DOCSLIB.ORG

Contemporary Indigenous Women's Fiction from the Pacific: Discourses of Resistance and the (Re)Writing of Spaces of Violence and Desire

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Contemporary Indigenous Women's Fiction from the Pacific: Discourses of Resistance and the (Re)Writing of Spaces of Violence and Desire DOCTORAL DISSERTATION Contemporary Indigenous Women's Fiction from the Pacific: Discourses of Resistance and the (Re)Writing of Spaces of Violence and Desire Ana Cristina Gomes da Rocha 2021 International Mention Ana Cristina Gomes da Rocha DOCTORAL DISSERTATION Contemporary Indigenous Women's Fiction from the Pacific: Discourses of Resistance and the (Re)Writing of Spaces of Violence and Desire Supervised by Dr. Belén Martín Lucas 2021 International Mention International Doctoral School Belén Martín Lucas DECLARES that the present work, entitled “Contemporary Indigenous Women's Fiction from the Pacific: Discourses of Resistance and the (Re)Writing of Spaces of Violence and Desire”, submitted by Ana Cristina Gomes da Rocha to obtain the title of Doctor, was carried out under her supervision in the PhD programme “Interuniversity Doctoral Programme in Advanced English Studies.” This is a joint PhD programme integrating the Universities of Santiago de Compostela (USC), A Coruña (UDC), and Vigo (UVigo). Vigo, January 21, 2020. The supervisor, Dr. Belén Martín Lucas Acknowledgments Gratitude. I am grateful. Those are the expressions that best describe my state of mind when looking at this Dissertation. I am grateful that I have been always surrounded by those who never cease(d) to believe in me, by people whose love and support made this journey easier. I would like to say thanks: To my supervisor, Dr. Belén Martín Lucas, whose kindness, wise advice, patience, and unconditional belief in me, and in this project were fundamental along the process. Thank you for holding my hand until I finally believed that I could do this. Thank you for finding meaning in my tangential ideas. Thank you for being an amaZing woman whose words are always full of respect and empathy. Thank you for teaching me so much. I am grateful that our paths crossed. To my parents, Rosa and António, and to my sister, Rita, for their unconditional love and support. Thank you for care enough not to ask when this project would be finished, but who trusted it would be finished. You are my safe harbor. To my niece, Laura, and my goddaughter, Iara, who are too young to understand any of this but whose bright smiles and sharp curiosity make me believe that there is hope. Always hope in the future. To my beloved friend, Sofia, my travel companion in this and in many other journeys! Thank you for your friendship, the long conversations and advice. Your encouragement meant so much. Thank you for being such a good human being and a good friend. To Pedro Santos who embarked on this journey without questioning its destination. With you by my side, this journey has been lighter, easier and, definitely, happier. I thank you for your love, your support, and your exquisite sense of humour. I owe you my sanity, my health, and my heart. I love you. Table of contents Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………….. 5 Table of Contents …………………………………………………………. 7 Resumen ………………………………………………………………………… 9 Introduction: A Paradise on Earth ………………………………………. 19 0.1. Objectives ……………………………………………………. 29 0.2. Methodologies ………………………………………………… 32 0.3. Structure ……………………………………………………… 36 Chapter I: Departing, Journeying, Returning: Indigenous Cultures and Globalisation in the South Pacific Rim …………………………………… 43 1.1. Departing: Colonialism, Postcolonialism and Globalisation in the South Pacific Rim …………………………………………………….. 44 1.1.1. South Pacific Narratives by Indigenous Writers: Celéstine hitiura Vaite, Kiana Davenport, and Sia Figiel …………………. 69 1.2. Journeying across Islands: Tahiti, Hawai’i, and Samoa……….. 72 1.2.1. Tahiti ………………………………………………….. 72 1.2.2. hawai’i ………………………………………………... 78 1.2.3. Samoa …………………………………………………. 