A Different Kind of Vā: Spiraling through Time and Space

This dialogue is a structured account of an experiment that we, as researchers in the Vā Moana–Pacific Spaces cluster at Auckland University of Technology, carried out during and between lockdowns in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2021. The previous year, Vā Moana had begun to investigate how—without shared physical presence—virtual participation in events can uphold central Māori and Moana (Pacific) traditional values of tikanga (te reo Māori: correct procedure, custom) and teu le vā (gagana Sāmoa: nurturing relational space). Aspects of our research concern practices that continue to emphasize vā—as the attachment and feeling for place and relatedness—outside the Pacific homelands. These nascent practices contribute to an emerging understanding of place as an imaginary space of belonging, in which online environments (the digital vā) play a role. The outbreak of COVID-19 gave this general interest unexpected but sharp focus. In this essay, we present, contextualize, and analyze excerpts from three conversations between Vā Moana team members in Aotearoa. Held during, between, and after lockdown periods between March and November 2020, these conversations were conducted either fully online or in a blended format. In the latter case, some members met face-to-face in a "hub,” and others used online platforms to participate in reviewing and reorganizing our research relationships under the new conditions, using the challenge thrown before us as an opportunity for experimentation and change. © 2022, University of Hawaii Press. All rights reserved.

Vā at the time of COVID-19: When an aspect of research unexpectedly turns into lived experience and practice

In 2019, the Vā Moana-Pacific Spaces research group at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) began to investigate how core Moana and Māori values can be translated from onsite, embodied engagements into digital environments. This was prompted by our wish to provide access to all those who could not travel to attend a conference in late 2021 for our Marsden-funded research project, ‘Vā Moana: Space and relationality in Pacific thought and identity' (2019-22). The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally reframed this premise, as providing offsite access was no longer simply a ‘nice option'. The crisis challenged us to find out how virtual participation in events can uphold values of tikanga (correct procedure, custom) and teu le vā (nurturing relational space). In particular, our research examines practices foregrounding vā as the attachment to and feeling for place, as well as relatedness between people and other entities. We have observed an emerging conceptual deployment of vā as relational space and a mode of belonging, especially in diasporic constellations oriented by a cosmopolitan understanding of vā. Due to this focus, we noticed early on that simply moving meetings online is unlikely to create a supportive environment for Indigenous researchers in diaspora, who share principal values and a commitment to a kaupapa (agenda, initiative). This realization led us to interrogate how research collaboration and circulation are influenced by the distinct features of physical and online contexts, protocols and connectivity. To develop the alternative kind of vā we envisaged -together with strategies to sustain it through our online practices - thus became a much larger project in the times of rapid change under COVID-19. This is a very brief, initial report on our experiences. © 2021 Intellect Ltd Research Report. English language. All Rights Reserved.