Pacific Well-Being

This book makes space (1) for Pasifika contributions to academic conversations on critical topics and (2) for influencing the conversations to account for, and thus reflect, Pasifika ways and modes. The critical topic that runs through the chapters is well-being, and the contributors were located at the time of writing in Pasifika--Aotearoa, Fiji, Kioa, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu--but there are many more Pasifika voices and concerns than are represented in this work. Nonetheless, the ways in which this work seeks to influence the conversations on well-being reflect the intersectional modes of thinking that native Pasifika Islanders share. The essays are placed into three intersecting clusters: well-being of bodies and (is)lands, well-being of traditions and theologies, and well-being of imaginations and worldviews. The rationale for this arrangement is that the well-being of Pasifika requires attention to the present (bodies and islands), to the past (traditions and theologies), and to the future (imaginations and worldviews). The chapters address Pasifika questions and concerns, and they are placed so that the conversations they spark can take place--free of the traps of Western theories and disciplines--with Pasifika accents and rhythms.

Jione Havea is a co-parent for a polycultural daughter, a native pastor (in the Methodist Church in Tonga), and a senior research fellow with Trinity Theological College (Aotearoa New Zealand) and the Centre for Research, Ethics, and Society (Charles Sturt University, Australia).