The thematic currency of this paper is a post-covid concern. My "talatalanoa" sits alongside Pacific educators' voices in this volume of the Waikato Journal of Education, colleagues from Aotearoa New Zealand's Realm Nations of the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau. While adopting a place-based and Indigeno-centric Pasifika/Pacific gaze…

Pacific practice is grounded in "vanua" and "fonua," Fijian and Tongan terms encapsulating notions of land, culture and people. "Fono at the Fale" and "Veiqaraqaravi Vakavanua" are expressions of "vanua" and "fonua" cultural practice and are facilitated by, and through, the use of kava.…

Indigenous education within urban contexts is diverse within Oceania. Pacific peoples' movements in the diaspora, including their educational journeys and responsibilities, are ongoing and fluid. This paper employs talanoa va, an indigenous Pacific approach to understanding the negotiations of educational processes and practices in urban education…

The appointment of the University of Waikato's first Assistant Vice-Chancellor Pacific in February 2019 was an important milestone, not only recognising years of work and dedication by numerous Pacific and Maori staff, but triggering a new strategic direction for 'Pacific at Waikato'. This paper explains that journey, one that is underpinned by…

For Pacific early career academics (PECA) in Aotearoa, there is a tension between the Indigenous knowledges inherited from our Pacific ancestors and those we have been taught within the western education system. As Pacific educators teaching an increasingly Pacific student-body, we have sought to define our own spaces within the lecture theatre…

Researching and theorizing the local in education is often a contested space linked to deficit views of indigenous people by "others". Certainly, the intention to research the local was a consistent concern linked to colonization in the Pacific. The use of the term "local" assumes the disempowering of the knowledge and…