Fa'aSamoa: An Afro-Oceanic Understanding of Epistemology through Folktales and Oral History

Abstract

Often disconnected from the African diaspora, the Black South Pacific is constantly laid to the wayside. My research works to shed light on the voices of Afro-Oceanic scholars who are fully capable of articulating their own narratives based on their traditional foundational knowledge that may not align with standard western notions of knowledge but in fact create a system or methods of knowledge unique to the Afro-Oceanic community and traditions. The indigenous Afro-Oceanic agenda of self-determination, indigenous rights and sovereignty, integrity, spiritual healing, reconciliation and humble morality, builds capacity towards a systematic change and re-acknowledgement of indigenous Afro-Oceanic epistemologies. By identifying and analyzing indigenous Oceanic epistemologies, ontologies, and cosmologies, my research seeks to place Afro-Oceanic peoples within the broader African Diaspora. Scholars throughout Afro-Oceania such as Dr. A.M Tupuola, Dr. Vaioleti T.M, and Dr. Helu-Thaman inter