85 1.3. Returning to the Unsettling Ocean……………………………… 90 Chapter II: Beyond the Postcard: Célestine hitiura Vaite and the Deconstruction of Tahitian Exotic Images ………………………………… 95 2.1. Breadfruit: Belonging, Dissidence and Joyful Resistance ……... 104 2.2. Frangipani: Empowered Motherhood ………………………… 123 2.3. Tiare: Toxic Masculinities and “Unknow Fathers” …………… 139 2.4. Chapter’s Conclusions ………………………………………… 148 Chapter III: Understanding Aloha ‘āina: Kiana Davenport and Native hawaiian Culture ………………………………………………………….. 159 3.1. Shark Dialogues: Biocolonialism, Indigenous Ethics of Care and Cultural Survival ………………………………………………………….. 166 3.2. Song of the Exile: Militarism, Gender Violence and healing…… 199 3.3. Chapter’s Conclusions …………………………………………. 216 Chapter IV: Searching for Light(ness): Knowledge and Decolonial Love in Sia Figiel’s Novels ……………………………………………………… 221 4.1. Where We Once Belonged: Coming of Age in a Glocalised Samoa ……………………………………………………………………... 228 4.2. Freelove: Decolonial Love, Sex, and Care ……………………... 256 4.3. Chapter’s Conclusions …………………………………………. 284 Conclusion: hope at Sea ………………………………………………….. 289 Works Cited ……………………………………………………………… 303 Resumen El arte, en general, y la literatura producida por autoras y autores indígenas, en particular, se han utilizado como elemento de denuncia contra la ocupación y apropiación de territorios y culturas indígenas, siendo este uno de los temas más representados en la literatura indígena del Pacífico. Las literaturas indígenas contemporáneas en el Pacífico están indisolublemente ligadas a los movimientos sociales, por lo que las narrativas incluidas para el análisis en esta Tesis Doctoral sitúan las prácticas socioculturales indígenas en un primer plano y contribuyen al debate en curso sobre los derechos de las mujeres indígenas, la ocupación de la tierra y la degradación ecológica. Se puede argumentar que la escritura indígena es una poderosa herramienta en la lucha contra el colonialismo y en los esfuerzos posteriores por deshacerse del legado del imperio y revertir la expropiación. Calificada por Albert Wendt como la literatura más joven del mundo, las narrativas producidas por las autoras estudiadas en esta tesis emergen como importantes referentes culturales, voces que ofrecen representaciones desde las que es posible calibrar el impacto de movimientos como la colonización, la hegemonía e imperialismo euroamericano, la globalización y su mercantilización de bienes y culturas. En este contexto de apropiación y sometimiento cultural, las autoras seleccionadas en este estudio no solo denuncian múltiples formas de violencia contra sus culturas y ecosistemas, sino que también contribuyen en gran medida a la comprensión de los procesos de descolonización y lucha permanente contra la violencia de género a la que muchas veces las mujeres indígenas están sujetas. Podría decirse que la literatura indígena es una parte integral de una práctica de descolonización que tiene como objetivo cuestionar y deconstruir las imágenes estereotipadas de los pueblos indígenas del Pacífico, particularmente en cuanto a los roles de género. Después de la colonización y la invasión, los misioneros y colonizadores institucionalizaron el ideal eurocristiano de la familia nuclear con construcciones binarias de género, masculino y femenino, basado en una ideología heteronormativa. Esta construcción de género comenzó a reflejar dominios y poderes masculinos y femeninos polarizados, contribuyendo a marginar, silenciar y estigmatizar la diversidad y riqueza de las distintas expresiones de género, así como a redefinir el rol de las mujeres indígenas dentro de sus sociedades. En este contexto de apropiación y sometimiento cultural, las autoras seleccionadas en este estudio, Celéstine Hitura Vaite (Tahiti), Kiana Davenport (Hawai'i) y Sia Figiel (Samoa) no solo denuncian múltiples formas de violencia contra sus culturas y ecosistemas, sino que también contribuyen en gran medida a una mayor comprensión de los procesos de descolonización y la lucha permanente contra la violencia de género a la que suelen ser sometidas las