It Takes a Family to Graduate a Dancer

ABSTRACT

This study explores how Pacific cultural values can be of critical significance in the completion of a tertiary learning journey, particularly as students navigate neoliberal mind-sets of individuated learning. As a case study, the paper draws on the talanoa (conversation) with a Niuean graduate, as he shares reflections on the challenges and motivations of remaining connected with his Pacific cultural family values and expectations while enrolled in a tertiary dance degree. This reveals complex issues, opening pathways to future research on the nexus of Pacific students, their parents, their teachers, and their tertiary institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Pacific
• tertiary education
• talanoa
• neoliberalism
• indigenous

Fakamālō: Acknowledgments

This paper is dedicated to the main research participant Fotu who honorably continued to pursue his postgraduate studies in dance. I deeply appreciate and admire your courage to vulnerably share your hardships. I hope your tertiary experiences can encourage other young Pacific men, provide some perspective for Pacific parents, and inform tertiary educators and dance curricula, and direct institutions towards more culturally inclusive learning spaces.