Pacific Islands Languages and Societies Commons^™

The Convert, J. Barton Scott

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Convert (2023), directed by Lee Tamahori.

“Nararampag Nga Mga Takna . . . Nangangaliding Nga Mga Higayon”: Memory, Nostalgia, Love, And Loss In Victor Sugbo’S Taburos Han Dagat, Jessa A. Amarille

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

This paper explores how the concepts of memory, nostalgia, love, and loss are depicted in the poems 1) “Ha Akon Paglinakaton,” (In My Travels[1]), 2) “May Ada Panahon” (There Comes a Time), 3) “Parada Han mga Sinya” (The Parade of Zinnias), 4) “An Pagdumdum” (On Recalling), 5) “Kawarayan” (Emptiness), 6) “Agurang Mundo” (Old Mundo), 7) “Taburos Han Dagat” (Sea Spray), 8) “La Madonna Alegro,” and 9) “Cadena de Amor” from Victor N. Sugbo’s Taburos Han Dagat (2014) using an ecocritical lens. Published in a post-Haiyan context, the poems may be classified as belonging to the ecopoetry genre with …

Decolonizing The Tropics: Part One, Anita Lundberg, Sophie Chao, R. Benedito Ferrão, Ashton Sinamai, Et Al.

Arts & Sciences Articles

This special issue is a collection of papers that addresses and enacts the theme of decolonizing the tropics. Each article provides a sense of how we can untangle ourselves from entrenched colonial epistemologies and ontologies through detailed articulations of research practice. Drawing together humanities and social sciences, the papers collectively address questions of whose voices are heard or silenced, what positions we write from, how we are allowed to articulate our ideas, and through which mediums we present our research. In doing so, the contributions foreground the critical importance of these and other questions in any move towards decolonizing the …

Decoloniality And Tropicality: Part Two, Anita Lundberg, Hannah Regis, ..., R. Benedito Ferrão, Et Al.

Arts & Sciences Articles

The papers collected together in this special issue on the theme ‘decoloniality and tropicality’ discuss and demonstrate how we can move towards disentangling ourselves from persistent colonial epistemologies and ontologies. Engaging theories of decoloniality and postcolonialism with tropicality, the articles explore the material poetics of philosophical reverie; the 'tropical natureculture' imaginaries of sex tourism, ecotourism, and militourism; deep readings of an anthropophagic movement, ecocritical literature, and the ecoGothic; the spaces of a tropical flâneuseand diasporic vernacular architecture; and in the decoloniality of education, a historical analysis of colonial female education and a film analysis for contemporary educational praxis.

Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of trauma is controversial in literature. While one may be able to come up with ways to describe trauma in fiction, representing historical trauma is a hard task for writers. Some argue that trauma can not be described through those who did not experience it, while others claim that, provided some elements are added, one can represent trauma to the reader. This thesis focuses on twentieth-century historical traumas related to a nuclear catastrophe and explores the different literary and testimonial responses to the catastrophic man-made event of Hiroshima (1945). In this thesis, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s historical fiction The Last …

Comparative Analysis Of The Water Crisis In Guam And New Delhi: Evaluating Causes And Potential Solutions, Jordina Marshall

Global Honors Theses

The core topic of this paper will be an examination of a comparative study of the water issue in India, with a particular emphasis on New Delhi, and the water crisis on the island of Guam, with a large amount of focus being placed on an assessment of the possible causes as well as potential remedies. Due to the impact the water problem has on the ecosystem, the welfare of the populace, and the security of their food supply, a solution must be found. There are rising concerns that endangers the health of both of these nations as well as …

Coast To Coast, Zeyuan Ren

Masters Theses

This essay contains four bodies of work created during my graduate studies, all of which take place on either the West or East coasts, incorporating performance, photography, and video. In the first half of the paper, I examine how the theme of “displacement” is established in my initial works, and highlight the significance of the state of “being displaced” in my process of imaging and (re)understanding the ocean.

