Indigenous Studies Commons^™

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.

Samoan Cultural Perceptions Of Tā-Vā, Unasa L. F. Va‘A

Pacific Studies

This study examines the historical development and cultural significance of tā (time) and vā (space) concepts across Polynesian societies, with particular emphasis on Samoan cultural frameworks.

Vol. 40 No. 1/2 (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 …

Concepts Of Tā-Vā (Time-Space) In The Art Practice Of Samoa-Aotearoa Artist Shigeyuki Kihara, Pamela Rosi

Pacific Studies

My paper considers concepts of tā-vā (time-space theory of reality) in the interdisciplinary art practice of Pacific Islander Shigeyuki Kihara, whose art is internationally acclaimed for its beauty, social criticism, and Moana identity linked to ties of community. With creative examples, I explore how Kihara’s constructions of tā-vā (a) reclaim Samoan histories and identities by subverting western fantasies of “dusky maidens” and a timeless South Seas Paradise; (b) challenge western binary norms of heterosexuality and gender from the traditional space (vā) she occupies as a fa‘afafine; and (c) embody Samoan deities to honor Moana spirituality and epistemologies. …

Tatau: Symmetry, Harmony, And Beauty In The Art Of Sēmisi Fetokai Potauaine, Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai

Pacific Studies

Tatau: Symmetry, Harmony, and Beauty in the Art of Sēmisi Fetokai Potauaine is generally informed by the tā-vā (time-space) theory of art and Tongan ethnography. This paper will look specifically at the body of works created by Potauaine for his exhibition Tatau: Fenāpasi ‘oe Fepaki / Tatau: Symmetry, Harmony, and Beauty held at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, from July to October 2010. This exhibition and its associated catalog of which I was cocurator and coeditor, respectively, included ten multimedia works ranging from tufunga tākupesi (graphic designing), tufunga tātongitongi (sculpture), and tufunga tākohikupesi (sculptural …

Lone Man And All My Relations, Doug Meigs

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Lone Man is the central creation figure of the Mandan, an indigenous people of present-day North Dakota. The story of Lone Man begins with the creation figure becoming self-aware on the open ocean. He creates the Earth and sets off to discover his people. Doug Meigs is writing the oral history of Robert O’Brien, a modern Mandan man living in Omaha, Nebraska, who grew up without any knowledge of tribal identity. Late in life, he would set off to learn that he was Mandan. O’Brien is still coming to terms with the meaning of that identity.

New Directions In Indigenous Women’S History, Susana D. Geliga, Margaret D. Jacobs

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Review Essay:

Brenda Child, Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community (New York: Penguin Books, 2012), pp. 240. IBSN: 978-1-101- 56025-9.

Ann McGrath, Illicit Love: Interracial Sex and Marriage in the United States and Australia (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015), pp. 538. ISBN: 978-0- 8032-3825-1.

Andrae M.Marak and Laura Tuennerman, At the Border of Empires: The Tohono O’odham, Gender, and Assimilation, 1880–1934 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2013), pp. 232. ISBN: 978-0-8165-2115-9.

Mary Jane McCallum, Indigenous Women, Work, and History, 1940–1980 (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2014), pp. 336. ISBN: 978-0-88755-738-5.

Sarah Deer, The Beginning …

Indigenism, Miscegenation, And Acculturation In Ecuador, Christina M. Hennessy

Headwaters

No abstract provided.

Helpers In A "Heathen" Land?: An Examination Of Missionary Perceptions Of The Cherokees, Andrew C. Nosti

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This analysis examines writings left behind by missionaries living among the Cherokees in the early nineteenth century to tease out the missionary perceptions of their Indigenous neighbors. This approach includes a heavy emphasis on decoding the white lexicon employed to discuss Native Americans to elucidate the broader cultural/racial intellectualism of the time. The utilization of this approach deconstructs a conventional “friend or foe” binary viewpoint of the missionaries, conversely constructing a greater complexity within the interracial and intercultural dynamics of the Early Republic, thereby providing a more layered and broader understanding of early America and, by extension, America overall.

