Higher education in Aotearoa New Zealand -- we have a problem. Maori and Pasifika academics are not given time to talk together about Maori and Pasifika student success. Often framed by 'the academy' from a deficit position, initiatives to address the 'problem' of Maori student and Pasifika student success is often ad hoc and disconnected, rarely prioritised and inevitably under-resourced despite aspirational-sounding rhetoric. Furthermore, Maori and Pasifika academics are grossly under-represented in higher education (McAllister, T. G., Kidman, J., Rowley, O., & Theodore, R. (2019). Why isn't my professor Maori? "MAI Journal," 8(2), doi:10.20507/MAIJournal.2019.8.2.10; Naepi, S. (2019). Why isn't my professor Pasifika? "MAI Journal," 8(2), doi:10.20507/MAIJournal.2019.8.2.9.) as we negotiate institutional and cultural expectations. This article describes a Maori and Pasifika-led research fellowship focused on Maori and Pasifika student success in Aotearoa New Zealand's largest university, The University of Auckland. He Vaka Moana is a strength-based model, framed by principles and methodologies that emerge from the language, connections and ways of being which sustain us as Oceanic people. Drawing on nautical notions of traversing the Pacific Ocean, we encourage Maori and Pasifika researchers to come together in purposeful and transformational ways, not to further homogenise Oceanic identities, but to pikipiki hama -- lash our canoes together -- to support our common aspirations for revolutionary change in higher education for our diverse communities. Here, we share the voices of Maori and Pasifika He Vaka Moana fellows engaged with the tensions and complexities of transforming the tertiary experience for Maori and Pasifika students.