News: Vā Moana / Pacific Spaces recieves Marsden Grant

Vā Moana / Pacific Spaces are delighted to share the news that we have been successful in the latest round of applications for Marsden funding. Our three-year research project, titled Vā Moana: space and relationality in Pacific thought and identity, investigates how “the Samoan and Tongan concept of vā, or ‘space that connects’, has been adapted and adopted in communities and policy in Aotearoa-New Zealand to enhance Pasifika people’s well-being in relation with each other and Tāngata Whenua.”

The project will be led by principal investigators Associate Professor Albert Refiti and Professor Tina Engels-Schwarzpaul, who are joined by a team of Associate Investigators: Hūfanga Okusi Māhina, Brett Graham, Billie Lythberg, and Ty Tengan, as well as Research Assistant I’u Tuagalu and Postgraduate Scholars Lana Lopesi and Rosanna Raymond.

Read more here.