Pacific Islands Languages and Societies Commons^™

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

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

From Citizens To Elected Representatives: The Political Trajectory Of Asian American Pacific Islanders By 2040, Christine Chen, James Lai, Karthick Ramakrishnan, Alton Wang

Ethnic Studies

The political power of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) has increased steadily in the United States. By 2040, one in ten Americans will be AAPI, and the number of Asian Americans registered to vote will have doubled (Ong, Ong, and Ong, 2016). This section examines the growing AAPI electorate and projects a trajectory for AAPI civic engagement and political participation from now until 2040. By looking at trends and projections for citizenship, voter registration, voter turnout, elected officials, and political infrastructure, the authors illustrate that AAPI political empowerment will have even a greater influence on the future of American …

Research Is Relational: Exploring Researcher Identities And Colonial Echoes In Pacific And Indigenous Studies, Tui Nicola Clery, Acacia Dawn Cochise, Robin Metcalfe

Pacific Studies

This paper critiques the binary construction of researchers as either insiders or outsiders, arguing that such essentialist frameworks obscure the complex, intersectional identities many researchers embody. The paper proposes a more inclusive and reflexive model of research identity that acknowledges fluidity, hybridity, and relationality. It encourages researchers to reflect on their positionality, embrace imperfection in relational processes, and engage with communities in ways that are accountable and transformative. Ultimately, the paper advocates for a shift toward more relational and inclusive research methodologies that better reflect the realities of a globalized and interconnected world.

Review: Don’T Ever Whisper: Darlene Keju, Pacific Health Pioneer, Champion For Nuclear Survivors, Miriam Kahn

Pacific Studies

Giff Johnson. Don’t Ever Whisper: Darlene Keju, Pacific Health Pioneer, Champion for Nuclear Survivors. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. Pp. 444. ISBN-10 1489509062. US$14.00 paper.

Reviewed by Miriam Kahn, University of Washington

Books Noted: Recent Pacific Islands Publications: Selected Acquisitions, January 2014–December 2014, Zoia Falevai

Pacific Studies

This list of significant publications relating to the Pacific Islands was selected from new acquisitions lists recovered from Brigham Young University–Hawaii, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, University of Auckland, and Macmillan Brown Library at University of Canterbury. Other libraries are invited to send contributions to the Books Noted editor for future issues. Listings reflect the extent of information provided by each institution.

Vol. 38 No. 3 (2015): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 38, No 3-Dec 2015 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Review: Being Political: Leadership And Democracy In The Pacific Islands, Lamont Lindstrom

Pacific Studies

Jack Corbett. Being Political: Leadership and Democracy in the Pacific Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015. Pp. xii, 243. ISBN 978-0-8248-4107-7. US$54.00 hardcover. Notes. Bibliography.

Reviewed by Lamont Lindstrom, University of Tulsa

Hero, Savage, Or Equal? Representations Of The Moral Personhood Of Pacific Islanders In Hollywood Movies, David Lipset

Pacific Studies

This essay explores the theme of moral agency in cinematic representations of Pacific Islanders. Drawing on anthropological theories, the essay argues that moral personhood is a socially conferred status. Hollywood films often strip Pacific Islanders of moral agency, portraying them as passive or incapable of ethical discernment, while reserving such agency for Western characters. This cinematic imbalance is framed as a form of cultural dispossession and colonial narrative control. The essay thus critiques the broader implications of how moral accountability and personhood are distributed across cultural lines in film.

Vol. 38 No. 3 (2015): 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 …

Fiji’S Electoral Strategies: A Comparative Perspective, Sanjay Ramesh

Pacific Studies

This article analyzes Fiji’s electoral projects by comparing Fiji’s electoral experiences with those of South Africa, Namibia, Guyana, and Suriname. I argue that Fiji’s electoral project of the 1990s was fraught with difficulty because it failed to reconcile competing communal and reformist positions within the democratic framework established by the 1997 Fiji Constitution. As a result, the electoral project of the 1990s failed, resulting in further coups in 2000 and 2006, with the political designers reframing the political agenda and adopting a proportional system of governance to promote national identity and interethnic collaboration following the 2006 coup. However, I contend …

Putting Kanak To Work: Kanak And The Colonial Labor System In New Caledonia, Adrian Muckle

Pacific Studies

Examining the different categories of “native labor” established in New Caledonia, from the 1870s to the 1940s, this article assesses the extent to which Kanak labor was mobilized en masse for colonial development. It outlines the shift from a perception of Kanak labor as of little value (1880s–1910s) to an awareness of its potential and the need to effectively harness it for colonial interests (1920s–1940s). The mobilization of Kanak labor steadily increased in the 1920s and 1930s and reached an unprecedented level during World War II. This overview and assessment provides a corrective to the colonial discourse of Kanak as …

Challenges To Cultural Heritage Interpretation And Preservation At The Falemata’Aga, The Museum Of Samoa, Elizabeth Bennett

