Curating a connected community in virtual space: Solomon Islands Research Mentoring Tok Stori

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between academic mentoring and tok stori, a Melanesian orality, in a digital environment. This relationship is significant where dispersal is an unintended consequence of the way development aid intersects with academic opportunities for scholars from less developed countries, and, consequently, country-focused academic communities remain undeveloped as education becomes individualised. This situation occurs despite the fact that the self is social and education is a common good in many contexts, such as Solomon Islands in Melanesia. Using the contributions of participants in the Solomon Islands Research Mentoring Tok Stori (SIRMT), we discuss the various kinds of support and outcomes that become possible when deliberate attempts are made to create a connected community through mentoring in virtual space. Among the findings are the significance of mentorship to personal and academic growth, the potential of deliberate community building through virtual means in Solomon Islands and virtual tok stori as a catalyst to developments the physical world.

A Sociolinguistic Study of Language Documentation: Denggan (Banam Bay, Malekula, Vanuatu)

“…Along with collaboration within each stage of the research, Sanga and Reynolds (2022) suggest that the methods used in collaborative research need to be situated within the context of the place. They suggest that methods such as tok stori have relational principles built into the process.…”

“…This section presents questions I encountered while doing a collaborative research project. It also offers an opportunity to reflect on how my research project negotiated the decolonising questions guided by Sanga and Reynolds' (2022) Similarly, Fa'avae (2021) highlights that, "For Indigenous communities, foregrounding and writing using Indigenous ideas, language, and knowledge is significant in any research project that involves them" (p. 179).…”

“…As part of a decolonising, collaborative model of research, scholars have advocated for collaboration with communities from the earliest stages of research design (Battiste, 2008;Denzin et al, 2008;Sanga & Reynolds, 2022;Smith, 2014). Battiste (2008) emphasises that the most important part of collaboration with Indigenous communities is to involve the community in every part of the research process, especially the design of the research.…”

“…One step of the research process for which scholars are calling for greater collaboration is the process of data collection and, in a project such as this, collaboration in the documentation efforts themselves (Battiste, 2008;Denzin et al, 2008;Dobrin & Sicoli, 2018;Krajinovic et al, 2019, Nathan & Fang, 2013Sanga & Reynolds, 2022).…”

“…For example, Leonard (2018) states, "a decolonial approach calls not just for considering community needs, but rather for starting with them in conceiving of language documentation as an idea, as well as for developing the specific methods and goals of a given documentation project" (p. 58). Therefore, in this chapter I reflect on collaboration at every stage of the research using models proposed by Easton (2022) and Sanga and Reynolds (2022).…”