Reading Group: Moana Meditations - Indigenous Spiritualities of the South Pacific Ocean

This group meets on Wednesdays, 4-6 pm, 2/4, 2/18, 3/4, 3/25, 4/1, 4/15)
Registration is required.
Please register to attend each session. 

Oceania—our ‘sea of islands’, rather than islands in a vast sea, takes up one third of the Earth and has been given many names by explorers, scholars, and those seeking geopolitical control. The ‘Pacific’ – a pacified, calm, and empty space, the Asia-Pacific, Indo-Pacific, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Pacific Islander communities are also now spread around the globe with diaspora in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and beyond where Christianity and Indigenous spiritualities coalesce and clash in different ways. This workshop series will be highly interactive, incorporating Indigenous poetry, artwork, and talanoa (open-ended discussions) exploring the importance of the fanua (land), and interconnection with Atua (God/s), Tagata (people) and Moana (ocean) to cultural identity and seeking climate justice. It provides opportunities for both group and individual reflection, encouraging critical and personal insights. Solidarity with Indigenous peoples around the world for protection of our land and ocean spaces is an important point of spiritual connection and way forward through the climate crisis—all are welcome.

THERESE LAUTUA is a proud daughter of Sāmoa and South Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand (with heritage from Ireland / Switzerland), a māmā and wife. She is currently College Fellow in Indigenous Religion with the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard and teaching three courses on Indigenous spiritualities and Christianity within Pacific Islander communities. Her current research aims to reflect on what an indigenous Pacific and Catholic theology of wellbeing might look like given the negative legacy of colonialism as well as the incorporation of indigenous spiritualities into the everyday lives of families today.