Amy Maslen-Miller - Samoan Scientist

📸: Olivia Renouf

Amy Maslen-Miller is a Samoan scientist who grew up in Westmere, Aukilani with her adoptive mother, father and grandmother. Her birth parents came to Aotearoa in search of a better life, and they created an aiga that included Amy, her brother and two sisters. Most of the time, Amy was surrounded by her adoptive whānau and raised as an only child. However, she visited her siblings in Māngere often enough that she felt very much a part of their world too. When Amy was without the company of other tamariki, she played with her pet dogs, cats and hedgehogs who she loved like surrogate brothers and sisters.

Amy had a ball at primary school in Freemans Bay and later attended St Mary’s College. Her passion for music and her drive to succeed academically were nurtured throughout her schooling. But her Samoan identity wasn’t something that featured heavily during that time. While Amy was focused on getting good grades and playing the violin, her appetite for deepening her understanding of her ancestors was a seed that grew quietly and steadily in the background. When Amy was ready to take the reins, she steered her studies towards an investigation of Samoan traditions through a scientific lens.

Now, Amy is working on a PhD at Waipapa Taumata Rau, The University of Auckland. Her aim is to improve access to cultural knowledge that could benefit the health of Tagata Pasifika. Through her mahi, she hopes to uncover the ways in which the Samoan traditional diet can prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. As Amy navigates Pākehā systems, she is creating a new pathway that could connect a shared past and present to the future of Samoan knowledge, health and representation.

Somehow, Amy finds the time to raise awareness about her research online and work part-time while studying! Her Instagram account has more than 3,300 followers who are rooting for her as she documents her journey through the bewildering, invigorating microcosm of academia. She even has a podcast that she uses to share her discoveries while centering the experiences of other indigenous scientists. The hustle of this wahine toa knows no bounds.