Ep 21: Moana Cosmopolitan with Lana Lopesi

AUT doctoral candidate Lana Lopesi joins this episode, bringing a
rich background in art, writing, and scholarship. We cover
several topics and begin with the question; how do we hold on to
the changes that once seemed impossible yet became ‘essential’
when global crises collided? We also discuss the relationships
that are forged in the undercommons of the university and what
that looks like in our context. Lana introduces the ‘Moana
Cosmopolitan’, a concept she has coined and developed that seeks
to identify current practices of being locally rooted in Oceania,
yet globally mobile as digital natives. How can we better
understand differences that intersect online, while holding
multiple layers of connection and tension at the same time? We
discuss the possibilities of moving beyond comfortable ideas by
working through messy and often clumsy conversations. Seeking to
remember our dynamic identities, we challenge fixed and
problematic narratives of authenticity, giving room and language
for an already present practice of inhabiting and belonging to
many worlds.


Topics: Society, Education, Relationality, Mobility, Oceania.


Terms: Undercommons (see Moten and Harney, 2013: relationships
between people are sites of learning and study, a community of
intellectual refugees), Moana Cosmopolitan (locally grounded in
Oceania, while being physically, intellectually, and digitally
mobile), Whakapapa (Māori word for genealogy, lineage, descent,
layers), Teu Le Vā (see Anae, 2016: Sāmoan relational ethics of
both secular and sacred respect and reciprocity through the space
in between; to nurture and/or tidy up relational space).