Igniting the vā – Vā-kā methodology in a Māori-Pasifika research fellowship

Drawing on nautical notions of traversing the Pacific Ocean, we seek to encourage Māori and Pasifika researchers to come together in purposeful and transforming ways, not to further homogenise Oceanic identities but, as many sang in active resistance in Aotearoa New Zealand during the 1990s, Kia Kotahi ra Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa (“Unite as one like the Pacific Ocean”). We present Vā-kā as a methodology that emerged from a research fellowship focused on Māori and Pasifika student success at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Conceptually, we lash together the Pasifika term vā—relational time and space—with the Māori term kā—to ignite, to consider, to be in action. Bound together we forward Vā-kā methodology as a way to ignite Māori and Pasifika researcher relationships, and to share ideas, resources and “crew members” in allegiances that work to positively support our different and similar educational agenda, and seek transforming change for our diverse and complex communities.