Pacific Islands Languages and Societies Commons^™

Anthropology Between Europe And The Pacific: Values And The Prospects For A Relationship Beyond Relativism, Joel Robbins

Pacific Studies

Joel Robbins expresses the relationship between Europe and Pacific peoples by analyzing the nature of anthropology in both areas of the world.

Le Fuia, Le Fuia, E Tagisia Lou Vaelau “Starling, Starling, We Pine For Your Nimbleness”: Towards A Samoan Indigenous Framing Of Responsibility For “Climate Change”, Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta‘Isi Tupuola Tufuga Efi

Pacific Studies

"Over a century ago Augustin Kramer recorded a Samoan song with the line: le fuia, le fuia, e tagisia lou vaelau. I have translated this into English as “Starling, starling, we pine for your nimbleness.” The references to nimbleness and to the fuia, or native Samoan starling bird, are literal and metaphorical and were chosen deliberately for their ability to make visible an indigenous context. The line reminds that, with skill and dexterity, one can find in nature balance, hope, and support despite the potentially harmful effects of gravity. This address uses this phrase and its Samoan indigenous …

Our Rising Sea Of Islands: Pan-Pacific Regionalism In The Age Of Climate Change, Katerina Teaiwa

Pacific Studies

"Both Oceania Rising and the Climate Warriors represent postcolonial, antihegemonic movements that are grounded in contemporary customs, realities, and cultural identities, while simultaneously championing broader regional identities and unifying concerns. This essay tentatively explores these twenty-first century expressions of a shared Oceania in relation to earlier unifying concepts such as those expressed by the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara (1997) and Professor Epeli Hau‘ofa (1994)."

Vol. 41 No. 1/2 (2018): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 41, No 1/2-Apr/Aug 2018 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Ocean In Us: Security Of Life In The World's Largest Ocean, Joeli Veitayaki

Pacific Studies

"The sea is our pathway to each other and to everyone else, the sea is our endless saga, the sea is our most powerful metaphor, the ocean is in us. (Hau’ofa 2008, 58)

Climate change has arrived. It is the greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific and one of the greatest challenges for the entire world. (Majuro Declaration 2013, Article 1)"

The Sharing Of Cultural Heritage Between Europe And The Pacific: The Kanak Experience, Emmanuel Kasarhérou

Pacific Studies

Emmanuel Kasarhérou's article on the sharing of cultural heritage between the Pacific and Europe, specifically in relation to New Caledonia.

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 …

Writing Indigenous Identity In Herman Melville And Joseph Conrad's Polynesian And Malay Archipelago Novels, Catherine L. Black

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis of this paper is that cross-cultural writing can be done with the right methods of communication, such as engaging narrator and education—or simply sensitive, imaginative writing. Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad’s five books set in the Polynesian and Malay Archipelagos—Typee and Omoo and the Malay Trilogy (Almayer’s Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, and The Rescue)— are used as master models of how to write indigenous characters with rich characterization in pivotal roles, even circa 1846 and 1896. The unique perspective and technique by which they did this is explored, a technique and perspective not …

Suicide In Federated States Of Micronesia: A New Direction, Francis Hezel

Pacific Studies

This paper is written to convey survey findings on the rate of suicide in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Being Rotuman On The Internet, Alan Howard

Pacific Studies

This paper is written to show how Rotuman cultural identity is affected and expressed on the internet.

Artefacts Of Encounter: Cook's Voyages, Colonial Collecting, And Museum Histories, Jeffrey Mifflin

Pacific Studies

Book review by Jeffrey Mifflin of "Artefacts of Encounter: Cook’s Voyages, Colonial Collecting, and Museum Histories".

Vol. 40 No. 3 (2017): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 40, No 3-Dec 2017 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Vol. 40 No. 3 (2017): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US$40.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and …

Gendered Impacts Of Global Economic Shocks: Findings From Households In Melanesia, Jaclyn Donahue, Kathleen Eccles, Simon Feeny, Lachlan Mcdonald, Alberto Posso

Pacific Studies

This paper examines the gendered impacts of multiple severe global economic shocks in two Melanesian countries: Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It focuses on the sharp food and fuel price hikes in 2007 and 2008 and the subsequent Global Financial Crisis, which quickly turned into a broader economic crisis. Using gender-disaggregated data, it examines the impacts on women across three economic spheres: financial, productive, and reproductive. Findings indicate that that a disproportionate burden of the adjustment to these shocks was borne by women. Without gender-disaggregation and a focus on gender norms, policies risk being at best incomplete and at worst harmful …

Invisible Islanders: Precarious Work And Pacific Settlers In Rural Australia, Makiko Nishitani, Helen Lee

Pacific Studies

A growing number of studies have focused on precarious employment in relation to temporary and illegal immigration status. However, few have examined if this precarity is resolved once migrants acquire permanent residency. This article explores the work experiences of Pacific Islander settlers in rural Australia who either overstayed their visas or had temporary visas and later acquired Australian residency. These Pacific people are employed primarily in seasonal labor and find it difficult to gain more secure employment outside the horticultural sector. Even members of the second generation tend to work as casual laborers on farms. The difficulties migrants face in …

On Being Modern People: Abandonment Of Pig Husbandry In Haivaro, Papua New Guinea, Sandrine Lefort

Pacific Studies

The abandonment of pig husbandry by several communities in Papua New Guinea has been explained in terms of hygiene, Christianity, and economics or combinations of all three. At Haivaro—a small village in the lowlands of northwestern Gulf Province—these three factors were reinforced by an emerging desire to act, and be seen, as “modern.” A progressive decrease in social occasions that entailed the exchange of pigs or the sharing of pork, combined with increased availability of new modern items, led Haivaro people to revalue their world in monetary terms. In this process, they developed a sense that some of their past …

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 …

Reading Realities Through Tā-Vā, Nuhisifa Seve-Williams

Pacific Studies

This essay is taken from my PhD dissertation and discusses how I was able to make sense of the theory tā-vā theoretically and apply it as an analytical tool in “reading” the stories of the Pacific students in my study, in particular of two Pacific students in my study.

