Mana Moana is a unique research-based kaupapa and movement that restores and vitalises connections to the ancestral intelligence of the South Pacific in transformative ways. It holds and shares a repository of seventy widely shared Pacific power words and language, proverbs, narratives, images, metaphors, philosophy and knowledge. It draws upon linguistic, historical, cultural, and geographical interconnectivity across the Moana. This body of knowledge is activated in different ways to make Oceanic ancestral intelligence accessible so that it continues to guide us in the here and now.
With Mana Moana, cosmogonies and creation stories lay the foundations of all beliefs, values, ideas and philosophy of the world that we know the world through. This steps us into a relationally oriented, genealogically constructed, deeply connected, quantum universe. As part of the family of things we are deeply connected. We are creatures of interdependence.
At the core of Mana Moana is an intervention logic that draws on many healing traditions of the Pacific. It illuminates a therapeutic “movement” that is shared among multiple Pacific cultures. This is based on the concept of vā and focuses on intentionality, reciprocity, wellbeing and the need to restore relationships if they have been breached. At the heart of this way of thinking about relationships is the importance of aro’a atu, aro’a mai; the reciprocal flow of empathy and compassion.
This healing logic is applied to restore relationships, individual wellbeing, family harmony, workplace dynamics, systems, our relationship with the environment and with spirit. This connects us to a wider kaupapa and purpose of healing our relationships with ocean, land, sky, spirit, self, and other people, so we can bring things back into balance.