Marion Muliaumaseali'I
Dr. Marion Muliaumaseali’i is a Pacific ethnographic researcher, expert facilitator, panel moderator, and entrepreneur. Her thesis, “The Space in-between: An Ethnographic Study of Mobile Technology and Social Change in Rural Samoa” examined the changing communicative ecologies of village Samoa and its relationship to the Va, a ‘thread’ that exists in every gesture, speech and interaction between Samoans. Voted RMIT’s Operations Diversity Champion 2018 for her design intervention, the Indigenous Word Cards which were created to mitigate the trauma experienced globally by Indigenous communities’ subject to unconscious biases of non-Indigenous researchers or design practitioners. The Indigenous Word Cards are based on Fa’amatai (Samoan village organisation) and were co-created with - Boon Wurrung Elder, N’arweet Carolyn Briggs is a tangible example of Dr. Marion’s concept of Teu le Va (nurture the space) between Intersectionality. Dr Marion’s heart to ‘be the change’ challenges her to bring her academic achievements and lived experiences in the Design context towards sustainable change.
