Vā and post–simultaneities: indigenising posthumanism and the postdigital research relatings

In his speculative exploration of ‘postdigital’ meanings, Jeremy Knox (2019) brings to attention the need to unpack further understandings of “future relationships between technology and the project of education” (p. 358). The human–technology associations and interconnections is a useful frame to further unfold ‘postdigital’ meanings. For Indigenous Pasifika/Pacific people who are ancestrally linked to fonua/land in the Moana/Oceania, the socio-cultural project of ako/reciprocal education is for cultural continuity and survival (Thaman, 1995). Is this cultural expectation the same for the next generation of Pasifika/Pacific people who have now settled in the diaspora of Aotearoa-New Zealand (NZ), Australia, and the US? What then, does the notion of ‘postdigital’ look, sound, and feel like in the diaspora? Herein lies our intention. If the postdigital in education implies future interrelations between people and technology, what is the place of Indigenous understandings of postdigital research interactions? Dion Enari and Jacoba Matapo (2020) positions the ‘digital va’ as a space worthy of exploring postcovid online engagement. They claim the ‘digital va’ moves meaning-making of connections and interconnections into the realm of the spiritual. Post–simultaneity is an emphasis on a counter–theorising of normalised ways of seeing-knowing-doing research, and emphasises Indigenous Pacific frameworks (Fa‘avae, 2021). Post–simultaneity addresses the simultaneous encountering of the posthuman research relatings beyond the visibly seen and into the spiritual and sacred unknown through a deep holistic relationality, the appreciation that people are not separate to other entities in the world (Mika, 2017). As such, we bring into utilisation vā–projections across the vahaope (i.e., the ways in which ethical vā relations are carried, projected, and embodied across the expansive spaces that include the online, digital, material, and non-material). Research from the global south, namely Te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa (expansiveness of Oceania), draws–from place–based and spiritually–inspired meaning–making. Inspired by Petar Jandric and colleagues (see Jandric et al., 2019), our intention is to capture “collective knowledge making and dissemination” (p. 164) and highlight the digital tools and platforms utilised in our collective dialoguing. Therefore, we implement the method of e–talanoa/online dialogue in our paper to capture our research relatings, encounters, and negotiations (Fa‘avae et al., forthcoming). Moreover, through vā–ethical unpacking and post–simultaneities, our ‘talatalanoa mei tu‘atonga ‘ihe vahaope’ as ongoing collective critical online engagement in the diaspora, captures and articulates the ways in which our simultaneous relatings, encounters, and interrogations of/within places and spaces and takes into careful consideration the contextual relevance of digital tools and technology and vice versa across our post-covid research undertakings (Fa‘avae et al., forthcoming).

References Enari, D., & Matapo, J. (2020). The digital vā: Pasifika education innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic. MAI Journal: A New Zealand Journal of Indigenous Scholarship, 9(4), 7-11. Fa‘avae, D. T. M. (2021). Vā and veitapui as decolonial potential: Ongoing talatalanoa and re-imagining doctoral being and becoming. In C. Badenhorst, B. Amell, & J. Burford (Eds.), Re-imagining doctoral writing (pp. 167-184). University Press of Colorado. Fa‘avae, D. T. M., Faleolo, R., (forthcoming). e-talanoa method as online engagement: extending Moana-Pacific research spaces. AlterNative: International Journal of Indigenous Research. Jandric, P., Ryberg, T., Knox, J., Lackovic, N., Hayes, S., Suoranta, J., Smith, M., Steketee, A., Peters, M., McLaren, P., Ford, D. R., Asher, G., McGregor, C., Stewart, G., Williamson, B., & Gibbons, A. (2019). Postdigital dialogue. Postdigital Science and Education, 1, 163-189. Springer. Knox, J. (2019). What does the ‘postdigital’ mean for education? Three critical perspectives on the digital, with implications for educational research and practice. Postdigital Science and Education, 1, 357-370. Springer. Mika, C. (2017). Indigenous education and the metaphysics of presence: A worlded philosophy. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315727547

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