I was just in a workshop gracefully held by Dr. Marion Muliaumaseali'i at @ServDes on the Samoan concept of "Va". Va is a space that doesn't separate but relates, a space that holds separate entities together and gives them meaning. 1/n

"Teu le Va" means to nurture Va, the space in-between, to tidy it and beautify it. We looked at intersectionality through this lens, and how nurturing Va can help us weave our identities together.

In a breakout room, other participants and I shared a bit about our work alongside governmental and third-sector organisations in countries in the Global North. Here, we often leave the responsibility to hold us together to an external system – a set of rules, bureaucracy.

While bureaucracy gives us the (illusory) impression of keeping corruption at bay, it demonises prioritising relational connection by framing it as an overstepping of boundaries.

We get stuck in a double-bind: feeling that we are somehow betraying the bureaucratic system (and risking social sanctions because of this), or losing our relational identity by letting that system shape us and the way we relate to others.

Bureaucracies are designs that go on designing. We should keep this in mind when we approach organizational change. How can we nurture "Va", the space in-between, in ways that are reciprocally affirming?