Meet and welcome our first ‘Manu Folau’ (Vice Chancellor) for the Pasifika Communities University (PCU), metaphorically a cyclone bird who reads the movements and signs of time and calls the communities’ into radical awareness and action. Rev Professor Dr Upolu Luma Vaai was unanimously elected by the PTC Council meeting held in American Samoa end of March as the first Manu Folau. This is his short profile on the PTC website: Dr Vaai joined PTC in 2014 as Senior Lecturer and Head of Department for Theology & Ethics. He was elected as the 9th Principal of PTC in 2019. His professorial honour was also obtained in 2019. He did his undergraduate studies both in Samoa and NZ, and all postgraduate studies in Australia, Griffith University. Dr Vaai is an internationally renowned Pasifika decolonial educator and theologian. A regional leading voice in reclaiming Pasifika ‘whole of life’ philosophies and theologies to underpin a new development story, he is regularly invited by international forums to speak on Pasifika relationality, relational philosophy, relational hermeneutics, relational theology, and relational ways of knowing and being, which are ideas scattered throughout his many publications and research projects. He has founded and pioneered many initiatives in the region, including several centres and institutes, programmes on regional development policies, including the internationally acclaimed Pasifika Philosophies Course which he Coordinates. Dr Vaai was responsible from day one with his remarkable team to develop the ‘whole of life’ vision for an alternative University that is grounded in life-affirming Pasifika philosophies, values, and spiritualities. His vision is to ensure an education system that is securely and firmly grounded in our Pasifika relational ‘whole of life’ faith and communities-based cultural values, and how these could lead into a radical transformation of the development narrative in the region.
He is committee & board member, chair, and advisor to many regional and international organizations. To name a few: member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches; UN Office on Drugs and Crimes; advisor to Asia Development Bank; Facilitator of the WCC Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI); was Chair of the Oceania Centre Advisory Committee, USP; Co-chair of the Oxford Institute of Methodist Theological Studies, Oxford University; Chair and Convenor of 2018 Pacific Philosophy Conference; Member of the G20 Anti-Racism Initiative; Member of the G20 Environment Working Group; Expert Member of the Anti-corruption Academic Initiative (ACAD) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC); Member of the TODA Institute Steering Committee; Member of the Berkeley Centre of Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; Advisory of the Laudato Si Institute, Oxford University; Editorial board member of 6 International Journals; Member of Executive committee of the Pacific Conference of Churches, and the Association of South Pacific Theological Schools.
He had obtained various fellowships, scholarships, and invitations for periods of research and lectures at several universities around the world such as Australia National University, Griffith University, Otago University, University of Adelaide, University of Oxford, University of Bonn, University of Hamburg, and others. He is an international speaker and an international examiner to many Masters and PhD theses, including non-theological theses. His publications are mostly in the intersection of the Trinity, ecological or eco-relational theology, development, ecumenism, and indigenous philosophies and how these contribute to reaffirming the ‘whole of life’ vision. He is a child of Samoa, from the island of Savaii, and an ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Samoa. He is married to Tuamasaga Vaai and have 4 children.
