Pacific Islands Languages and Societies Commons^™

Dignity In Decision-Making: Modernity And Social Navigation Among Rural French Polynesian Youth, Laura Jarvis

Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

This research examines critical questions about the experiences of youth through the lenses of modernity, subjectivity, and the lifecourse. Growing up in a (post)colonial context of shifting definitions of adulthood, youth from the rural island of Rurutu, French Polynesia must navigate various decisions and transformations with little information to base their future aspirations on. This dissertation identifies dignity as the main motivating factor in youth decision-making, one that is constantly redefined as youth navigate shifting social fields. Dignity, as used here, is a target youth strive for in order to contest feelings of social precarity stemming from unaccommodating education ...

An Exploratory Study Of Acculturation Experiences Of Graduate Student Immigrants At The University Of San Francisco, Courtney Lamar

Master's Theses

This study explores the shared challenges during the acculturation process of graduate student immigrants pursuing higher education in the United States. 13 graduate student immigrants at the University of San Francisco discuss their experiences of cultural adjustment into U.S. culture. Through qualitative interviews and thematic analysis, this study seeks to understand the acculturation experiences of graduate student immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. This analysis is based on the individual-level experience examining attitudes and acculturation strategies in the dominant society. Analysis, possibly policy implication for institutions of higher education, and possible directions for future ...

Rappaport, Roy (1926-97), Brian A. Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

The Reality And The Apparent: Worldviews And Missiological Strategies, Cristian Dumitrescu, Hatsarmaveth Venkaya

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"Worldview is an abstract concept used for identifying a set of assumptions people use to organize their view of reality. Conceptualizing worldview is a challenging task. Nobody has seen a worldview, but everybody has one. A worldview informs a person’s interpretation of reality, their cosmology, and determines their actions and reactions. Charles Kraft (1988) considers worldview as the “center control box” of a person’s life and communal culture. Most assumptions reflect one’s unverified beliefs and answers to fundamental questions, such as who they are and who others are, how people should relate to each other, what causes ...

Bulugo Vine Story: Redemptive Analogy Case Study, John Holbrook

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"Shaw indicates that rather than contextualizing the missionary’s perception of Christianity to make it understandable within the local people’s culture, the missionary should facilitate the people themselves discovering God from within their own cultural context ... In my own mission experience, I have found this approach to be valid and preferable, once there are local believers, and as God begins to develop leaders from among them. At times, cultural dynamics or God’s preparation of an unreached people group allow them to discover God without a great deal of intervention on the missionary’s part. However, in the beginning ...

Layered Histories, Interpretive Desires, Rachelle Dang

School of Arts & Sciences Theses

I aim to excavate source material from the past and reinterpret its significance in the present through art. I merge history with the contemporary through acts of appropriation and material exploration, creating conditions for the viewer to grapple with colonial legacies in an affective space of visual experience.

An Assessment Of Maternal Mortality In Papua New Guinea: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Approach, Jennifer Litau

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Research into the serious manifestation of maternal mortality in Papua New Guinea is essential for formative knowledge and intervention. Explanatory sequential mixed methods approach employed first involved SPSS analyses of Gulf Provincial Hospital’s obstetric data revealing high rates of home deliveries by mothers. Interviews in high incidence communities provided explanations and mortality experiences.

“The Lolelaplap (Marshall Islands) In Us: Sailing West To East (Ralik→Ratak) To These Our Atolls (Aelon Kein Ad) Ad Jolet Jen Anij (Our Blessed Inheritance From God)”, Desmond N. Doulatram

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper discusses the expansion of Oceania through a Marshallese indigenous lens as a focal point. It explains that decolonizing methodologies allows reclaiming of space for mental liberation and reassurement of constitutional rights. It highlights similar occurrences of decolonization practices meeting resistance in the 21st century all while strengthening the human right argument that no human deserves any less than their fellow human brothers and sisters. It argues that an indigenous imagery can only be viewed through an indigenous lens where the researches’ level of purity is retained and unfiltered. It nevertheless argues that Marshallese ethnolinguistics reveal the same cultural ...

“Lost In Translation”?: Tristan Tzara’S Non-European Side, Cosana Eram

Cosana M. Eram

No abstract provided.

Restoration Of Mauri (Life-Force) To Ōkahu Bay: Investigation Of A Community Driven Restoration Process, Emily Freilich

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis investigated the restoration of mauri (life-force) to Ōkahu Bay, Auckland New Zealand. Ōkahu Bay is part of the land and waters of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, a Māori hapū (sub-tribe). Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei has been driving the restoration, restoring Ōkahu Bay based on their worldview, visions, and concerns. This vision and control of the restoration process allows them to bring in the hapū in sustainable engagement and have the long-term vision and commitment necessary for self-determination. However, while there has been progress with projects and improved decision-making authority, hapū members are still not seeing their whānau (family) swimming in ...