Vol. 40 No. 1/2 (2017): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 40, No 1/2-Apr/Aug 2017 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Tāvani: Intertwining Tā And Vā In Tongan Reality And Philology, Tēvita O. KaʻIli

Pacific Studies

This analysis examines the foundational principles of the tā-vā theory of reality, a comprehensive philosophical framework that bridges ontological and epistemological understandings of existence within Tongan thought.

Samoan Tā-Vā (Time-Space) Concepts And Practices In Language, Society, And Architecture, Fepulea‘I Micah Van Der Ryn

Pacific Studies

This essay gives new insights into indigenous Samoan spatial, temporal, and social concepts as distinctive aspects of Samoan culture, expressed linguistically, socially, and architecturally in a changing contemporary Samoan context. Four Samoan concepts are examined: (1) mata (the eye and a point of convergence and emanation), (2) tā (strike and a point in time), (3) vā (the interval and relation between points in space or time and society), and (4) tuā‘oi (neighbor and boundary). The general tā-vā theory of reality (Māhina 2008a, 2008b; Ka‘ili 2008) informs the analysis augmented by the theory of point-field spatiality as discussed by Lehman and …

Geographies Of Textile Authenticity: Marking Tongan Temporal And Social Relationships In Diasporic Cultural Production, Ping-Ann Addo

Pacific Studies

This study examines the production of traditional ngatu (bark cloth) and synthetic ngatu pepa among Tongan women, focusing on how these textile practices mediate cultural identity across diasporic spaces.

How The Tā-Vā Theory Of Reality Constructs A Spatial Exposition Of Samoan Architecture, Albert L. Refiti

Pacific Studies

This essay deals with a spatial exposition of Hufanga ʻOkusitino Māhina theory of tā-vā in which I argue that traditional Pacific concepts are recharged and extended by Māhina to create a new branch in Pacific Thought. I show that there is a consistency in the tā-vā theory of reality if one were to diagram its main tenets and, by doing so, enables the exposition of parts that sketch-out an overall form of theory. I also argue that doing theory is important to Pacific Thought because it allows for traditions and customs to be coiled-up into concepts allowing them to be …

Introduction: Tā-Vā (Time-Space): The Birth Of An Indigenous Moana Theory, Maui-Tāvā-He-Ako, Tēvita O. Ka‘Ili, Hūfanga, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina, Kula-He-Fonua, Ping-Ann Addo

Pacific Studies

An introduction to the special issue of the Pacific Studies Journal themed, "TĀ-VĀ (TIME-SPACE): THEORY OF REALITY".

Time, Space, And Culture: A New Tā-Vā Theory Of Moana Anthropology, Hūfanga, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina

Pacific Studies

This paper is primarily concerned with the formulation of a tā-vā theory of Moana anthropology. It does so by investigating the narrower conflicting formal and substantial relationships between Moana cultures as a form of social activity and Moana anthropology as a type of disciplinary practice in the broader complex interplay of temporality and spatiality. As a way forward, the paper calls into question the Moana phenomenon, exploring the formality, substantiality, and functionality of things within and across nature, mind and society, in the wider context of the tā-vā theory of reality. On this philosophical basis, the formulation of a tā-vā …

Tā-Vā Kāinga, Time-Space Relationships Theory Of Reality And Tongan Students Journey To Academic Achievement In New Zealand Tertiary Education, Telesia Kalavite

Pacific Studies

Tongan students’ academic achievement results when the different contexts of kāinga tā-vā, time-space relationships intersect or interact disharmoniously or harmoniously within and between the Tongan and Western cultures, especially between the students and the bureaucracy (puleʻanga), their families (fāmili), church (siasi), and wider group (their fonua/kāinga). Furthermore, inflexibility or flexibility within the two cultural relationships in terms of tā (time) and vā (space) by all parties could release social tensions, which can, if left to their own devices, provide obstacles to critical learning, or by mediating them through sustained harmony, can consequently …

Takohi: Drawing In Tongan Thinking And Practice, Hūfanga, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina

Pacific Studies

This original essay critically examines takohi as drawing in Tongan thinking and practice, which is connected with the intersecting or connecting and separating kohi (lines) and va (spaces) across the three divisions of Tongan art, notably tufunga (material) and nimamea’a (fine) arts. The word kohi is the older form of tohi, both of which mean “line.” Kohi, like tohi, is an expression of ta (time). By virtue of the indivisibility of ta (time) and va (space) in reality, as in nature, mind, and society, takohi (drawing) is equal to ta-va (time-space), with ta (time) spatially-composed and va (space) as temporally-marked. …

Circles Of Self: Tā-Vā Expressed In Traditional Samoan Dance, Culture And Self, Dianna M. Georgina

Pacific Studies

This study examines the tā-vā (time-space) theory and its application to Samoan cultural expression, particularly through the lens of the traditional Samoan dance.

Tatau: Symmetry As Conflict Mediation Of Line– Space Intersection, Sēmisi F. Potauaine

Pacific Studies

From a Tongan context, tatau (symmetry) also means mirror image, image, copy, likeness, same, and equal, among other things. My theoretical inquiry into tatau revolves around the tā-vā (time-space) theory of reality, which basically recognizes the philosophical fact that all things in reality stand in eternal relations of exchange, giving rise to order or conflict. By extension, the theory also takes into account the historical fact that because of these never-ending exchange connections, order and conflict are of the same logical order in that order is a form of conflict.