The reading group Reading Environments continues in its sixth season alongside the exhibition Vaiei Tupuna. For this series Dr April Henderson Programme Director of Va'aomanū Pasifika—Programme in Pacific Studies and Samoan Studies at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, brings together readings under the theme of That which endures.

Inspired by the enduring wairua of tapa’s ancestors and present-day practitioners, this series prompts conversations about people’s relationships with each other, their material and non-material worlds, and their histories and futures. Collectively, these works present a taste of Oceanic thinking of global relevance in a world shaped by persistent colonial legacies, the capitalist commodification of seemingly everything, and the existential threat of climate crisis.

For the first session titled That which connects, we will read alongside ‘Uhila Moe Langi Nai’s work Hala Kafa, the following: ‘Our Sea of Islands’ (2008) by Epeli Hau‘ofa in We Are the Ocean: Selected Works, Honolulu, University of Hawai‘i Press, pp27–40; and two chapters from Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Leora Kava and Craig Santos Perez, eds, Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures (2022) Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, ‘Maps to the Ancestors’ by Peter Sipeli pp5–9 and ‘Atlas’ by Terisa Siagatonu pp96–98.

Today I will begin to draw my maps
Maps of space, place and time
Of stars and of constellations
Maps of places my ancestors occupied
Maps of places they left parts of themselves
In rock, and bark and tree and leaf, in rivers and in the wind
they remain
forever here
forever watching
forever inside

Our bodies are part earth and sky
Our stories are inked into our eyes and on our tongues
I keep drawing my maps in the sand and each time the tide comes in . . .
I draw new maps
- Peter Sipeli, ‘Maps to the Ancestors’ (excerpt) in Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Leora Kava and Craig Santos Perez, eds, Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press: p9.

Reading Environments is a reading group open to all, for reading, listening and thinking together. Hosted by Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington academics Su Ballard (Art History) Bonnie Etherington and Adam Grener (English Literatures and Creative Communication), Reading Environments invites academics, students and interested members of the public to delve into and discuss work in – and adjacent to – the Environmental Humanities, helping us navigate the changing environmental contexts of the planet. Excerpts are read in the context of art works on view in the gallery.