Samoan’s were elated with the news that their controversial citizenship history might take a new turn, with the Restoring Citizenship Removed by Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill that passed its first reading in NZ Parliament in April 2024. This bill, championed by Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono, aims to provide a pathway to citizenship for Samoans born between 1924 and 1949, the period of NZ’s colonial rule of Samoa. In a landmark case that successfully fought for this citizenship, a Samoan woman Falema'i Lesā was working as a kitchen hand in Wellington when she was threatened with deportation.