[1] Feaunati holds the chief title of T’iafelelea’i from her father's village ⠀⠀, Fasito’outa⠀⠀ and Papali'i from her maternal grandmother's ties to Sapapali'i.
[3] She followed this with a Master of Architecture degree; her thesis was titled E Toe Sasa'a Le Fafao; Return to Paradise and concerned a proposal for a tattoo and carpentry school at a tsunami-damaged site in Samoa.
[4] She was a finalist in the 2014 Student Design Awards, and her master's project led on to other work with Atelier Workshop: Bonnifait + Giesen and NIWA on building for resilience in the village of Sa'anapu, Samoa.
[5][6] Carinnya Feaunati tutors and guest lectures at the School of Architecture at Victoria University of Wellington, and is both a registered architect and cultural design lead at Designgroup Stapleton Elliott.
[3][7][8] She is interested in how to build low-cost housing at scale, how design can be more culturally responsive, and how architecture can respond to global change and disaster recovery.