Cross- and Trans-culturality: more Catalysts for talanoa

Living cross-culturally as a multi-cultural, inter-cultural church is one of the Future Directions of the NSW and ACT Synod. There are three complex concepts in the naming of this direction: crosscultural, multicultural, and intercultural. But what do they mean? What do they look like in the church, and in real life?

I don’t know what was in the mind of the 2023 Synod, when this sixth direction was added. But one of the arguments for this direction is available online: see here.

I was ‘recycled’ to the Synod in Oct 2024, but being reminded of our culturality, that we are creatures of and with cultures, is a catalyst for my thinking. So in January 2025, i invited talanoa around the cultural dynamics of the Synod and UCA, and in the society at large (see here).

In that catalyst reflection i explained what multiculturality, polyculturality, and interculturality mean to me, to invite reflection and talanoa (conversations). There are of course other understandings of these concepts, and i want to add two more to the mix with this catalyst reflection: crossculturality, and transculturality.

Crossculturality

Crossculturality for me is about crossing over, physically as well as emotionally and ideologically. There are elements of multiculturality, polyculturality, and interculturality (as discussed in the previous reflection) in crossculturality.

For example: what it means to be Tongan has been shaped by Fijian and Samoan cultures. The cultural shaping may be seen in our language (e.g., the name of our capital town, Nuku‘alofa, is Samoan), practices (e.g., our boat building skills, and most of the raw material, came from Fiji), and customs (our kava rituals have a mix of Samoan and Fijian influences). So-called traditional Tongan culture is therefore intercultural.

I know of some Samoans and Fijians who would make similar arguments, from their cultural standings. Put sharply: the idea that a traditional culture is pure, or untouchable, is denied by the awareness that we are intercultural.

Since time immemorial, due to navigation and migration, Tongans have crossed into islands and cultures beyond the clusters of islands now known as Samoa and Fiji. In the recent past we have crossed/migrated to the cluster of islands now known as Australia, whose multi-cultures have crossed into so-called traditional Tongan cultures, and vice versa. In this regard, we are also crosscultural. Our cultures have crossed/migrated with us, and we have appropriated cultures from our new homelands.

Transculturality

But Tongans have not adopted everything in our new homes. Tongans have refused the influences of some foreign cultures, and in this connection, we transgressed the cultures of our new home. This is the first connotation of transculturality – that we transgress cultures.

The second connotation is a reminder, that not all Tongans share the same understandings of what it means to be Tongan. Tongans in the home-island have different understandings from Tongans in diaspora, Tongans in my generation have different understandings from Tongans in our children’s generation (in Tonga or in diaspora), Tongans with a non-Tonga parent (in Tonga or in diaspora) have different understandings from Tongans with both parents being Tongan, and so on.

Transculturality is a reminder, in our case, that we Tongans transgress what it means to be Tongan – depending on how cultural understandings are defined, and by whom!

Put differently: cultures are complex, and cultural beings are transgressing.

So what?

This reflection invites further reflection and talanoa on our cultural dynamics – we are creatures of, and with, multi- and poly-cultures. And as we cross over and migrate, and as other people cross over with their multi- and poly-cultures into our spaces, our culturality become more and more dynamic.

Moreover, we have different understandings of who we are as cultural beings – within each cultural group, and across a collective/mix of cultural groups.

I especially invite reflection and talanoa around these questions:

• What does a multi-cultural, inter-cultural church (as named in the sixth direction) look like?
• What are the costs of Living cross-culturally (which the sixth direction encourages)?

FIND OUT MORE FROM THE INTERCULTURAL MISSION TEAM