At the core of the thesis, I investigate the wave-piloting of Marshall Islanders and a particular cartographic model, the “stick chart,” which is a mnemonic device embedded with the voyager's somatic memories, …

We Are Kamea Christians Not Because We Sing Like Berrien Springs Christians: Towards A Methodology Of Developing A Biblical Theology In Context, Unia Api

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

This paper attempts to demonstrate a methodological approach to doing theology in context. A lot of homogenizations of Western Christianity have very much impacted the way we do church in Melanesia (Pacific Islands). This trend motivated me to ride on the wave of Melanesian thinkers to make theology relevant in the Melanesian context. Title: Exploring

Isagani Cruz And His Fiction: A Footnote To The “Deconstructive Effect Of Feminist Materialism On The Newly-Discovered Cordillera Archives”, Isidoro M. Cruz

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

A cursory reading of Isagani R. Cruz’s literary theory and criticism on one hand, and his fiction on the other, suggests a disparity between Cruz as a scholarly literary critic and Cruz as a fictionist of stories “for adults only”; however, a detail in one of his short stories in his book, Father Solo and Other Stories for Adults Only, arouses a critical suspicion that his fiction is actually cultural criticism masquerading as irreverent or obscene fiction, so that the critic and the fictionist are one. That detail is found in “Once upon a Time Some Years from Now,” …

Lives Away From Home And Precarious Writing As Life: Reading Bienvenido Santos’S Postscript To Saintly Life, Ivan Emil A. Labayne

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

Towards the end of his writing career, Bienvenido Santos published two autobiographies, Memory’s Fictions and Postscript to Saintly Life—a departure in a writing life mostly devoted to penning fictional works. This paper focuses on the last autobiography which mainly looks at Santos’s experiences as a pensionado in America. It pays attention to how Santos writes about his Philippine home while in exile, taking part in a program that is part of the American colonial period. The range of Santos’s emotions—with shame and pride on both ends—while abroad is also examined. How these emotions were manifested in the book served …

Marginal Voices, Silenced Annotations: Notes On The Life Of Edith L. Tiempo, Cris Barbra N. Pe

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

The popular version of National Artist for Literature Edith L. Tiempo is that she holds a central position as the literary matriarch of the Philippines. However, little is known about her background as a partly tribal (indigenous) woman. This paper proposes that biography can be a form of intervention to recuperate silenced narratives and marginal lives. Drawing from the ideas of the Geneva School of Consciousness, biography can be seen as a form of reading, where latent images in an author’s works can be made manifest and reveal hidden narratives in the author’s life. Edith’s life and works yield images …

Ang Balintuna Ng Pesimismo At Pag-Asa Sa “Ilang Aeta Mula Sa Botolan” Ni Cirilo F. Bautista (The Paradox Of Pessimism And Hope In Cirilo F. Bautista’S “Ilang Aeta Mula Sa Botolan”), Mesándel V. Arguelles

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

Sa sanaysay na ito, ginagalugad ang isa sa mga birtud ng panulaan ni Pambansang Alagad ng Sining sa Literatura Cirilo F. Bautista—ang balintuna, sa pangunahin, ang balintuna ng pesimismo at pag-asa kaugnay ng pagpaksa sa mga usapin, suliranin, at penomenong panlipunan ng kanyang panahon hanggang sa kasalukuyan. Pinagninilayan din ang bait at bisa ng kanyang mga tula na nakasalalay sa kabatirang kapwa lubhang mahalaga at di-makasasapat ang wika upang, aniya, ay “ipahayag ang ating isip at damdamin” na nagbunsod sa kanya sa pagbuo ng pormulasyong “sugat ng salita” at “kirot ng kataga”—kapwa ginamit bilang mga susing konsepto ng kanyang dalawang …

The Ecocritical Erotic In Marjorie Evasco's "Elemental", Jose Kervin Cesar B. Calabias

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

This brief article explores the critical entanglements of nature, matter, and the human body in Marjorie Evasco’s poem “Elemental.” Through ecocritical erotic writing, the text establishes the “trans-corporeal” relationships between human desire and the natural environment, the language of the erotic and the craft of poetry, and the writer and the task of ecofeminist writing. Ultimately, this essay suggests that the text and the author engage with the ba’i as an indigenous source of femininity, charting a direction toward native Philippine ecofeminism.

