Pacific Islands Languages and Societies Commons^™

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 ...

Agroecology And Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Interdisciplinary Research And Development In The South Pacific, Cherise Addinsall

Theses

The aim of this thesis is to understand, recognise and support relationships between sustainable rural Ni-Vanuatu livelihoods and engagement in traditional and cash economies. Rural development literature tends to advocate for shifts to formal economies, while devaluing and displacing traditional ‘hybrid’ livelihoods. Agroecology supports traditional hybrid livelihoods by fostering ecologically, culturally and socially integrated practices and facilitating resilience though diversity of activities. This thesis contributes to the literature by attempting to conceptually and methodically synthesise two frameworks based on agroecology and sustainable livelihoods. These frameworks seek to provide an effective tool to enhance sustainable traditional hybrid livelihood strategies.

Micronesia's Coming Of Age: The Mormon Role In Returning Micronesia To Self-Rule, Devan Jensen

All Faculty Publications

Mormons, or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have a distinguished history of service in the U.S. government. During a forty-year period following World War II, Mormon politicians played vital roles in transitioning several islands in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands from a quasi-colonial status into the self-governing Federated States of Micronesia. This article briefly traces the complicated transition through the public service of four key Mormon administrators: Elbert D. Thomas, John A. Carver Jr., Stewart L. Udall, and Morris K. Udall. They served respectively as first civilian high commissioner of the Trust ...

The Patriarch (Mahana), Ken Derry

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Patriarch (2016), directed by Lee Tamahori.

Religious Processions In Indonesia: Cultural Identity And Politics On Bali And Lombok, David Harnish

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

In Bali and Lombok in Indonesia, processions—like similar events in many other parts of the world—are ritualized events breaking the normal flow of time. They are always temporally marked, and can be characterized as either religious and temple- or mosque-sponsored, or secular and state-sponsored. This article discusses religious processions generally on the neighbor islands of Bali and Lombok, and focuses on the processions of the spectacular Lingsar temple festival on Lombok. The festival conjoins the migrant Hindu Balinese and the local Muslim Sasak (the majority ethnic group) in ritual participation, but that participation differs in significant ways that ...

War Of The Worlds: Music And Cosmological Battles In The Balinese Cremation Procession, Michael B. Bakan

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Abstract

This article explores processional action as a form of cosmological intervention in Hindu-Balinese cremation processions, focusing on the multiple and intersecting functions of a particular type of Balinese instrumental music ensemble: the gamelan beleganjur. It explores the alternately “enlivening and protective aspects” (DeVale 1990, 62) that underlie the use of beleganjur music in the ngaben, or cremation ritual, showing how beleganjur’s sonic power and rhythmic drive serve to combat malevolent spirit beings, strengthen and inspire processional participants in their efforts to meet challenging ritual obligations, and grant courage to the souls of deceased individuals embarking on their perilous ...