Ia Orana!
Welcome to the new blogsite for the Re-thinking of Pacific Education for and by Pacific Peoples (RPEIPP)!
Many of you will come to this page with varying degrees of knowledge and experience in matters related to Pacific Education. This site hopes to engage with that knowledge and experience in the spirit of the RPEIPP. In light of that, most of this first post will outline the RPEIPP and hopefully give readers a peek at the future of the site.
So what is the RPEIPP?
Put briefly, it's a strategy to set in motion the reassumption of leadership by Pacific peoples over education in the Pacific. Thus the RPEIPP encourages Pacific educators to deeply interrogate (re-think) their educational surroundings and explore ways to reshape those surroundings according to their own values and contexts. At the heart of the RPEIPP is the view that Pacific communities must place responsibility for the future of Pacific education in themselves as opposed to 'developed states' and donor organisations.
The RPEIPP was born in 2001 out of a conversation between key Pacific educators Konai Thaman, Kabini Sanga and Ana Taufe'ulungaki. Since then it has grown (in partnership with NZAID) to encompass many Pacific educational leaders. It has steered dialogue, relationships and actions related to Pacific education towards the realisation of indigenous autonomy. Some specific targets of the RPEIPP have included the enhancement of educational leadership capacities in Pacific communities, entrenchment of cultural histories in learning contexts, redirection of funding arrangements to engender self-sufficiency.
Thus it can be seen that the RPEIPP is rooted in dialogue with values. In that respect this site is no different. It is a space for collective discussion of anything related to conscientisation and 're-indigenisation' of education in the Pacific (including New Zealand). To this end the page will be regularly updated. Readers are encouraged to submit thoughts for posts, comment on posts, share experiences and build a kind of community here. Everyone's welcome :-)
Feel free to email Oliver (site administrator) and we can get something happening. Look forward to hearing from you!