Towards a vā knowledge ecology: mobilising Pacific philosophy to transform higher education for Pasifika in Aotearoa New Zealand

e–talanoa as an online research method: extending vā–relations across spaces

“…Vaai and Casimira (2017) argue for a relational renaissance in the Pacific, opening up “conversation and critical thinking about the Pacific and its future” (p. 5), in particular, our “disconnection with the Pacific itulagi” (p. 5), a lifeworld centred on deep relationality. Talanoa–vā, coupled together by the hyphen, positions the sense-making and meaning-making of relationality as an ethical–ontological becoming across physical, spiritual, and sacred, including online spaces (Fa‘avae et al, 2021; Matapo & McFall-McCaffery, 2022; Wolfgramm-Foliaki & Smith, 2020). Talanoa–vā, through an ethico–relational ontological positioning, provides a critical framework that enables negotiation as an ethical praxis, unpacking critical encounters across the metaphysical, spiritual, spatial, and temporal dimensions (Fa‘avae et al, 2021).…”

“…IMPK–centric ethico–relational ontology grounds e–talanoa’s post–covid relational becoming within the Moana (Matapo & McFall-McCaffery, 2022; Wolfgramm-Foliaki & Smith, 2020). To capture the ways in which e–talanoa can be utilised as a Moana–Pacific research praxis relies on open discussion about the challenges involved in enacting ethical vā–relations based on generosity and care (Enari & Matapo, 2020).…”

“…From an ethico–relational ontology centred within the Moana, our intention is to briefly conceptualise e–talanoa that is appreciative of our current contextual realities and the challenges related to online research engagement and use of digital tools and platforms to maintain and care for vā–relating within the post–covid space. e–talanoa’s becoming in the Moana requires an intimate consideration and negotiation of vā’s responsibility and context within a holistic view that all entities in the world are connected (Vaai, 2017), weaved together through an ecology of Indigenous Pacific ways of being–knowing–seeing–feeling–doing (Johansson-Fua, 2022; Matapo & McFall-McCaffery, 2022). At the same time, from an Indigenous philosophy of worldedness lens which claims “one thing is constituted by all things in the world” (Mika, 2017, p. 34), this collaborative conceptualisation of e–talanoa as a research method can be attributed to “the working of the world on the self [and our collective selves]” (Mika, 2017, p. 28).…”

Taku teina, tōku rangatira. Recruitment, development and retention of Māori and Pasifika in science

“…Today recruitment for Māori and Pasifika in the natural and physical sciences remains stubbornly low; with a call that Māori undergraduate enrolment requires more investment (Naepi et al, 2021). Pasifika education also currently experiences this drop in student engagement due to exclusion of Pacific pedagogy, languages, cultures, and relationships (Matapo and McFall-McCaffery, 2022). For us working in Tuākana Biology it is all about 'space' where the concept 'for Māori by Māori' and 'for Pasifika by Pasifika' has greater resonance.…”