News: invitation to Vā Moana book launch
Please join us to celebrate the launch of Vā Moana: Space and Relationality in Pacific Thought and Identity.
“Tonight is more than a book launch. It is a celebration of relationships. It is a celebration of ancestral wisdom. And it is a celebration of Pacific intellectual sovereignty.” — Lupematasila Dr. Melani Anae
Fa‘afetai tele lava to all those who joined us for the launch of Vā Moana: Space and Relationality in Pacific Thought and Identity on July 2nd. Ngā mihi nunui to our esteemed speakers, Dr. Brett Graham and Lupematasila Dr. Melani Anae; to Objectspace for hosting us (within Carin Wilson’s beautiful exhibition!); and to the AUT Moanaroa Pacific Research Network for supporting the launch.
Associate investigator and book contributor, Dr. Brett Graham, reflected that “this research has opened the door to the many possibilities of how our ancestors thought of time and space. It has implications to how they navigated their way across the Pacific and how they thought of both their ancestors and descendants as inhabiting the same space, at any given time. And, most importantly, it connects us to out whanaunga in Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, and the Vā Atoa, The Unity that is All.”
We’ll leave you with the powerful words of book contributor, Lupematasila Dr. Melani Anae, who proposed that “vā offers a distinctive Pacific articulation of ethical, spiritual, and political life. Teu le vā is concerned with nurturing, maintaining, and if necessary, repairing the sacred relational space that exists between individuals, communities, and the cosmos. May this taonga, this measina Vā Moana continue to strengthen those relationships. May it inspire new generations of Pacific thinkers and creatives. May it deepen our understanding of who we are. And may we continue to teu le vā—to cherish, nurture, and honour the sacred spaces between us.”
Download/order your copy via ANU Press.
Photos: Galuega Tiatia, courtesy of Moanaroa
