with modernity as well as to negotiate the past” (98). However, Ellis cautions against presentist views when looking back at the past. In the case of early colonial collecting habits, for instance, we must view collections “in the context in which they occurred, rather than applying contemporary sensibilities to them” (204). A Whakapapa of Tradition offers much insight into art, artists, and their role in our modern cultures. That said, given my own curiosity about the stories behind intriguing photos, I would like to have known how the photos were taken, what they mean to the photographer, and what her physical journey of coming to these items and places involved. However, as the saying goes, a picture already tells a thousand words. Ellis ultimately looks to the future of digital art forms and Indigenous use of these new tools and platforms to preserve our traditions. She recommends identifying what was once there in order to recover visual traditions lost to museums and to continue “building new knowledge and artworks to enrich us all” (246). “Tradition,” she says, “was at the same time retained and yet broken in order to create a structure that made explicit hapū [sub-tribe] and iwi [tribe] identity in new and meaningful ways” (61, 259). Her insights can motivate and embolden us to continue finding creative ways to both break free of the confines of this word and preserve our culture in the digital age.
{"title":"Hawaiian Language: Past, Present, Future by Albert J Schütz (review)","authors":"Heather Garrido","doi":"10.1353/cp.2022.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2022.0019","url":null,"abstract":"with modernity as well as to negotiate the past” (98). However, Ellis cautions against presentist views when looking back at the past. In the case of early colonial collecting habits, for instance, we must view collections “in the context in which they occurred, rather than applying contemporary sensibilities to them” (204). A Whakapapa of Tradition offers much insight into art, artists, and their role in our modern cultures. That said, given my own curiosity about the stories behind intriguing photos, I would like to have known how the photos were taken, what they mean to the photographer, and what her physical journey of coming to these items and places involved. However, as the saying goes, a picture already tells a thousand words. Ellis ultimately looks to the future of digital art forms and Indigenous use of these new tools and platforms to preserve our traditions. She recommends identifying what was once there in order to recover visual traditions lost to museums and to continue “building new knowledge and artworks to enrich us all” (246). “Tradition,” she says, “was at the same time retained and yet broken in order to create a structure that made explicit hapū [sub-tribe] and iwi [tribe] identity in new and meaningful ways” (61, 259). Her insights can motivate and embolden us to continue finding creative ways to both break free of the confines of this word and preserve our culture in the digital age.","PeriodicalId":51783,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Pacific","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41278280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Such messaging is both necessarily encouraging and eminently useful for intellectuals employing decolonial methodologies—particularly those in settler-colonial contexts—and all those who seek a decolonized Hawai‘i. To recognize the weakness of white supremacy and its formations means to acknowledge the strength of all it attempted to oppress, including Indigenous ways of knowing, living, and relating to the land and each other. It means to see Kanaka ‘Ōiwi māhū (a third gender with culturally defined spiritual and social roles in Hawai‘i) Sammy Amalu’s milliondollar prank involving a false investment deal not as a failed business but as a window into an alternative future in which ‘āina (land) is not property but rather that which feeds (166–167). It means supporting Kanaka ‘Ōiwi farmers on Maui as they work to redirect waterways away from resorts to their farms, where they once flowed, in order to decrease Hawai‘i’s overreliance on imported food (190–193). Ultimately, as Saranillio demonstrates, recognizing alternative histories that reject the strength of white supremacy and capitalism makes room for our imagination to grow beyond the bounds of the unsustainable empire, allowing Indigenous knowledge and the land itself to guide our futures.
