacific. 
We carry the fale and the forum. The prayer and the policy. 
We are not waiting to lead, we are already paddling. 
The vaka is steady. The horizon is clear. What might we become, if we honoured every place we come from, and every place we can go together? 
Diaspora Pacific Islanders are not a loss. 
We are already here. And we are ready. 

More info about Beca’s Pacific Development capabilities can be viewed here.