Born in the village of Leifiifi on the island of `Upolu, Semisi Ma`ia`i is a doctor of medicine and holds the Samoan orator's title, Papaali`i. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1954 and, after graduation from medical college, married Jenny, a Pakeha New Zealander who was then working as a nurse in Wellington. They moved first to New Plymouth and then to Auckland, where they raised two children. Semisi wrote his Samoan dictionary Tusi 'Upu Samoa over this period. Forty years later, in 2010, it was published by Little Island Press, the first such dictionary to be written by a Samoan. Semisi and Jenny now live in Wellington, where Semisi continues to write.