Ep.51: Undercurrents with 'Inoke Hafoka

This episode introduces an idea Dr. Hafoka and I have been
working through and developing, inspired by and extending out of
the undercommons. We reflect on intellectuals that remain
connected to home communities or who emerge organically from
communities. We also consider the re-framing of study as common
knowledge or as a shared and subversive project grounded in the
Black Radical Tradition, which is revealed in the multiple
embodied identities we traverse. Undercommons/Undercurrents
examples include the social networks of knowledge and even
(im)material economic support that occur within marginalised
communities based in their relationships that strive for
liberation. We spend time focused on Hafoka’s personal and
academic work with Kakai Tonga (Tongans) in the airline industry,
which broadens the view of Moana-Oceanic and Tonga peoples beyond
dominant narratives. This unique presence in this industry has
also facilitated a space where cultural values are nurtured,
enacted, and spread including the perpetual cultivation of a
collective relational consciousness. The undercurrents is in one
sense a synthesis of the undercommons with Moana-Oceania
relational ethics that is introduced in this talanoa
(discussion/dialogue/storying).


 


Additional references that further add context and insights to
this episode can be found in the following resources:


The Undercommons – Fugitive Planning and Black Study


https://www.minorcompositions.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/undercommons-web.pdf


From Navigating the Seas to Navigating the Skies:Unloading Tongan
Knowledge through the Undercurrents of Airline Employment in the
Ano Māsima


https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hn2p9kd


Knew World Undercurrents
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365768129_Knew_World_Undercurrents