Toward a Talanoa Way of Knowing: Relational Transformation for Environmental Sustainability and Climate Action

ABSTRACT This research note advances the idea of a talanoa epistemology. Many readers will be familiar with talanoa as an Indigenous mode of communication practiced in the Pacific. Variations of talanoa have been applied in COP constellations, inter‐faith meetings, Pacific diplomacy, conflict resolution, and as a research method. However, the value of its epistemological foundations is rarely acknowledged; talanoa can also be understood as a way of knowing that holds the potential to generate transformative capacities to meet today's complex socio‐ecological challenges. Based on an ongoing climate change series of talanoa with Rt Rev. Dr. Winston Halapua, five reasons are outlined for engaging with talanoa: trans‐formation, creativity, solidarity, flourishing, and trans‐communication.