No abstract

This paper presents an interesting discussion and analysis of Pasifika (specifically Tongan and Samoan) migrants in Brisbane, and the diverse adaptive cultural practices they use to promote a sense of wellbeing and cultural continuity in diaspora contexts. Pacific Island migrant perspectives of wellbeing and worldviews are linked to their spatial behaviour and material cultural adaptations within places like Brisbane. The characteristics of the Brisbane urban landscape create the material cultural adaptations that have been observed in diaspora contexts, including places of dwelling, community and church gatherings. They are commonly displayed during family or community events, in both private and public spaces. In order to understand the significance of material cultural adaptations we must also consider the underpinnings of the materials and templates used within context. Preliminary qualitative findings have been drawn from a wider-scale research project that has explored Pasifika migrants (of Samoan and Tongan descent) perceptions and experiences of wellbeing during 2015-2018. This inquiry has rendered significant evidence of cultural values and identity elements originating from Samoa and Tonga and retained by generations of Brisbane-based Pacific Islanders, through adapted material culture and shared spatial behaviour.

Talanoa (Moana-centred orality) is a widely used Indigenous Pacific discursive approach within research contexts across the diaspora. In a globalised and technologically enhanced era, the online space continues to shape Moana (Oceania) peoples’ talanoa engagement and communication. e–talanoa in this article is an extension of talanoa research engagement and practice. We unpack the contexts in which e–talanoa is negotiated and made sense, and employ talanoa–vā (relational sense-making and meaning-making) as a critical analytical framework for interrogating and unpacking the complexities associated with e–talanoa as a Moana–Pacific research praxis. e–talanoa considers our current post–covid research space and how Pacific researchers navigate their ethical vā–relations within the temporal–spatial and physical–online boundaries that govern meaningful research undertakings. Being open about the challenges enables further understanding of the dynamic and fluid, yet contextually grounded spaces in which e–talanoa as a method can be realised.

This paper is a consideration of how the method/methodology of talanoa and vā, can be used online by Pacific researchers to respond to the current pandemic’s effect on the traditional face-to-face physical spaces used for knowledge-sharing. The following discussion examines and explores the two concepts: talanoa and vā. It is important to understand how these research approaches work in a multi-sited research context, particularly when travel regulations and social distancing rules require Pacific researchers and their informants to keep physically apart. Virtual sociocultural spaces have become increasingly important to Pacific knowledge-sharing. As a Pacific researcher, I share my thoughts on talanoa and vā and how these concepts have been transferred online in previous research (2015–2019) and more recently, during COVID-19.