Wright, TeporaFa'avae, David Taufui MikatoLevy, BenjaminPackham, EmmaVirtue, KatieWatkins-Matavalea, Dassia2026-06-022026-06-022026Wright, T., Fa'avae, D. T. M., Levy, B., Packham, E., Virtue, K. A., & Watkins-Matavalea, D. (2026). An E-Talanoa of the comparative and international education research field: Relational Vā–decoloniality in Oceania. In Decolonial Epistemologies in Comparative and International Education: Anticipating the Cultural Turn? (pp. 103-123). Emerald. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1479-3679202600000520149781806865703https://hdl.handle.net/10289/18316We align with Tuhiwai Smith’s (2012) critique of research as “one of the ways in which the underlying code of imperialism and colonialism is both regulated and realized” (p. 8). As emerging comparative and international education (CIE) researchers within Oceania, we recognize “the critical role that uneven power plays in the constitution of comparative knowledge” (Takayama et al., 2017, p. s3). In deliberately disrupting conventional academic formats, we adopted a dialogic and relational talanoa structure that foregrounds Indigenous Moana Oceania epistemologies and ontologies. This choice unsettles Western-centric norms of linearity, objectivity, and authorial detachment typically valorized in scholarly writing (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018; Smith, 2012). Rather than presenting knowledge as static and decontextualized, we adopt a flowing, reflexive structure that is responsive to contexts and centered around vā – the relational space – as an epistemic principle and a decolonial imperative (Johansson-Fua, 2016; Suaalii-Sauni et al., forthcoming). This format resists the dominance and privileging of Western academic structures and unfolds through sequences of e-talanoa, grounded in our distinct positionalities and experiences across Moana Oceania.enThis is an authors accepted version of a chapter published in the book Decolonial Epistemologies in Comparative and International Education: Anticipating the Cultural Turn? © 2026 Emerald.Chapter in Book10.1108/s1479-3679202600000520143902 Education Policy, Sociology and Philosophy39 Education3904 Specialist Studies In Education4 Quality Education