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this study is to ascertain and analyze the challenges the Museum of Samoa faces in its efforts to preserve and interpret aspects of Samoan history and culture. The Museum strives to interpret and preserve Samoan culture. Samoan culture is still practiced today, but is impacted by globalization, climate change, and loss of skills such as oratory and knowledge of genealogies. Participant-observation was conducted at the Museum of Samoa, as were interviews with relevant personnel. The challenges the Museum faces stem from Samoa’s status as a developing nation: education, healthcare, and infrastructure receive priority funding. Many people question …

From Romance To Reality: Images Of Pacific Islanders Across Time And Space, Nancy Lutkehaus, Judith Schachter

Pacific Studies

This article examines the enduring legacy and evolving dynamics of Western representations of the Pacific and its peoples, from early European voyages to contemporary media. This issue marks a shift in disciplinary focus, with anthropologists contributing to a field previously dominated by literary and cultural historians. Through analyses of visual culture, media, and transoceanic connections, the collection interrogates the commodification of culture and the hegemonic influence of Western narratives, while also illuminating the creative and critical responses of Pacific communities navigating these representations in a globalized world.

Jack London’S Pacific Voyage Of Transformation: An Anthropologist Looks At The Cruise Of The Snark (1911), Nancy Lutkehaus

Pacific Studies

This article examines the transformative impact of Jack London’s Pacific voyage aboard the Snark on his views of race and colonialism. Through encounters with both Pacific Islanders and white colonial settlers—missionaries, labor recruiters, and self-styled expatriates—London’s writings reveal a shift in his racial perceptions and self-representation. The Snark voyage played a pivotal role in reshaping London’s literary and ideological engagement with the Pacific and its peoples.

Romanticism And Reality On The Gc: Transnational Māori On The Gold Coast, Sarina Pearson

Pacific Studies

This essay examines the controversy surrounding The GC, a New Zealand reality television series that follows young Māori living on Australia’s Gold Coast, and the cultural debates it sparked about Māori identity, representation, and modernity. By analyzing the show’s reception and its challenge to dominant visual and cultural narratives, the essay explores how primitivism continues to shape public discourse and how Māori media productions can disrupt and redefine the boundaries of indigenous representation.

Representations Of Pacific Islander Identity: Ours And Theirs, Kirsten Mcgavin

Pacific Studies

This article explores how Pacific Islander identities—particularly within diasporic communities in Australia—are shaped through the interplay between stereotypical media portrayals and lived cultural realities. While Western tourism and media have long perpetuated romanticized images of Pacific “paradise,” these depictions often obscure the diversity and complexity of actual Island life. Through case studies—including climate change rallies, community gatherings, and online forums—the article examines how Islanders respond to, resist, and sometimes repurpose outsider stereotypes to articulate self-representations that are both grounded and adaptive. The study highlights the dynamic processes of identity formation in the Pacific diaspora and the ongoing negotiation between authenticity …

Representation As Disaster: Mapping Islands, Climate Change, And Displacement In Oceania, Wolfgang Kempf

Pacific Studies

This study critically examines how Pacific islands and island states are represented at the intersection of global media and popular scientific communication in the context of climate change and sea-level rise. This work contributes to broader scholarship on the media’s role in shaping public understanding of climate change and highlights the need for more accurate, context-sensitive portrayals of island futures.

Anthropophagi In New-York And Other Voyagers, Maria Lepowsky

Pacific Studies

This chapter continues the exploration of maritime cultures of contact by following the post-shipwreck adventures of voyagers in the Pacific in the nineteenth century. The chapter also examines the literary and cultural afterlives of Pacific travel narratives, particularly those of Benjamin Morrell and Thomas Jacobs, whose depictions of islanders influenced canonical works by Poe and Melville. These narratives reveal the contradictory perceptions American sailors held of Pacific peoples—ranging from “cannibal savages” to noble and intelligent individuals—and the enduring tropes of the “noble savage” and “civilized native.” By tracing these voyages and representations, the chapter highlights the early emergence of a …

Imagining The Marshall Islands, Laurence M. Carucci

Pacific Studies

As anthropologists have developed a more critical eye, earlier assumptions about the privileged position of anthropological texts have been dismissed as elitist, self-serving, and paternalistic. Perhaps James Clifford was the first to recognize the limitations of such possessiveness toward these imagined others, but his call for a broader view has been taken up by many in the field. Here, I consider the images of three interlopers, none of them anthropologists, as they each, in separate historical contexts and different positional circumstances, come to imagine Marshall Islanders as certain types of others. A consideration of these accounts reveals a good deal …

Oh, Those Poor Islanders And Threats To An Idyllic Life On A Beautiful Island!, Juliana Flinn

Pacific Studies

This essay examines the representation of Pollap, a Micronesian atoll, in popular media and internet sources, highlighting the contrast between anthropological perspectives and public portrayals. While scholars emphasize indigenous agency and the adaptive use of external influences, popular media—ranging from Peace Corps blogs to disaster reports—often depict islanders through romanticized or victimized lenses. These portrayals reflect more about Western cultural fantasies and assumptions than about the lived realities of Pollapese people. Romantic narratives emphasize idyllic simplicity and harmony with nature, while disaster coverage frames islanders as helpless and dependent on external aid. Notably absent are accounts of local responses or …

Vol. 38 No. 1/2 (2015): 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 …

From Romance To Reality: An Epilogue, Niko Besnier

Pacific Studies

This epilogue reflects on the political nature of representation, particularly in the context of the Pacific Islands, where images and narratives have long been shaped by colonial encounters and global media. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples—from Enlightenment-era voyages to modern climate change discourse—the essay highlights how Pacific Islanders have both been subjects of external representations and active participants in shaping their own identities.

