Talanoa Tai: A wave of learning that transforms doing into being—through talanoa, consciousness and cultural connection.
Talanoa Tai is not a programme. It is not a checklist of workshops. It is a philosophy of learning to be - a way of holding space that honours conscious relationships, reciprocity, and reflection. At its heart, Talanoa Tai asks us to move beyond the transactional nature of "doing" and into the transformative way of "being".
Talanoa Tai is a new collection of learning experiences, launched by Mana Pacific Consultants in October 2025, designed to help build cultural responsiveness and engage meaningfully with Pacific communities.
Under the banner of Talanoa Tai, three experiences:
- Together in Dialogue: Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Pacific partnerships
- Voices from the Moana: Amplifying Pacific stories of healing and resilience
- You Spot It You Got It: Unpacking cultural conditioning and turning the mirror inwards
Why Talanoa Tai?
The name itself carries meaning. Talanoa is more than conversation; it is intentional dialogue grounded in trust, openness, and care. It is a practice shared across Pacific cultures, where stories are exchanged no to win arguments but to weave understanding. Tai, the tide, reminds us that learning is like the ocean: dynamic, rhythmic, choppy, scary, and relational. Waves rise and fall, feeding into one another. So too does knowledge—shaped by ripples of experience, culture and connection.
It embraces the ebb and flow, recognising that growth is not a straight path but a series of movement: inward for reflection, outward for contribution, and always returning to the vā—the sacred relational space between us.
Through Talanoa Tai comes ripples of change. It asks the following:
- Honour the vā: Lay the mat. Create space for trust.
- Turn inward: Recognise conditioning. Choose response over reaction.
- Amplify voices: Let stories lead. Let resilience speak.
- Live reciprocity: Partnership as practice, not performance.
- From Doing to Being: Embed values, centre process, practice reciprocity.
- Embrace the tide: Learning as rhythm, not race.
Talanoa Tai does not end when the session closes. Like the ocean, it continues—shaping shores, carving new paths, returning again and again. Its philosophy is simple: to learn is to relate, to relate is to transform.
So, when you step into Talanoa Tai, you are not attending a workshop. You are entering a tide. And if you let it, that tide will teach you how to be.
Check out our Talanoa Tai page with information about how to get tickets HERE.
Author: Polu Samuelu
