Tracing the Pacific at UBC: kinship, representation, and vakaturaga in public health research in Vancouver, Canada

Pacific Research Methodologies have been used to acknowledge relationality and responsibilities to research participants. In the context of the University of British Columbia where Pacific peoples are not represented, vakaturaga (a Fijian methodology about practicing chiefly obligations to others) can be applied to support the assertion of Fijian epistemology in diaspora, invite the tracing of kinship to place the researcher in a lineage of those who have come before, and challenge the reader and researcher to actively envision long-term responsibility to participants. Vakaturaga can be practiced using collaborative poetry that outlines kinship and reminds the reader and researcher of their responsibilities, alongside outlining explicit commitments to the application of the research findings. Overall, vakaturaga can support the continued practice of obligations to participants’ shared stories and can support the work of representing the Pacific at the University of British Columbia.