There will always be hierarchies of knowledge, and whether the Pacific as an are of study barely registers on the scale of scholarly importance in Europe or America, or whether oir colective word counts in refereed journals wou;d approximate the worth of stone money/shell money…whether our work matters to the people we work on or work with, at the end of the day, whether we are studying/writing about/reflecting on the Pacific in the Pacific or far, far away, our work must matter to us. What links all students of the Pacific, is the belief that our enquiries matter.