When redressing archives and collecting histories, the typical approach to curating exhibitions is to use archival sources as the central focus or primary departure point for artists to respond to. Citing Ourselves was an exhibition with curatorial method that did the exact opposite. Developed collaboratively by its curators, the exhibition's reference points were instead the intellectual contributions of Pacific artist-activist-scholars to global discourses of climate justice and the critical legacy that Pacific studies has in shaping these. In response to shallow Western citational practices and curatorial methods, Pacific peoples' visual, environmental, scientific, oratorical, and embodied knowledges were reclaimed and cited as primary sources that inspired the selection and presentation of archival material from the Australian National University Archives, the Pacific Research Archives, and the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. Installed at the RG Menzies Library at the Australian National University, Citing Ourselves was presented as part of the z0z3 Australian Association for Pacific Studies conference, which was themed after Julian Aguon's z0zi influential essay, "To Hell with Drowning." Citing Ourselves was a collective review of the ongoing challenges faced by Pacific peoples in the era of climate change, as well as the acts initiated by them for cultural self-determination and survival.
This essay considers the articulations and disarticulations between Pacific studies and cultural anthropology, drawing on the author's experiences and others' published literature, in order to better illuminate the contours and imperatives of Pacific studies. It begins by acknowledging the interrelated histories of the two fields and reviewing instances in which Pacific studies and the anthropology of Oceania have been discussed in relation to each other. It then surveys the more extensive body of literature that critically interrogates anthropology's relationships with Pacific peoples. Finally, it applies Teresia Teaiwa's 2010 prescription for Pacific studies to identify palpable differences between the prerogatives and practices of interdisciplinary Pacific studies and cultural anthropology. The essay concludes that to carry on a Pacific studies inspired by Teresia Teaiwa's teaching and work requires advocating for a form of critical Pacific empowerment that "account[s] for indigenous ways of knowing" (2010, 116) while holding fast to an imperative for critique in the pursuit of justice and dialogue, striving for better understanding and commitment to relationalities across and beyond the region, and continuing to foster interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approaches able to embrace creative registers, not just as sources of knowledge but as modes of knowledge dissemination. While all of these imperatives and trajectories do exist in pockets within the anthropology of Oceania, they are central to the practice of Pacific studies.
Legal scholarship has often been deeply informed by the study of Pacific legal systems, but in law schools across the world there has been very little interest in teaching about, let alone learning from, the region and its people. Scholars and insights from the region remain grossly underrepresented and pushed to the margins of legal scholarship, and this silencing reproduces the underrepresentation of Pasifika people in law schools, the legal profession, and critical global dialogues regarding justice systems. We argue that legal scholars, educators, and students have much to learn from increased engagement with Pacific studies. We suggest that such engagement is particularly critical for law schools across Oceania if we are to have any hope of developing the homegrown theories and practices necessary to contribute to anticolonial movements for liberation across our region and beyond.
Pacific Island countries are said to have a substantially high rate of violence against women, and Vanuatu is no exception to this. The existing literature on violence against women in the context of Pacific Island countries has highlighted how patriarchal ideologies have contributed to the high rate of violence against women while confirming that the majority of women survivors of violence remain silent. The literature claims the importance of integrating cultural and religious factors that may influence women's responses to violence. Based on the case study of two villages on Malekula Island, we aim to capture women's experiences of violence and how women respond to it in a rural context, where formal support services are hardly available and women's lives are confined to household and village. Our interviews with thirty women show that most participants have experienced physical abuse by an intimate partner. Our findings show that none of the participants had ever consulted external formal service providers; instead they remained silent about abuse and sought guidance and peace in Christian teachings, which expect women to be good wives and obey the authority of their husbands. While women find peace in the teachings, together with customary practices, this reinforces traditional gender ideologies and patriarchal hierarchies and hinders women's empowerment. In this context, we suggest that multicomponent interventions-collaborations among formal support services, village chiefs, and church leaders-targeting men (with women and girls) may be effective to gradually mobilize community and change gender norms.
Pacific Islanders in Aotearoa New Zealand navigate an implicit but pervasive secularism when it comes to engaging with the state on issues of family violence. Through interviews with Pacific Islanders who have worked with the state to address family violence in Pacific Island communities, we trace the shadows cast by the state’s secularity. We question the purported neutrality of the secular state, arguing that rather than creating a space for a growing multicultural national community, secularism in New Zealand is closely associated with, and is preferential to, whiteness. In this way, secularism evokes its own deep-seated assumptions and guiding ideas and establishes a particular worldview that shapes state engagements with New Zealand’s Pacific communities. Given the overlap between ethnic and religious identities in Pacific communities, we argue that questions of secularism and religion are best approached not as stand-alone topics but as intersectional identities. This intersectional approach to the study of secularism helps to illuminate secular effects. In doing so, we show that secularism in New Zealand reduces the effectiveness of state family violence interventions, which in turn further marginalize Pacific Islanders, especially Pacific women.
