Arcia Tecun

Utah Valley University, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Faculty Member

The University of Auckland, Anthropology, Faculty Member

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Arcia Tecun is the pen name of Daniel Hernandez, which is after his grandmothers. Tecun’s research and teaching interests are in global Indigeneities, kava, diaspora, gender, race, food, popular culture/music, eco justice, religion, metaphysic, relational ethics, Tāvāism, Mana/Tapu/Noa-Ngofua, Cosmovisión Maya, modernity/coloniality/decoloniality, global Mormon studies, critical Latinx Indigeneities, ethnography, social-cultural anthropology, and ethnomusicology. Tecun is an alumni of Rose Park Elementary, West High School, Salt Lake Community College, and the University of Utah. Tecun graduated from the ethnomusicology programme in the anthropology department at Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland), where he also taught anthropology courses for five years and held a Pouako (Lecturer) title while in Aotearoa-New Zealand. They later accepted the inaugural position of director of culture for Tracy Aviary and the Nature Center at Pia Okwai in Soonkahni (Salt Lake Valley, Utah). Tecun has also worked as an adjunct instructor at the University of Utah, and was the fall 2023 community practitioner in residence in the environmental humanities programme. Tecun is currently an assistant professor in the anthropology programme at Utah Valley University in the Timpanogos territory.

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Peer Reviewed Publications by Arcia Tecun

Indigeneity as a Post-Apocalyptic Genealogical Metaphor

Genealogy , 2024

This paper is a theoretical exploration that works through a global Indigenous consciousness. As... more This paper is a theoretical exploration that works through a global Indigenous consciousness. As a critically reflexive story work and auto-ethnographic contemplation it begins by confronting a presumed genealogy in a post-apocalyptic world of coloniality through a global Indigenous lens. Extending beyond racially legalised genealogical ancestry, the metaphysics of indigeneity in the context of Western modernity can be re-positioned as a metaphor of past future human-being-ness or person/people-hood. Global Indigeneity and Indigenous metaphysics are framed as a portal and entry beyond coloniality through fugitive sociality and subversive relationality. Confronting the tensions of colonially purist and racially essentialist categories of indigenous identity, lineages of the post-post-apocalyptic world are forming in the enduring social connections embodied in an Indigenous genealogical consciousness of the present.

Open access: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/8/3/121

Digital Vā: Pacific Perspectives on the Shift from ‘Ordinary Practices’ to ‘Extraordinary Spaces’ During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Anthropological Forum

The emergence of the COVID-19 virus has significantly shifted the lives of Pacific families and c... more The emergence of the COVID-19 virus has significantly shifted the lives of Pacific families and communities from face-to-face communal settings to digital spaces. While there has been a multitude of opportunities for Pacific people to express themselves in digital spaces, little is known about the impacts of this on social life, including on quality time within families, exposure to misinformation, and the adoption of online addictive behaviours. This article sets out to critically review and explore the impacts and influences of digital experiences and behaviours on Pacific peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand, shifting from ordinary practices such as church, kava-drinking and educational learning, to online platforms. Vā (space) and tauhi vā (nurturing relationships) are also discussed as theoretical concepts in navigating the shift from ordinary practices to extraordinary spaces. Findings include the exposure to COVID-19-related misinformation and online addictive behaviours, which will better inform community leaders, services providers, and policy makers in addressing the digital impacts and influences that Pacific people may be facing in Aotearoa/NZ.

Talanoa vā: indigenous masculinities and the intersections of indigeneity, race, and gender within higher education

Higher Education Research & Development, 2021

Indigenous scholars constantly contend with deficit tendencies associated with the value and plac... more

Talanoa: Tongan epistemology and Indigenous research method

AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 2018

Story dialogue known as talanoa is increasingly finding its place as a Pacific research method. T... more Story dialogue known as talanoa is increasingly finding its place as a Pacific research method. The authors situate talanoa as an Indigenous concept of relationally mindful critical oratory. Approaching talanoa from mostly a Tongan lens, it is argued that it can contribute to broader discussions of Indigenous research methods and epistemology. The authors address the talanoa literature that has defined it as an open or informal discussion, and respond to questions that have emerged from challenges in implementing it practically in academic research. Indigenous Oceanic thought is used to interpret talanoa as a mediation between relations of Mana (potency), Tapu ( sacred/restrictions), and Noa (equilibrium), which is a gap in the talanoa literature. Talanoa is grounded as a continuum of Indigenous knowledge production and wisdom present from the past that is adaptable to research settings. Centring Moana (Oceanic) epistemology in talanoa challenges dominant research methods to adapt t...

Arcia Tecun

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