Oceans Within Us EIGHT PERSPECTIVES ON THE PACIFIC IN VAI

We sweat and cry salt water, so we know that the ocean is really in our blood.

—Teresia Teaiwa¹

A spiritual sequel to the anthology film Waru (2017), Vai (2019) – the second feature-length release from Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions – enlists eight female writer/directors from eight Pacific Island nations to make a portmanteau film about the latter titular character. The languages of the Pacific aren’t always mutually intelligible, but they retain certain shared words; ‘vai’ (‘water’) is a key example. This is undoubtedly a result of Islander cultures having been shaped, in fundamental ways, by the largest body of water on Earth; the Pacific Ocean flows through our creation stories, sustains our agricultural practices, is filled with life and is seen to give life. In a manner similar to Waru, Vai is loosely tied together by an overarching narrative but is divided into eight ten-minute chapters, each focusing on a different moment in Vai’s life, on a different island. Each chapter is also largely shot in one take – a stylistic decision that is political as much as it was economical, facilitating a tighter shooting schedule and ensuring that no edits could be made to the chapters down the track, thereby preserving each creator’s vision. Given that all island(er)s see the ocean from different vantage points, it’s only apposite that the cultural legacies that empower Vai in