For centuries, Pacific societies were sustained by collective knowledge systems premised on a relational existence between humans and the environment. European contact, through its modernising agenda disturbed this reality, and turned Pacific knowledge systems on their head, relegating them as secondary, or in some instances irrelevant. Political independence since the early 1960’s has seen a renaissance in things Pacific. Universities have been central to this development. At the University of Otago, under the umbrella of the Pacific Thought Network (PacTNet), graduate students and academics both of Pacific and of non-Pacific heritage participate in a range of activities that foster Pacific ways of knowing and engagement.