Talanoa: Building a Pasifika Research Culture ed. by Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop (review)

Talanoa: Building a Pasifika Research Culture showcases twelve chapters from both established and emerging researchers of Pacific Islander descent. Its title, according to editors Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop and Eve Coxon, refers to an online network that links New Zealand and Pacific Island universities and serves as a channel for sharing research ideas and findings among Pasifika students and researchers (also known as the Pacific Post Graduate Talanoa series). Chapters in this volume come from works shared during the first five years of the Talanoa series (2007–2012).

The first chapter, written by Fairbairn-Dunlop, provides a brief overview of the Talanoa series during this first five-year period: its origin, organization, and delivery, and its expansion to include staff on university campuses in the Pacific Islands. Fairbairn-Dunlop locates the strength of the program in its ability to facilitate the growth of the Pacific social science research community.

Karlo Mila, in chapter 2, tackles the stereotypes and dominant narratives about Pasifika peoples as she focuses her research on high-achieving Pasifika. She aligns her work with a “positive deviance” mode of inquiry, combined with a strengths-based approach and a participative mixed-methods process. In so doing, she brings to the fore alternative positions and narratives that have been otherwise ignored.

In chapter 3, Jared Mackley-Crump examines the festivalization of Pacific cultures in New Zealand, and he locates his study in the emerging area of festival studies. In this ethnographic and participant-driven research, he notes that little attention has been paid to Pacific festival space in New Zealand. He engages the themes of festival and community and roots his work in indigenous frames based on ‘Epeli Hau‘ofa’s “sea of islands” and Tēvita Ka‘ili’s “tauhi vā.”

Chapter 4, by Charlotte Bedford, assesses the Recognised Seasonal Employer policy and asks the question: Is it delivering “wins” to employers, workers, and Island communities? She uses both quantitative and qualitative data to measure the success of the project.

Chapter 5 shifts the focus to the availability of information on Pasifika fathers and their influence on their children. El-Shadan Tautolo acknowledges that due to a lack of information, services are not targeted at Pasifika fathers in New Zealand. He argues that there is a need for more information because it would lead to fathers being better informed and supported to fulfill their roles.

Tui Nicola Clery, in chapter 6, offers the only essay that explicitly mentions talanoa. Her work sets out to develop methods for peace research in Fiji, and that involves weaving together indigenous and nonindigenous ideas. Her aim is to create peace research that is ethical, culturally reflective, respectful, and profoundly communicative. She articulates for that purpose key Pasifika concepts like teu le vā (to maintain or cherish relations); talanoa (talk, conversation; to tell stories); and tiko (participatory learning). She then combines ideas from these concepts with arts-based approaches to establish complementary research tools for use in multicultural communities.

In chapter 7, Patrick Vakaoti, another Fijian contributor, has as his research focus the young men who frequent the streets of Suva. To Vakaoti, street space is one of the “developmental crossroads” that creates both opportunities and tensions. The “street-frequenting young men” are those for whom the streets have become “home”—a site of survival, identity formation, and resistance. Vakaoti argues that these young men are normal citizens who deserve something better in the society in which they live.

In chapter 8, Litea Meo-Sewabu, also from Fiji, explores cultural conceptualizations of health and well-being; she maintains that the praxis of ethnography offers some valuable lessons. She discusses the development of a research framework centered on the concept of “cultural discernment” in relation to Fijian knowledge. Through the process of cultural discernment, “a group of people collaborate to ensure that the research process is ethical within the cultural context of...