Pacific Research Vibes: Caring for our Research Inheritance Post-Covid Talatalanoa

Abstract

The past views of the Pacific region and its Indigenous peoples have often been depicted through the lens of outside “others”. This paper is a brief talatalanoa (ongoing conversation) with the insights shared by early-career Pacific scholars. My reflections here on Pacific research are imbued with a sense of “looking ahead and moving forward” whilst simultaneously reflecting on past and present research moments and experiences. As Pacific-heritage researchers, we share intentions to meaningfully care for our inheritance, shaped across our own local communities as well as universities and polytechnics. If Pacific research intentions seek to activate and transform the dominant western academe through the creatively critical ways we know-see-do-feel as Pacific-heritage researchers, then grounding our Indigenous Pacific ways of knowing and becoming is deeply meaningful. In this we require analytical tools that interrogate our existing methodologies and methods, particularly in how we each integrate these across our new contexts in settler-colonial nations. This article is critical post-covid talatalanoa that recognises and honours our places and contexts, place-based research connections and methodological durability and practicalities.