Understandings of Responsibility Amongst Sāmoan Diaspora in Greater Brisbane, Australia

This article examines how responsibility is understood and enacted among Sāmoan diaspora living in Greater Brisbane, Australia. Drawing on 46 in-depth, repeat interviews with 16 participants, the study demonstrates that responsibility is a multifaceted practice shaped by cultural values, migration histories and everyday social relations. Participants described responsibility across three interconnected domains: the household; the community; and the future self. These accounts reveal how Sāmoan collectivist practices, such as fa‘alavelave and tautua , intersect with the expectations of life in Australia, often producing tensions between individual aspirations and communal obligations. The findings highlight the ways responsibility is embedded in fa‘asāmoa , encompassing reciprocity, service and relational identity, while also negotiating the pressures of Western individualism. By foregrounding Sāmoan-centred perspectives, the article argues for a more nuanced sociological understanding of responsibility that moves beyond dichotomies of personal versus societal responsibility and recognises its fluid, relational and culturally situated nature.