Four decades of Pacific service: Sāmoan senior lecturer recognised in New Year Honours

For more than 40 years, Sailauama Cheryl Talamaivao has quietly led through service, culture, and care. And now that lifetime of work has been formally recognised in the 2026 New Year Honours.

Talamaivao, a Senior Lecturer at Unitec and Justice of the Peace, has been awarded the King's Service Medal for services to the Pacific community and education.

Talamaivao is one of only eight people of Pacific descent named among the 177 recipients this year.

Sailauama says she cried upon receiving the news via email, immediately seeing the award as a blessing for her late parents. She credits her success to her Sāmoan migrant parents, who arrived in Auckland in the early 1950s and instilled in her the values of faith, service, and education.

“I thought about their sacrifice, their diligence, their intelligence, how courageous they were. I'm a product of migrant parents and everyone else that travelled here in the late 1940s and 1950s,” Sailauama says.

A "West Auckland hard" resident of Te Atatū North since 1962, Sailauama has been a pivotal bridge between Pacific communities and official services. She co-founded the Waitakere Pacific Wardens Trust in 2008, chairing the organisation from 2017 to 2023 to ensure Pacific people lead safety and wellbeing initiatives on their own streets.

Listen to Sailauama Cheryl Talamaivao’s full interview below.

“We have all these shared community values and when we have our own language and our own culture to lead our way, we are the bridge, our generation. We're the link between our Pacific communities and all the official services that are out there, the police, Work and Income, and business. It's how we communicate,” she says.

“We have our own unique interpersonal communication, our body language, how we talk, whether it's English or Gagana Sāmoa and how we listen. We just don't listen with our ears, we listen with our hearts. We have empathy and we have that level of engagement that we make ethical decisions based on our values.”

Sailauama also acknowledges the profound impact of the trade union movement on her leadership style, having served as Vice President of the Public Service Association from 1997 to 2004.

She says being mentored by figures like Sir Ken Douglas taught her the importance of advocating for the most vulnerable. Sailauama also acknowledges those who have passed, including Elizabeth Lee-Lo, Rosie Brown, Fili Fiu and No’ora Samuela.

Sailauama was mentored by figures such as the late Ken Douglas, former President of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, pictured here at an Order of New Zealand event in 2018. Douglas was appointed to the Order of New Zealand in 1999. Photo/Office of the Governor General.

“Sir Ken Douglas made me remember this saying: ‘We the willing are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have been doing this for so long. Now we are qualified to do everything with nothing’,” Sailauama says.

“Which means, look at yourself. That’s tautua [service]. The challenges and the opportunities, those are blessings. I have been blessed in the roles that I have been able to advocate and to say that Pasifika are relevant and that my history, my belonging, counts into the future.”

Sailauama says her work as a Unitec lecturer focuses on training the next generation of healthcare workers to act with empathy and cultural integrity. She says her mission is to role model for what servant leadership looks like and open doors of opportunity for her students.

“It's about when you inspire the students, is that the student must see themselves in you, in yourself. It's lifelong learning. It doesn't stop in the classroom. What I like my students to look at is their family, values, and heritage. What has shaped you? When I'm presented with these challenges in tertiary, I listen and I learn.”

Sailauama work at Unitec focuses on preparing the next generation of healthcare workers to practise with empathy and cultural integrity. Photo/Facebook.

Sailauama says her lifelong drive comes from the belief that true leadership is about sharing knowledge and passing the baton to others. She says her parents were the first to instil this crucial belief.

“I've been taught by my parents that the gift and the blessing that you have is when someone else can step into your role and carry on. My parents taught me that you will always continue to be a leader when you share your knowledge, when you share it with others.”

For more details about the New Year Honours, click here.