A Cook Islands minister who reclaims his homeland as Avaiki Nui has stayed on in Fiji to begin doctoral research aimed at reviving his people’s language, marking a fresh and symbolic turn in regional theological education.
Mr Makara arrived in Fiji in 2023 on a scholarship to study for a Master of Theology at the institution formerly known as the Pacific Theological College. He graduated in 2024 with high distinction for work that examined mental health and a theology of vulnerability, and has since enrolled in a PhD in Theology and Ethics at the newly established Pasifika Communities University in Nasese. His doctoral project, which he describes as research into the “language of sacredness,” focuses on the revival and preservation of the Cook Islands’ indigenous language among communities at home and in the diaspora.
The timing of his PhD is significant. His master’s graduation coincided with the college’s transition into a university, expanding the institution’s capacity to host doctoral candidates. Mr Makara’s enrolment makes him one of the first Cook Islands church ministers in more than two decades to pursue a PhD through the institution—an institutional milestone that could widen opportunities for indigenous-focused theological scholarship across the Pacific.
Central to Mr Makara’s research is an urgent worry: the increasing dominance of English across education, governance and daily life has placed indigenous languages at risk, especially among younger generations and diaspora communities in Australia and New Zealand. “There is a real danger of losing our language,” he said, noting that languages cannot be passed on if they are not spoken. His study intends to map how sacred language—prayers, liturgy, hymns and ritual speech—can be a vehicle for everyday language revival, reconnecting faith practices with ancestral modes of expression.
Mr Makara is looking beyond pulpit sermons for this work. He highlighted the church and communal venues such as sports clubs as practical platforms to reintroduce indigenous language where it is no longer used at home. A former rugby representative and avid tennis player, he sees sport not only as therapy but as a social space where cultural identity and language can be lived and transmitted. “Everything I do is part of a bigger journey that is centered more on serving my people and preserving who we are,” he said, stressing the overlap between pastoral care, community life and cultural transmission.
His personal journey underpins his academic aims. Raised with theological training that he says was largely Western-framed, Mr Makara found a deeper cultural awakening after entering the regional academic setting in Fiji, which enabled him to read scripture through his own indigenous lens and reconnect with ancestral roots. He also describes himself first as a husband and father—roles he considers foundational to his ministry and motivation for cultural preservation.
The development matters because it reflects both an institutional and grassroots shift: Pasifika Communities University’s emergence as a doctoral hub, and a minister-led research agenda that links theology, mental health and language revitalisation. If Mr Makara’s project proves scalable, liturgical renewal and community activity could become part of a broader strategy to shore up endangered Pacific languages among island populations and their overseas communities.
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