Navigating leadership pathway: A focus on challenges and opportunities for Pasifika women in the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN)

Author: Maria Ngalutuku Pahulu Junior

Supervisors: Richard Mitchell Steve Henry

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18 November 2025

 

Pahulu Junior, M. N. (2025). Navigating leadership pathway: A focus on challenges and opportunities for Pasifika women in the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) [Master's thesis, Otago Polytechnic].

 

Abstract

As a Pasifika woman serving in the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) for nearly two decades, this research did not emerge from academic distance but from lived experience. I carry with pride the interwoven threads of my Tongan, Samoan, and Fijian heritage, and with them, the complexities of navigating military service, cultural identity, and leadership expectations. The silence surrounding Pasifika women’s leadership journeys in uniformed spaces compelled me to ask: how do we lead, and how are we seen?

As shown in Figure 1, the leadership pathway illustrates the journey of Pasifika women as they navigate military and cultural spaces within the RNZN. Figure 2 presents The Pink Hibiscus Vision, a leadership model represented by five petals: Identity, Mentorship, Resilience, Legacy, and Tautua (sacred service).

Throughout my 19 years of military service, I have held instructional, leadership, recruitment, and cultural advisory roles, each of which has exposed gaps in how Pasifika Wāhine leadership is recognised and nurtured.

This thesis examines the leadership experiences of Pasifika women in the RNZN, focusing on how cultural values shape leadership within military structures. Grounded in Talanoa (relational dialogue), Wayfinding Leadership, and autoethnography, the study privileges Indigenous knowledge and lived experience. I weave my own journey with that of thirty-nine participants: sixteen through one-on-one interviews and twenty-three through Talanoa group sessions.

To honour cultural identity and maintain confidentiality, each participant received a pseudonym adapted from the phonetic alphabet. These names were then woven into a collective phrase, the ‘NZ Pasifika Wāhine Toa!’, symbolising legacy, solidarity, and ascendant leadership through an oceanic metaphor.

The findings are expressed through The Pink Hibiscus Vision, a leadership model shaped by five petals: Identity, Mentorship, Resilience, Legacy, and Tautua (sacred service). Participants described identity as quiet resistance, mentorship as deeply relational, resilience as communal and faith anchored, legacy as both inherited and offered forward, and tautua as a leadership practice rooted in love and duty.

Rather than focusing on gaps, this research affirms the strengths of Pasifika women in uniform who lead with cultural integrity, spiritual grounding, and intergenerational purpose. It challenges Eurocentric leadership frameworks and offers a culturally grounded alternative in which leadership blooms from the roots of gafa (genealogy), vā (relational space), and lived service.

 

           

Figure 1. Navigating Leadership Pathway. Author's own.      

 

Figure 2. Full Pink Hibiscus Vision Framework with all five thematic petals labelled. Author's own.

 

Note. Images created by the author using Canva (https://canvachatgpt.com), for educational purposes.

 

Keywords

Pasifika leadership, women in the military, Indigenous leadership, autoethnography, talanoa, Royal New Zealand Navy

 

Licence

This thesis is not publicly available.

The author can be contacted on mariapjunior@iCloud.com  to request a copy.