It was Moana’s Uncle Wil who gave her the words that would one day change her life.
Even as a child, Moana looked up to him. A proud Māori man, he carried himself with quiet strength and conviction.
He told her:
“Be brave enough to be bad at things long enough to get good at them. Aim for better, not perfect.”
Those words became a compass for Moana’s journey.
A sliding doors moment
Moana has been awarded the Chancellor’s Medal, the greatest honour a UniSC graduand can receive, recognising academic excellence and significant contribution to the University and wider community.
But there was a time when she thought she would never go to university at all.
While she had always loved learning, difficult life circumstances saw Moana leave high school in just Year 9.
“Without good support networks, education is hard,” she says. “You realise that it’s a privilege.”
It wasn’t until 2019, years later, that she saw a small ad for a uni skills workshop and everything began to shift.
“It was a sliding doors moment,” Moana recalls. “The workshop staff gave me confidence I didn’t know I had.
“For the first time, I felt like I belonged and that I could actually do this.”
She enrolled in UniSC’s Tertiary Preparation Pathway, which built her skills and opened the door to studying Environmental Science – her true passion.
Her love for the environment, however, had begun much earlier.
Moana once converted her family’s 50,000-litre pool into a thriving freshwater ecosystem, complete with fish, yabbies, taro plants and floating islands.
“I was always experimenting,” she laughs. “Long before I knew what I was doing, I was trying to build balance and resilience into the environment around me.”
Embrace your superpower
In her time at UniSC, Moana thrived not only academically, but as a community leader.
She founded the UniSC Pasifika Association, which grew from a small student gathering into a recognised organisation supporting Māori and Pasifika students.
The Association now runs mentoring programs, provides cultural connection, and collaborates with groups such as the Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research (ACPIR) and the Dolphins NRL Club to deliver leadership programs for local high school students.
But Moana’s leadership has also been shaped by her own struggles with identity.
“My father is Māori and my mother is Pākehā,” she says. “I grew up never feeling white enough to be white, or brown enough to be brown.
“I carried that shame for a long time.”
That changed when she attended a cultural workshop run by ACPIR.
A cultural leader presenting that day overheard Moana explaining to other attendees that she never felt like she fit in anywhere because of her mixed heritage.
He later pulled her aside and reframed her perspective.
“This is your superpower,” he told her. “You have a foot in both worlds. You can be the bridge.”
“It transformed me,” Moana says. “What I had seen as weakness became strength.
“It gave me a sense of purpose, to be that bridge for others who don’t know where they belong and to help them find their way.”
Another lesson came from a friend who reminded her of words first spoken by Ram Dass: “We are all just walking each other home.”
“Those three snippets of wisdom – from my uncle, from that cultural moment, and from my friend – became the pillars that guide me,” Moana says.
“They shape who I am, who I’m becoming, and the legacy I want to leave.”
A leader for now – and the future
UniSC Chancellor Sir Angus Houston AK, AFC (Ret’d) praised Moana’s many achievements as impactful and far reaching.
“Apart from her role founding the Pasifika Association, Moana has been an active participant in student life, having roles as a student senator, STEM representative and co-chair of the Moreton Bay Student Leadership Group – to name but a few,” he said.
“In her time at UniSC, she has made higher education more accessible and more attainable for a great many people, advancing student engagement and equity in the process.
“Her achievements are felt not just here but reverberate across our Pacific region through her collaborative partnerships, research opportunities and education pathways.
“We are very proud to have shared in Moana’s journey and greatly look forward to following it as her future unfolds.”
Looking ahead
Moana’s journey is far from over. In 2026 she will begin her Honours project, researching microbes suitable for the bioremediation of PFAS contamination – work she hopes will eventually lead into a PhD.
Her fascination with microbes is boundless.
“They form this hidden, microscopic world that quietly sustains life on our planet,” she says.
“They give us oxygen, as the stromatolites in Western Australia still remind us, and they continue to recycle, protect, and transform our environment.
“They may contain solutions to some of our biggest challenges – from contamination and climate change to sustainable food and health.”
That sense of responsibility fuels her motivation.
“What we do today matters. We are future ancestors. It’s not just about us, it’s about making the path easier for those who follow.”
Moana’s children, inspired by her example, are already pursuing their own university journeys.
“We all leave a legacy,” she says.
“Mine will be to open doors, to build bridges, to champion sustainable and innovative solutions for the challenges our environment faces, and to leave footprints worth following.”
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