Research Hub

Vā Moana

Vā Moana – Pacific Spaces is an international research platform which engages Indigenous Pacific and Western thought to study Pacific notions of space.

Formed in 2012 by Lealiʻifano Albert Refiti and Tina Engels-Schwarzpaul, the Vā Moana – Pacific Spaces research cluster is an international research platform which engages Indigenous Pacific and Western thought to study Pacific notions of space. Based at Auckland University of Technology’s School of Art and Design, but with a far-reaching network of international scholars our research transforms ways of thinking about contemporary and customary Pacific understandings of the world, by examining Indigenous Moana modes of producing space, objects, rituals and performance. We develop new research in this area and to promote discussion and publications from Pacific perspectives. We focus on how Pacific concepts affect the production of space and the use of the built environment, re-exploring and extending customary knowledge alongside academic discourse. Pacific people have always produced new and novel ways of understanding the world, based on and extending tradition.

 

Links:

Vā Moana – https://www.vamoana.org/

 

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Centre for Design Research
Te Kura Toi a Hoahoa
School of Art and Design

Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau,
Auckland University of Technology

Contact:

Gregory Bennett greg.bennett@aut.ac.nz
Susan Hedges susan.hedges@aut.ac.nz
Mandy Smith mandy.smith@aut.ac.nz

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish images or illustrations with their papers in CDR; neither editors nor publishers of CDR accept responsibility for any author’s/authors’ failure to do so.

© Centre for Design Research, AUT University 2021