{"title":"Balancing the Tides: Marine Practices in American Sāmoa by JoAnna Poblete (review)","authors":"Michelle Harangody","doi":"10.1353/cp.2022.0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2022.0022","url":null,"abstract":"Such messaging is both necessarily encouraging and eminently useful for intellectuals employing decolonial methodologies—particularly those in settler-colonial contexts—and all those who seek a decolonized Hawai‘i. To recognize the weakness of white supremacy and its formations means to acknowledge the strength of all it attempted to oppress, including Indigenous ways of knowing, living, and relating to the land and each other. It means to see Kanaka ‘Ōiwi māhū (a third gender with culturally defined spiritual and social roles in Hawai‘i) Sammy Amalu’s milliondollar prank involving a false investment deal not as a failed business but as a window into an alternative future in which ‘āina (land) is not property but rather that which feeds (166–167). It means supporting Kanaka ‘Ōiwi farmers on Maui as they work to redirect waterways away from resorts to their farms, where they once flowed, in order to decrease Hawai‘i’s overreliance on imported food (190–193). Ultimately, as Saranillio demonstrates, recognizing alternative histories that reject the strength of white supremacy and capitalism makes room for our imagination to grow beyond the bounds of the unsustainable empire, allowing Indigenous knowledge and the land itself to guide our futures.","PeriodicalId":51783,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Pacific","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48182227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Waikiki dir. by Christopher Kahunahana (review)","authors":"D. Lipset","doi":"10.1353/cp.2022.0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2022.0020","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51783,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Pacific","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48918218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
———. 2020c. Minutes of the Regular Council Meeting Held at the Public Hall. 10 November. http://www.government .pn/minutes/Approved%20Regular %20Council%20Meeting%20Minutes %2010th%20Nov%202020.pdf [accessed 18 July 2021] ———. 2021a. Public Meeting Notes Held at the Public Hall. 15 January. http://www.government.pn/minutes/ Approved%20Public%20Meeting%20 Minutes%2015%20Jan%202021.pdf [accessed 18 July 2021]
{"title":"Sāmoa","authors":"Brian T Alofaituli","doi":"10.1353/cp.2022.0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2022.0024","url":null,"abstract":"———. 2020c. Minutes of the Regular Council Meeting Held at the Public Hall. 10 November. http://www.government .pn/minutes/Approved%20Regular %20Council%20Meeting%20Minutes %2010th%20Nov%202020.pdf [accessed 18 July 2021] ———. 2021a. Public Meeting Notes Held at the Public Hall. 15 January. http://www.government.pn/minutes/ Approved%20Public%20Meeting%20 Minutes%2015%20Jan%202021.pdf [accessed 18 July 2021]","PeriodicalId":51783,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Pacific","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48182152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Atea: Nature and Divinity in Polynesia (review)","authors":"A. Refiti","doi":"10.1353/cp.2021.0043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2021.0043","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51783,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Pacific","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44878603","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
That said and recognizing that Petrou writes as a human geographer rather than as an anthropologist, we would wish for a thicker description of Paamese experience in urban and rural settings. What was “Paamese” about those from Paama living in Port Vila? More specifically, was being a Paamese primarily a matter of geographical origin, or were there also diacritical cultural factors? If the latter, have markers of Paamese cultural identity, whether in town or on the island, changed over time? Correspondingly, we would want to know more about Paamese cultural ideas, past and present, that underpin sorcery and leadership. Perhaps, we wonder, these ideas have become less elaborated and culturally distinctive in town and village. Our Chambri friend, John, would surely recognize that the demands for sharing, described by Rasmussen and Petrou in their valuable studies, have long been significant for Pacific Islanders. (Many social scientists working among these Islanders, we venture, have considerable experience of singaut.) Both aggravating and gratifying for the successful, remittances ensured that someone would be there if you did something big. And, for those just getting by, remittances ensured that someone would be there to help, lest you go under.
{"title":"A Primer for Teaching Pacific Histories: Ten Design Principles by Matt K Matsuda (review)","authors":"D. Hanlon","doi":"10.1353/cp.2021.0049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2021.0049","url":null,"abstract":"That said and recognizing that Petrou writes as a human geographer rather than as an anthropologist, we would wish for a thicker description of Paamese experience in urban and rural settings. What was “Paamese” about those from Paama living in Port Vila? More specifically, was being a Paamese primarily a matter of geographical origin, or were there also diacritical cultural factors? If the latter, have markers of Paamese cultural identity, whether in town or on the island, changed over time? Correspondingly, we would want to know more about Paamese cultural ideas, past and present, that underpin sorcery and leadership. Perhaps, we wonder, these ideas have become less elaborated and culturally distinctive in town and village. Our Chambri friend, John, would surely recognize that the demands for sharing, described by Rasmussen and Petrou in their valuable studies, have long been significant for Pacific Islanders. (Many social scientists working among these Islanders, we venture, have considerable experience of singaut.) Both aggravating and gratifying for the successful, remittances ensured that someone would be there if you did something big. And, for those just getting by, remittances ensured that someone would be there to help, lest you go under.","PeriodicalId":51783,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Pacific","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41354528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rosarine Rafai, Jiokapeci Qalo-Qiolevu, Maca Radua-Stephens, D. McDougall, D. Oakeshott, R. Hicks
