Ponipate Rokolekutu

Bio

Dr. Ponipate Rokolekutu is an Assistant Professor of Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies (CPIOS), housed in the Department of Race and Resistance Studies within the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Oceania Scholars Program, a CSU AANHPI Student Achievement initiative that supports the belonging, retention, and graduation of Pacific Islander students through culturally grounded programming, peer mentorship, and community engagement.

Originally from Fiji, Dr. Rokolekutu earned his Bachelor of Arts in History/Politics and Sociology in 1994, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Development Studies in 2000 from the University of the South Pacific. He received his M.A. (2007) and Ph.D. (2017) in Political Science from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His academic training spans political science, development studies, and Indigenous critical theory.

Dr. Rokolekutu’s current research challenges Fiji’s perceived exceptionality in settler colonial discourse by examining how British colonialism dispossessed the iTaukei through social reconfiguration and trusteeship. He traces this process to the Veitarogi Vanua (land registration) and the establishment of the iTaukei Land Trust Board (TLTB), which restructured Indigenous land systems under the guise of protection while facilitating economic exploitation. He focuses particularly on the role of the iTaukei Land Trust Board (TLTB) in limiting Indigenous autonomy under the guise of protection and development, tracing how these colonial and postcolonial mechanisms have shaped economic and political marginalization. His work demonstrates how trusteeship served colonial interests and continues to shape iTaukei marginalization in postcolonial Fiji.

He is the co-editor of the 2024 special issue of the Okinawa Journal of Island Studies titled Our Sharpest Tools: Unsettling Empire from Islands and Ocean. His article in the volume, “Interrogating British Benevolence and Understanding Annexation of the Fijian Islands”, reexamines the narrative of voluntary cession and reveals the coercive nature of British imperial expansion in Fiji.

Dr. Rokolekutu’s teaching and scholarship are grounded in vanua pedagogy—a Fijian Indigenous framework that centers the interconnection of land, people, and spirit. As a social justice pedagogy, vanua informs his commitment to decolonizing education, supporting Pacific Islander student success, and advancing Indigenous resurgence.

He recently completed a mini residency as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where he continued developing his research in conversation with scholars working on Indigenous and decolonial frameworks globally.