He Vā: Possibilities in Moana Relationships: Pūrākau with five Pacific educators

My thesis stories and reads the vā between Māori and Moana peoples. I understand the vā to be a dynamic relational fabric woven from past, present, and future encounters that links all entities indelibly. My work reveals the vā in the work of five educators from the Pacific in their cultural-ethical practices that inform political practice and vice versa in the context of Māori and Moana educational and social relationships in Aotearoa-New Zealand. The participants and I use narrative methods of talanoa (Samoa/Tonga/Fiji) and pūrākau (Māori) to bring to life day-to-day practices that exemplify care and nurture (the cultural-ethical) and negotiation (the political) potentials of the vā. Five philosophical lenses assist in the writing of the pūrākau and the reading of the vā: ontological orientation, cultural and ethical responsibility for the Other, decolonising agenda, critique and challenge, and relationships which transcend time and space. I argue that the vā offers an opportunity to harness Indigenous ways of knowing and being that might better serve Māori and Moana peoples in productive cross-cultural, ancient-contemporary relationships today and as we walk backwards into the future

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Nathan, Whetuu Aroha

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Hoskins, Te Kawehau
• Jones, Alison

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/61770

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/61770