HoʻOlohe I Nā Mele, Alualu Ka ManaʻO: Evaluating The Role Of Mele HawaiʻI In The Second Hawaiian Renaissance, Kale K.A. Kanaeholo

History Undergraduate Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Waru, Ken Derry

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Waru (2017), directed by Briar Grace-Smith, Ainsley Gardiner, Renae Maihi, Casey Kaa, Awanui Simich-Pene, Chelsea Cohen, Katie Wolfe, and Paula Jones.

Away From The Plantation: An Ethnography Of Hawai'i Japanese American Identitiy In Honolulu Hawai'i, Nalani Noel Yukie Saito

Student Honors Theses By Year

In this paper, I reconceptualize sugarcane plantations in Hawai‘i outside of a narrative of progress to explore the dynamisms of Hawai‘i Japanese American identity. These dynamisms emerge from the perspectives and family histories that Hawai‘i Japanese Americans shared with me in interviews, as part of research conducted in O‘ahu, Hawai‘i in 2016. To situate these dynamisms, I first focus on the sugarcane plantations of Hawai‘i, which are often framed as the foundation of Hawai‘i Japanese American identity. Drawing upon Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s (2015) theoretical framing of mushrooms, I interpret plantations as mobile ...

The Minorities Within The Minority, Gloria P. Aiten

Student Research Symposium

The poster is based off of the research paper I am currently doing, it is about how in the Western Society the Asian-Pacific Islanders are categorized as one, but in reality they're two different ethnicity and how the PI are being misidentified. In other words, imagine putting a dog and a cat into one category. Yes they're both house pets, but they're two different species. That is exactly what's happening between the API community.

Rapping Back: Counter-Narratives From Auckland, New Zealand, Mariel Lopez Rogers

Master's Theses

Across the Pacific in Auckland, New Zealand two rap groups, Homebrew and @Peace, are contributing to a theoretically rich and socially conscious Hip Hop scene. Their music critically questions commercialism and conformity in a culture shaped by a history of colonialism. This makes their message starkly opposed to the normative values of New Zealand. The musicians of Homebrew and @Peace, a mix of Polynesian and Pakeha (people of European descent), employ methods of decolonization theory through the use of storytelling and focus on indigenous values. In a country that has adopted the neoliberal beliefs that competition drives human relations, and ...

Mo'ikeha's Voyage From Tahiti To Hawaii: A Look Into Polynesian Culture, Kalea Tetsuka

Young Historians Conference

The purpose of this paper was to explore the historiography and significance of Mo’ikeha’s voyage from Tahiti to Hawaii. Traced back to around the 13th century, Mo’ikeha sailed from Tahiti to Hawaii using traditional navigational skills mastered by Polynesian voyagers. For years this was merely dismissed as a myth by European scholars, but in 1976 the Hokule’a recreated this trip using the same navigational techniques and traditional boat. Today, Mo’ikeha’s story will continue to live on, inspiring movies like Moana and proving the historical and cultural value of Hawaiian oral history.

The Authenticity Of Hula In Japan, Gianne Shelby Pabustan

Honors Senior Theses/Projects

The purpose of this thesis project will be to investigate Hawaiian culture’s emergence— through hula specifically—in Japanese culture and how Japanese culture has adapted to it. Specifically, this project will focus on whether hula in Japan remains pure and close to its Hawaiian roots rather than transformed. Hawaii and Japan are both island cultures, but differences have developed in how hula is portrayed, whether it be more for the entertainment aspect or the cultural aspect. In hula, numerous performance elements symbolize aspects of Hawaiian culture: from the formation of the dancers (representing working together in a community) to ...

Bali: The Land Of Many Gods, Brian E. Coutts

Brian Coutts

No abstract provided.

Reconciling Kastom, Tourism, And Art In The Pacific: The Case Of The Leweton Cultural Group And "Water Music", Thomas Joseph Dick

Theses

Embodying dual legacies (ancestral and colonial), communities throughout the Pacific Islands are configuring and re-configuring themselves, their cultures and, consequently, the world around them in ways that are both continuing and new. Contemporary Vanuatu is an intercultural space contextualised by extremely high levels of linguistic and cultural diversity. This research project examines the multiple emplacements of a diasporic community which is navigating this intercultural space by mobilizing itself and its cultural assets in a variety of rapidly evolving formats that span a range of industries, sectors and cultural transition areas.

Tourism, Indigenous Women And Empowerment: A Case Study Of Taveuni, Fiji, Patricia Matilda Bibi

Theses

For the Pacific Island nation of Fiji, tourism is the largest contributor to gross domestic product and foreign exchange, and is a catalyst for the development of iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) communities. This thesis explored the ways that tourism employment impacts the lives of iTaukei women on the island of Taveuni. The study took a qualitative, interpretive approach, heavily influenced by an Indigenist framework, the Fijian Vanua Research Framework (FVRF). Scheyvens’ (1999) framework of economic, social, psychological and political empowerment was adopted, with findings revealing that iTaukei women attained numerous levels of empowerment, with positive outcomes for them, their families and ...