Moana Sermon 18th August 2022
By Rev Dr Fei Taule’ale’ausumai
When I was in Tuvalu in 2016, I was invited by the President of Ekalesia Tuvalu church to
travel with him to 5 islands in the 8-island archipelago. Every one of these islands had a
church on it some old and some new foundations. The populations of these small islands
numbered in their hundreds many of whom were youth and children. I also had the
opportunity to visit Kiribati and Christmas Island (not the Australian Christmas Island) but the
Kiribati island you must travel to via Fiji. The population of Christmas Island is about 800
people who are the children born on that island to parents who were sent there from Kiribati
to test the atom bombs for the British. There is nothing there hardly any vegetation, nothing
grows there so all their food is imported, they exist there with their second and third
generation children. I also went to Nauru and visited the detention centre that we pray about
every Sunday among other places. Many of the native Nauru islanders are marrying some
of the people from the detention centre so there are multi-faith families emerging in the
population. These islands are just tiny specks in the ocean and extremely vulnerable. These
small island nation people are climate change victims.

At one time about 20 years ago in Kiribati the church’s voice shouted to the people to have
faith and remember God’s promise to Noah of the rainbow. Their theology told them from
the pulpit that God promised no more floods, the rainbow was a covenant that God would
no longer send floods to the earth to destroy the people and so no action against climate
change was necessary. The churches were preaching a contradictory message to the reality
of science. Today, the churches are now pro-active in teaching climate change and rising sea
levels and looking at ways of planting more mangroves and building higher sea walls among
other things. For Pacific Island nations who are 99% Christian, it is crucial that the clergy
preach reality from their pulpits instead of pie in the sky eschatological theology which keeps
the people ignorant and vulnerable. The church has a huge responsibility to open its eyes
and ears to climate change and its impending threat on its people and nation.

The Moana is often taken for granted. For Pacific people, Oceanians, Moana is our home. It
is our root and the stronghold of life. We claim the great Moana as a place where we live,
move, and find our beings.

Inevitably however, Moana is constantly being violated of her own integrity.
There is much about the ocean which is unknown. At the same time, so much of the life of
the ocean shapes each island and continent. The moana through its waves and currents
touches all the coastal waters which connect the life on the land with the ocean depths. On
one hand the life of the moana is a mystery, but on the other, moana embraces and impacts
closely on life on land.

Moana is about a powerful living presence. In many parts of Oceania, Tangaloa was
revered as the god of the moana. A reverence for Tangaloa meant respect for the abundant
resources of the moana and the harvesting of the resources, so that fishing of certain species
was restricted to certain seasons to allow the breeding and growth of fish. Before a tribe
departed on a journey, for warfare or on a fishing expedition for the wellbeing of the
community, the name of Tangaloa was evoked. When the tribe returned safely and
victoriously, the conch heralded good news.

The Moana has been regarded as a pathway to eternity. Ancient people of
the moana believed the spirit lives after death. In Samoa and Tonga and some other parts of
Oceania, Pulotu, a haven for the spirits, was thought to be found in the eastern part of
Oceania – the east relating to the sunrise. Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Tangata
whenua believe that the spirits of the dead leapt off Cape Reinga at the tip of the North Island
on their way to their home in Hawaiki.

The pioneering Polynesians who between 3-4000 years ago set out in their vaka
– double-hulled canoes – across the vast ocean were enormously courageous and skilful. They
navigated the vast tracts of water which we now know as the Pacific Ocean. This was the
ocean they knew and which shaped their thinking and their culture, their beliefs.
The Moana was the ocean which we know covers more than seventy percent of the water of
the surface of planet earth .

The Pacific Ocean constitutes nearly half of the ocean water on this planet. It is the deepest.
It was named Pacific because of its perceived peacefulness. At the same time, the Pacific
Ocean, as we know, experiences the turbulence of cyclones, tsunami, and active volcanoes.
The Atlantic Ocean is younger than the Pacific. The vast continental shelf is an extension of
the surrounding nations and huge rivers flowing into the Atlantic provide rich nutrients for
many species from within and from different oceans. Mineral resources are abundant. The
Indian Ocean with its diverse currents contributes powerfully to the rhythm of the flowing
movement and inter-connecting of one ocean to another. The Antarctic Ocean is known for
its gusty winds and high seas and as a polar region, it provides a home for certain important
species that live nowhere else. The Arctic Ocean is exposed to six months of darkness and six
of sunlight and also provides a home for some living species. The Pacific Ocean, which is the
largest ocean, is not independent of the Arctic Ocean, the smallest. Each ocean has unique
contributions to complement the life of other oceans. Each flows freely into other oceans
and together they provide a home for the majority of species on this planet earth and
produce half of the oxygen living beings need, and they interact powerfully with the sun and
moon and the stars. They gift the climate and water for life and growth of all.

Moana as an identity for people in Oceania is an expression of an important and
conscious shift of emphasis. The name Pacific as an identity for our region was coined by
outsiders and is synonymous with the scattered small islands, helplessness, isolation, and
dependence. As a result of this same mindset, our region has been transformed into a tourist
heaven, a romanticised perpetuation of dependence on the multi-national corporations now
under the umbrella of globalisation. Moana in terms of theology is an attempt by our own
people to take ownership of our own life, struggles and hope. The change of name from
Pacific to Moana is a shift with a sacramental emphasis. The multi-island states
of Moana (Oceania) are unique not in terms of smallness and scatteredness, but rather in
their interconnectedness. The Moana is the great source of our interconnectedness. The
following YouTube video clip is from the island of Kiribati.

Watch you tube clip on Kiribati. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIG7vt1ZPKE

• Halapua Winston Moana Methodology. Talanoa Oceania.

Audio of selected readings and reflections

Audio of the complete service