Graduates challenged to be voices for the voiceless

Forty-one Pacific researchers graduated from Pasifika Communities University’s (PCU) Philosophical Competency Course today, with the Fiji’s Higher Education Commission director encouraging them to be the voices for the voiceless in their communities.

The graduation ceremony at PCU’s Nasese Campus in Suva marked the completion of a two-week intensive programme focusing on Pacific whole-of-life philosophies for development consciousness. Director of the Fiji Higher Education Commission Eci Tekuru Naisele officiated the ceremony, praising the graduates from the Oceania region as future champions of their traditional knowledge systems.

“I’m pleased to see this platform as the beginning of the new creation of indigenous Pacific philosophy to write and rewrite about our story, our communities, to be the voice of the voiceless in our communities,” Mr Naisele said. He stressed the importance of sharing research findings in local languages and involving communities from the early stages of research design.

Mr Naisele acknowledged the challenges facing Pacific communities including climate injustice, political instability, excessive logging, and ocean seabed mining.

He closed his address with a quote: “Oceania is vast, Oceania is expanding, Oceania is hospitable and generous, Oceania is humanity rising from the depths of rime and regions of the fire, deep but still, Oceania is us.”

The graduates are the first set to graduate since its inception. It is a three year programme. PCU, formerly known as Pacific Theological College, operates with a communities-based learning approach that values integration of theory and practice.

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