PAIS 375 Guest Lectures

"Dr. Line-Noue Kruse invited three Pasifika scholars from Aotearoa as special guests to the Environmental Issues and Resource Management class, which is a class in the Pacific Island Studies Program. These scholars, Jade Kake, Dr. Charmaine ‘Ilaiū Talei and Peseta Fa’amatuainu To’oto’ole’aava Lama Tone, introduced themselves in their native language, shared their backgrounds and research in their fields and explained how their research can be applied in the Pacific Island Studies Program.

Kake, the director of Matahoke Architecture & Urbanism, an architecture and urban design firm in Whangārei, and a senior lecturer in the department of architecture at Auckland University of Technology, shared “Although I do work in architecture, I was very much living for our communities, and that's at the front of our minds … restoring the health and well-being of our people through the process of regaining our sovereignty and our rights over all of our time.”

Talei, a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and senior architect at Guymer Bailey Architects, shared that her primary research area is in the architecture of early Tongan settlements and their development over time. “Regardless of the changes… that occurred, the values that Tongan culture esteem and hold in high regard continue through the spatial planning of the settlements,” she said.

Talei said her work is not limited to Tongan architecture. She has also worked with an Aboriginal community in Australia and currently working on architecture using the approach of a marae, or a Maori meeting ground.

Tone, a lecturer at the University of Auckland who has three chiefly family titles from Samoa, has mainly focused on designing and consulting on contemporary issues of Pacific architecture. He said his recent experience in building a Samoan fale for a school in Aotearoa was challenging. “I had to find out the genealogy and I had to acknowledge them because it's really important. It's just like being welcomed into the community… and reciprocating. Respect starts there,” he said."

From Kealakai News.