The Archetype Of The Ocean In Balinese Culture, Ava Hull

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

An archetype is essential for expressing an understanding of symbols and adding depth to the meaning derived from everyday life. It is a connection of source and meaning through the lens of the human experience. In the case of the ocean, people all over the world turn to the sea as a source of healing and a symbol of the murkiness of the unconscious mind. This holds true for the people of Bali as their beautiful Island is in deep connection with the force of the ocean. From the everyday contact like fishing and relaxing at the beach, to the …

Local Traditions, Global Influences, National Belonging: Conditional Acceptance Of Cross-Gender Dance In Central Java, Indonesia, Calla Rhodes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Indonesia has a long and rich history of cross-gender performance in which males embody femininity onstage. Until recently, these diverse, locally-specific traditions were a widely accepted cultural practice. However, modern negative associations with the LGBTQ+ community and, by extension, the West, threaten the survival of traditional Indonesian cross-gender dance. By investigating feminine male gender performance in Java, I will uncover how Indonesians draw from localized cultural traditions, as well as globalized practices like Western-style drag, to destabilize restrictive national constructions of gender. I posit that traditional cross-gender dance serves as a culturally- sanctioned outlet for male expressions of femininity that …

Sunan Kalijaga: The Birth Of A Self-Actualized Pilgrimage Culture, F. P. Meachem

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Javanese Islam is incredibly unique in its style and practice. Despite boasting a Muslim population larger than the entire Middle East, Indonesia and its Islamic cultural practices are largely unknown in academic circles. This has made an introduction to Islam in the archipelago even more difficult for the rare interested Western reader. Frustratingly, what is lost on the rest of the world is basically second nature to 155 million Javanese Muslims, who learn from their families, schools, and pilgrimages about the Wali Songo, a group of nine semi-mythical figures credited with spreading Islam to Java. When we stop casting …

Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah: Navigating The Intersection Of Gender Nonconformity And Islam In Indonesia, Tali Hastings

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Ol Woman Blong Wota (The Women Of The Water), Sandy Sur, Ashley Burgess, Maeve Mckenna, Catherine Grant

World Music Textbook

The women of Leweton have been performing Water Music for international audiences since the founding of the Leweton Cultural Village in 2008, and have been practising this tradition for as long as they remember. The women performers who feature in this film are Denilla Frazer, Melinda Frazer, Jerolyn Frazer, Beverley Frazer, Cecilia Tingris, Cicilia Wari, Marie Sur, Sonrin Sur, Trisha Sur, and Margaret Tingris.

A Political History Of Hawaii: Sovereignty And The Future Of Native Self-Determination, Coe M. Trevorrow

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This project will examine the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement through a historical perspective. Beginning with the unification of the Hawaiian Islands, every major event leading to the modern day conflicts of Mauna Kea and Red Hill will be analyzed. The aim of this paper is to predict how the future prospects of Hawaiian Independence fair compared with the existential threats caused by American Hegemony. In doing so, topics such as the broader colonial debate, and native sovereignty are included in the conversation, in an attempt to see how the Hawaiian example stacks up in the broader decolonial discussion.

Militarized Foodways: The Connection Between The Militarization Of American SāMoa And Chronic Health Conditions Experienced By Sāmoans In The U.S., Marina Aina

Pomona Senior Theses

American militarism and imperialism in Oceania led to the partitioning of Sāmoa, transforming Eastern Sāmoa into an unincorporated American territory, one that persists to this day. Sāmoans living in the United States continue to face numerous chronic health illnesses to this day. Both of these statements are true, but how are they related to one another? This thesis proposes “militarized foodways” as a way to bridge the gap and understand how those two statements are connected to one another. Militarized foodways refers to how the cultural, social, and economic practices concerning production and consumption of food have taken a military …