Reflexivity of the ‘grey area’ of Samoan Vā and continuity of Mauli in within its Auckland Diaspora

Abstract

The architecture of the Pacific has time travelled across oceans and has been translated across Aotearoa New Zealand. Over the last two decades, the scholarship of Pacific architecture has clarified that essential to Pacific spaces are its people, and is more than a tangible presence, but becomes a body of spaces that fluctuate based on the curators of that space. The thesis navigates how the multifaceted Pasifika-identity, drawing from its conceptual Moana origins and represented within the New Zealand architectural environment. This thesis titled Reflexivity of the ‘grey area’ of Samoan Vā and continuity of Mauli in within its Auckland diaspora, examines the depths of Samoan spaces. By understanding how Samoan people express their Mauli through architecture, we start to unravel the complex layers of relationship between self-identity and the spaces that formulate from these identities. Is a building the bridging between what is held within space and the metaphysical realm of the space? Are the walls a simple boundary of the fluidity of vā? Can architecture be curated for the Samoan concept of vā? Pasifika people are one in spirit, but multifaceted in identity. The representation of Pasifika through architecture within foreign environments is present but evolving. Pasifika architecture exceeds tangible representations and is a holistic accumulation/representation of cultural and spiritual identities of Pasifika people. It is more than just wood, lashed together. Everything has a purpose, a meaning, which is relational to people. Points that would help navigate this point of view include the evolution of Samoan concept of vā amongst the old, existing, and emerging generations of the Samoan community. The constant battle between the westernised need for tangible evidence of architecture and the Samoan essence of the intangible vā that is architecture in the Pacific is what this thesis will examine further.