{"title":"Becoming Educators in Oceania: From Ridge to Reef to the Region and Then Returning Home","authors":"Rosarine Rafai, Jiokapeci Qalo-Qiolevu, Maca Radua-Stephens, D. McDougall, D. Oakeshott, R. Hicks","doi":"10.1353/cp.2021.0038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2021.0038","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51783,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Pacific","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47634279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Community Music in Oceania: Many Voices, One Horizon by Brydie-Leigh Bartleet et al. (review)","authors":"Brian Diettrich","doi":"10.1353/cp.2021.0047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2021.0047","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51783,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Pacific","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44572150","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Atea: Nature and Divinity in Polynesia (review)","authors":"D. Mcmullin","doi":"10.1353/cp.2021.0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2021.0042","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51783,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Pacific","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44687767","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
a pedagogical consideration. In the Pacific Islands region, students bring personal experiences and family histories to the classroom, and often with considerable emotion. History is manifest in the surrounding landscapes and seascapes and in the artifacts and ongoing influences of colonial pasts. Students from beyond the region might be able to tap into this more intimate and personal educational environment through exchanges, winter-quarter visits, videoconferencing, and online forums with Pacific schools. The sweep of this primer also elicits a historiographical comment. A broadstroke Pacific Worlds approach risks losing sight of islands’ own histories. Despite the author’s efforts, it is difficult to keep the islands at the center of a “truly transpacific Pacific” (85). The different islands of the region did not experience these larger regional movements equally or at the same time. Moreover, it’s important to ask how different Island peoples actually understood and made sense of these contacts with the larger region. This, in turn, raises the question of historicities, or the culturally specific ways that different Island peoples make their history. A Pacific histories course should include this critical topic as well as a more extensive consideration of the concept of indigeneity. Students might also be alerted to the politics of history making in settler colonies where the harshness of colonial rule is often elided in favor of false narratives of reconciliation. It is also helpful to keep in mind Teresia Teaiwa’s distinction between the Pacific and Oceania; the Pacific is a term that reflects external orderings and understandings, while Oceania speaks to the fluid, rich, vibrant world envisioned by the Tongan scholar Epeli Hau‘ofa—a world whose parameters were not the bordering rims of continental bodies but more immediately and specifically the seas, shores, and skies of the islands called Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. A Primer for Teaching Pacific Histories outlines a course with a rich, welcome, and innovative historical perspective on the broader Pacific region. Such an approach also needs to acknowledge the complexities and specificities of Island histories.
{"title":"Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and Their Polynesian Ancestors by Andrew Crowe (review)","authors":"P. Lincoln","doi":"10.1353/cp.2021.0050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2021.0050","url":null,"abstract":"a pedagogical consideration. In the Pacific Islands region, students bring personal experiences and family histories to the classroom, and often with considerable emotion. History is manifest in the surrounding landscapes and seascapes and in the artifacts and ongoing influences of colonial pasts. Students from beyond the region might be able to tap into this more intimate and personal educational environment through exchanges, winter-quarter visits, videoconferencing, and online forums with Pacific schools. The sweep of this primer also elicits a historiographical comment. A broadstroke Pacific Worlds approach risks losing sight of islands’ own histories. Despite the author’s efforts, it is difficult to keep the islands at the center of a “truly transpacific Pacific” (85). The different islands of the region did not experience these larger regional movements equally or at the same time. Moreover, it’s important to ask how different Island peoples actually understood and made sense of these contacts with the larger region. This, in turn, raises the question of historicities, or the culturally specific ways that different Island peoples make their history. A Pacific histories course should include this critical topic as well as a more extensive consideration of the concept of indigeneity. Students might also be alerted to the politics of history making in settler colonies where the harshness of colonial rule is often elided in favor of false narratives of reconciliation. It is also helpful to keep in mind Teresia Teaiwa’s distinction between the Pacific and Oceania; the Pacific is a term that reflects external orderings and understandings, while Oceania speaks to the fluid, rich, vibrant world envisioned by the Tongan scholar Epeli Hau‘ofa—a world whose parameters were not the bordering rims of continental bodies but more immediately and specifically the seas, shores, and skies of the islands called Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. A Primer for Teaching Pacific Histories outlines a course with a rich, welcome, and innovative historical perspective on the broader Pacific region. Such an approach also needs to acknowledge the complexities and specificities of Island histories.","PeriodicalId":51783,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Pacific","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47162348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}