Māori Issues Margaret Mutu (bio) Since 2008 Māori have started clawing back a few hard-earned rights. We had hoped that the Pākehā majority generally supported these. But our hopes were dashed over the past year as first the media and then the government launched racist attacks on various segments of the Māori community as part of its ongoing agenda to maintain Pākehā hegemony, that is, the retention of control of the country's resources, wealth, and privilege in Pākehā hands. Māori managed to withstand the onslaught and stand firm in the face of determined efforts to undermine our leadership. However, along the way we lost several important leaders, including our entertainer extraordinaire, Sir Howard Morrison, with his beautiful voice, dazzling showmanship, and unique Māori sense of humor. We lost him in September 2009. Then in May 2010, our internationally renowned film-maker, Merata Mita, who produced a number of outstanding television and film documentaries on the Māori struggle against Pākehā oppression and racism, passed away. Much of the Pākehā media animosity toward Māori in the past year focused on the Māori Party members of Parliament (MPS), and one in particular. The media had been sniping for some time with headlines such as "Māori Activists on Warpath" (Sunday News, 28 June 2009) and "MP'S Uncle to Lead Māori Sovereignty Protests" (NZPA, 28 June 2009), referring to Māori Party MP Hone Harawira; "Government Scuppers Māori TV's Bid for Rugby Rights" (NZH, 13 Oct 2009); and "Luck Running Out for Gaffe-prone Sharples" (NZH, 17 Oct 2009), referring to the party's co-leader, the Honorable Dr Pita Sharples. Late in October unauthorized MP spending came under parliamentary and media scrutiny, and several members were targeted. At the time, Hone Harawira was part of a parliamentary delegation to Geneva for a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the world organization of parliaments. During that meeting he sought and was given permission for leave to go to Paris for a day with his wife, a private trip that he paid for himself. On 3 November he reported the visit, and the permission to go, in his weekly column in the Northland Age. Pākehā media immediately dropped its investigation of unauthorized spending by other members of Parliament and turned their sights on Harawira's trip to Paris, attacking him for using New Zealand taxpayers' money, when in fact he had not. The Māori Party issued a press statement answering [End Page 227] the media questioning (Māori Party 2009a), and the matter should have ended there. However, among the numerous threatening and abusive private e-mails Harawira received on the matter (pers comm, 10 Nov 2009) was one from an individual known for his attacks on his own Māori people (Mutu 2007). Most unwisely, Harawira dashed off an angry but private response in which he used English expletives to remind the individual of the widely published history of ongoing stealing, raping, and pillaging by Pākehā of Māori and our lands and resources. For an unscrupulous and unprincipled person this presented an opportunity for media exposure, which some elements of Pākehā media in this country could be relied on to fully exploit. After his visit in 2005, Professor Rodolfo Stavenhagen, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People, had issued a damning report in which he stated, "Public media should be encouraged to provide a balanced, unbiased and non-racist picture of Māori in New Zealand society" (Stavenhagen 2006). But that advice has been ignored, and Māaori who raise the issue of Pākehā atrocities committed against Māori are still typically vilified by members of the Pākehā media. So the unscrupulous opportunist immediately released the private e-mail from Harawira to the media and then exploited the resulting frenzy, giving numerous interviews to Pākehā media. However, Māori media were much less tolerant of his behavior. He had miscalculated the level of support for Harawira in the Māori community, and particularly in his...
Cook Islands Christina Newport Reviews of American Sāmoa, Hawai'i, Sāmoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Wallis and Futuna are not included in this issue. This review covers the two-year period from July 2016 to June 2018 and tracks a range of ongoing and emerging concerns. Featured here are the implications from the 2016 population census, Marae Moana (the national marine park), the Cook Islands' impending Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (oecd) graduation to high-income country status, a controversial local tax amnesty, and events connected with the 2018 general election. 2016 saw the five-year national population survey get underway. Preliminary results of the 2016 census, which was held on 1 December, recorded a total population of 17,459 (mfem 2018c). Including residents and nonresidents (mostly tourists), the count shows a 2 percent decrease from the 2011 census (mfem 2018c). However, official reporting on population trends was delayed, as technical problems with equipment meant that the data had to be sent to New Zealand for compilation. Nevertheless, it is expected that the census data will show a further population drop, especially on the Pa 'enua (outer islands), where development economist Vaine Wichman pointed out that island leaders and public health workers "have a fairly good handle on the ebb and inflow of people to the islands" (cin, 1 June 2017), so are able to anticipate changes and demands for services and resources. However, eighteen months on, the official details of people's mobility in and out of the country, economic activity, housing, and well-being are still not available. On the face of it, it would seem that timely and informed public policymaking, planning, and service provisions will be impacted. But to some extent this is not necessarily a bad thing, because population-related policies need to be informed by more than just demographic trends, which invariably can be used to support the taken-for-granted arguments typically associated with the vulnerabilities and questionable viability of small island state development and economies (Baldacchino and Bertram 2009). Depopulation is a national concern and a political football (cin, 31 May 2018), especially given its implications for the country's labor force and its ability to support the tourism industry. However, it is important to also take account of the cultural and social imperatives that play a part in people's mobility, aspirations, and experiences, which may help deepen understandings when interpreting population patterns and trends. For example, the cost of living and the ability to earn a living wage were the main concerns of the 2018 Minimum Wage Rate Review Report (Government of the Cook Islands 2018). The review panel agreed that the Cook Islands Census [End Page 187] 2016 and 2016 Household Income Expenditure Survey would serve as the analytical basis for setting the minimum wage, along with a labor market assessment. However, in the absence of these major data sets, the panel concentrated on reviewing any major changes since the previous report in 2017. The review panel considered that "the main employers of minimum wage employees were the public sector, small businesses and the few businesses in the Pa Enua" (Government of the Cook Islands 2018, 3). As such, island administrations were likely to respond to an increase in minimum wage by reducing the work hours of minimum wage staff, assuming that there was no increase in the Pa 'enua funding model to help meet the new rate (Government of the Cook Islands 2018, 4). So while their take home pay would not change, workers would have more time for other activities, including subsistence farming and fishing. Regardless, the cost of living remains relatively high due to the country's small population, the reliance on imports to meet local consumption needs, and the distances that imported goods must travel, causing transport costs to affect the price of goods (Government of the Cook Islands 2018, 7). Another aspect of the Cook Islands population to consider is the increasing number of tourists to the Cook Islands. The environmental and social sustainability of the country is now being put to the test with record high numbers of tourists reaching over 150,000 in 2017 (rnz 2017a). Titikaveka Member...