Vol. 38 No. 1/2 (2015): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 38, No 1/2-Aug 2015 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Reclaiming Paradise: Cinema And Hawaiian Nationhood, Judith Schachter

Pacific Studies

This essay explores the enduring power of the “paradise” trope in cinematic portrayals of Hawai‘i and its evolving role in articulating Native Hawaiian nationhood. While Western media has long romanticized Hawai‘i through idyllic imagery of natural beauty and sensuality, contemporary indigenous filmmakers have begun to reclaim and repurpose these visual conventions. Rather than marking a shift from fantasy to realism, these films strategically reframe romantic imagery to assert cultural autonomy, political sovereignty, and a renewed relationship to the land (‘āina). Through analysis of both outsider and insider productions, the essay reveals how visual narratives critique colonial histories and resist hegemonic …

From Colonial Pomp To Tourism Reality: Commodification And Cannibalization Of The Fijian Firewalking Ceremony, Guido Carlo Pigliasco

Pacific Studies

In 1935 the rite [firewalking] was performed before two members of the British Medical Association. The eminent doctors examined the men carefully before and after the ceremony. . . . The men of Mbengga [sic], not knowing of these learned disputations, unconcernedly carry on the strange custom of their ancestors (Luis Marden, National Geographic, October 1958: 560–61).

The Fijians had another way of disposing of the bodies. They ate them. . . . This was a culture devoted to killing, and when there wasn’t an enemy around to meet their needs, chiefs took to killing the commoners among them …

Living Aloha: Portraits Of Resilience, Renewal, Reclamation, And Resistance, Camilla G. Wengler Vignoe

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

When Native Hawaiians move away from the islands, they risk losing their cultural identity and heritage. This dissertation utilizes a Hawaiian theoretical framework based in Indigenous research practices and uses phenomenology, ethnography, heuristics, and portraiture to tell the stories of leadership, change, and resilience of five Native Hawaiians who as adults, chose to permanently relocate to the United States mainland. It explores the reasons why Kanaka Maoli (politically correct term for Native Hawaiians) leave the 'āina (land; that which feeds) in the first place and eventually become permanent mainland residents. Some Hawaiians lose their culture after relocating to the United …

H.E.A.P.S. In Advances Towards A Healthier Samoa The Health Education And Promotions Section’S Role In Combating Non-Communicable Diseases, Kara Le

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

With an increase in the number of health issues within Samoa, specifically in relation to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), it is important to examine the efforts being made by government health officials to improve Samoa’s overall health status. This study explores the role of the Health Education and Promotion Section (H.E.A.P.S.) of the Ministry of Health in establishing and promoting healthier standards within the Samoan community. The current efforts of H.E.A.P.S. in combating NCDs through recently introduced projects and programs were explored in-depth. Further analysis of the design and effectiveness of these programs in changing the unhealthy habits of Samoan people …

Learning How To Fly The Intersectionality Of Religion, Culture And Gender Of The Samoan Baha’I Community, Detmer Yens Kremer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Samoan Baha’i community balances their multiple identities in a society where they are a minority. Their cultural, religious and gender identities are all essential to their expressions as human beings, and this research aims to explore how Samoan Baha’i reconcile their multiplicity of identities. Information was gathered through a wide range of primary and secondary resources consisting of interviews, other forms of personal communications and participatory observation. An expansion of the notion of intersectionality in a Pacific context contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of cultural change, globalization and social justice. As the Baha’i religion does not believe in …

Lighting Young Lights: The Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program In Samoa, Nicholas Muccio

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program (JYSEP) is a program inspired by the Baha’i Faith offered all around the world to those between the ages of 12 and 15. Due to its widespread implementation, it is likely that the practice of the program is in accordance with the cultural norms of the society in which it is practiced. The present study examines influences that the JYSEP has had on Samoan culture, and the influences that Samoan culture has had on the JYSEP. It has been found that the major values of the program are not in agreement with the traditional …

Masculinities, Militarism, And The Construction Of Gender In Contemporary Fiji: Performances Of Parody And Subversion As Feminist Resistance, Tui Nicola Clery

Pacific Studies

This article explores the historical and cultural construction of militarism and masculinity in Fiji. It argues that gendered identities are not fixed but are performed and shaped through embodied actions, discourse, and social relationships. Central to this analysis is the enduring significance of the warrior figure in indigenous Fijian epistemology and how this ideal has influenced contemporary masculinities. The paper also examines how indigenous Fijian masculinities have been constructed in contrast to those of the Fiji-Indian population, particularly during periods of conflict, revealing the complex interplay between gender, ethnicity, and militarism in Fijian society.