Drowning In Rising Seas: Navigating Multiple Knowledge Systems And Responding To Climate Change In The Maldives, Rachel Hannah Spiegel

Pitzer Senior Theses

The threat of global climate change increasingly influences the actions of human society. As world leaders have negotiated adaptation strategies over the past couple of decades, a certain discourse has emerged that privileges Western conceptions of environmental degradation. I argue that this framing of climate change inhibits the successful implementation of adaptation strategies. This thesis focuses on a case study of the Maldives, an island nation deemed one of the most vulnerable locations to the impacts of rising sea levels. I apply a postcolonial theoretical framework to examine how differing knowledge systems can both complement and contradict one another. By …

The Socioeconomic Impact Of Indian Gaming On Kumeyaay Nations: A Case Study Of Barona, Viejas, And Sycuan, 1982 - 2016, Ethan L. Banegas

Theses

This study will use the reservations of Barona, Viejas, and Sycuan to measure the socioeconomic impacts of gaming within the Kumeyaay nation. It will also draw on information available from other gaming tribes. To organize my research, I will use the following categories: health, education, economics and infrastructure. Within these four topics I will cover: investment capital, poverty, higher education, internet access, alcohol addiction, suicide rates, obesity, diabetes, and other socioeconomic indicators. Once this is accomplished I will assess the social and economic impact of gaming on Barona, Viejas, and Sycuan and include the possible implications to heal historical trauma …

Negotiating Mexican Citizenship: Examining Implications Of A Narco-State And Rebellions In Contemporary Mexico, Nereida Guadalupe Montes

Scripps Senior Theses

Neoliberal has bee largely responsible for the creation of a narcoestado. As the Mexican state abandon its previous cultural projects such as education, employment, and social services, economic void increased. Narco-traffickers have increasingly filled this vacuum. Arguably, the weaken pillars of Mexican society allowed narco-trafficking to penetrate the areas once fulfilled by the state. It has led to the recruitment of economically dislocated farmers and citizens to turn to narco-trafficking for financial stability. Although, the state and narco-traffickers at times compete with each other to fulfill some of these functions, they also at times co-exist and merge into what …

Interior Department And Army Corps Announce Restoration Of Tribal Lands For The Three Affiliated Tribes Of The Fort Berthold Reservation; Transfer Restores Nearly 25,000 Acres Of Tribal Homelands Lost To The Garrison Dam Project, Department Of The Interior, Assistant Secretary Of The Army For Civil Works

US Government Documents Related to Indigenous Nations

This news release, dated December 20, 2016, from the United States (US) Department of the Interior and the US Assistant Secretary of the Army announces the return of 24,959 acres of land on the Fort Berthold Reservation to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. The returned land was part of the 153,000 acres of land taken by the United States Government for construction of the Garrison Dam. The authority of this transfer is granted by the Fort Berthold Mineral Restoration Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-602). This press release provides some background on the Garrison Dam Project …

Different Names For Bullying, Marco Poggio

Capstones

“There's all different forms of bullying,” says Steven Gray, a Lakota rancher and former law enforcement officer living in South Dakota. In this look into Gray’s life, we learn about two instances of bullying: the psychological and physical harassment that pushed his son, Tanner Thomas Gray, to commit suicide at age 12; And the controversial construction of an oil pipeline in an ancient tribal land that belongs to the Lakota people by rights of a treaty signed in 1851, which Gray sees as an institutional abuse infringing on the sovereignty of his people. Gray is involved in the movement that …

R. L. Stevenson’S Samoan Gothic: Representing Late Nineteenth-Century Plantations, Carla Manfredi

Pacific Studies

Sāmoa’s plantation landscape haunts Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1892 text, A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa. Stevenson represents the German-run plantations as sites of gothic terror, which are haunted by the ghosts of indentured laborers. In this essay, I examine Stevenson’s accounts of German plantation culture alongside corollary narratives from Sāmoa’s three commercial newspapers: the Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette (1877–81) the Samoa Times and South Sea Advertiser (1888–96), and the Samoa Weekly Herald (1892–1900). By juxtaposing some of Stevenson’s primary texts and local newspaper coverage, I not only identify the divergent discourses that shaped …

Book Review Forum: Glenn Wharton, The Painted King: Art, Activism, And Authenticity In Hawai‘I, Aaron Glass

Pacific Studies

Glenn Wharton. The Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012. Pp. 216. ISBN 978-0-8248-3612-2. US$19.00 paperback.

Review: Aaron Glass, Bard Graduate Center

Book Review Forum: Glenn Wharton, The Painted King: Art, Activism, And Authenticity In Hawai‘I, Stacy L. Kamehiro, Maile Arvin

Pacific Studies

Glenn Wharton. The Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012. Pp. 216. ISBN 978-0-8248-3612-2. US$19.00 paperback.

Review: Stacy L. Kamehiro, University of California, Santa Cruz Maile Arvin, University of California, Riverside

Book Review Forum Response: Glenn Wharton, The Painted King: Art, Activism, And Authenticity In Hawai‘I, Glenn Wharton

Pacific Studies

Response: Glenn Wharton

New York University

Book Review Forum: Glenn Wharton, The Painted King: Art, Activism, And Authenticity In Hawai‘I, Karen Stevenson

Pacific Studies

Glenn Wharton. The Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012. Pp. 216. ISBN 978-0-8248-3612-2. US$19.00 paperback.

Review: Karen Stevenson, University of Canterbury