mujeres indígenas. Las tres escritoras seleccionadas para el estudio en esta tesis abordan temas sociales contemporáneos que participan en la denuncia de importantes pérdidas culturales, desigualdades de género y degradación ambiental. Además, parece claro que sus voces dentro del panorama literario de la llamada literatura del Pacífico subrayan la importancia de romper los silencios enraizados socialmente, un desafío que no solo interviene en los procesos de recuperación cultural, sino que también posibilita el empoderamiento de los sujetos femeninos. De hecho, a través de este gesto de desafío y su poder regenerativo las novelas elegidas y analizadas en los siguientes capítulos forman parte de un conjunto de prácticas de descolonización desde las que se empodera a las mujeres indígenas. Estas novelas son: Breadfruit (2000), Frangipani (2004) y Tiare (2006) de Celéstine Hitiura Vaite; Shark Dialogues (1995) y Song of the Exile (1999) de Kiana Davenport; y Where Once We Belonged (1996) y Freelove (2016) de Sia Figiel, que se analizan en los capítulos 2, 3 y 4 respectivamente. El espacio geopolítico denominado como Polinesia (Tahiti, Hawai’i y Samoa) se representa y reconfigura desde puntos axiales que ponen énfasis en las epistemologías y cosmologías indígenas como base de procesos permanentes de descolonización cultural, territorial e identitaria. De esta manera, los textos estudiados a lo largo de esta tesis denuncian los problemas derivados del contacto entre colonizadores/as y pueblos indígenas, incluida la destrucción ecológica al tiempo que evocan formas de pertenencia cultural y transmiten el orgullo de esa misma pertenencia. Existe, por tanto, una clara apreciación de los saberes y cosmologías indígenas en los que la tradición y los
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Individuality, Collectivity, and Samoan Artistic Responses to Cultural Change
    The I and the We: Individuality, Collectivity, and Samoan Artistic Responses to Cultural Change April K Henderson That the Samoan sense of self is relational, based on socio-spatial rela- tionships within larger collectives, is something of a truism—a statement of such obvious apparent truth that it is taken as a given. Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Taisi Efi, a former prime minister and current head of state of independent Sāmoa as well as an influential intellectual and essayist, has explained this Samoan relational identity: “I am not an individual; I am an integral part of the cosmos. I share divinity with my ancestors, the land, the seas and the skies. I am not an individual, because I share a ‘tofi’ (an inheritance) with my family, my village and my nation. I belong to my family and my family belongs to me. I belong to my village and my village belongs to me. I belong to my nation and my nation belongs to me. This is the essence of my sense of belonging” (Tui Atua 2003, 51). Elaborations of this relational self are consistent across the different political and geographical entities that Samoans currently inhabit. Par- ticipants in an Aotearoa/New Zealand–based project gathering Samoan perspectives on mental health similarly described “the Samoan self . as having meaning only in relationship with other people, not as an individ- ual. This self could not be separated from the ‘va’ or relational space that occurs between an individual and parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other extended family and community members” (Tamasese and others 2005, 303).
    [Show full text]
  • The Birth of a Nation
    The Birth of a Nation by Christian Lanciai (1986, translated 2017) Dramatis personae: Godrith Saxwolf, messenger Mallet de Graville, Norman Harold Godwinson, Earl of England Edith, his cousin and beloved Earl Godwin, his father Edward the Confessor, King of England Edith, his Queen, Harold’s sister Aldyth, daughter of King Elgar of Wales Torstig, Gurth and Haco, Harold’s brothers William, Duke of Normandy Mathilda, his wife Bishop Udo of Bayeux, William’s brother Alred, Bishop of York Stigand, Abbot of Westminster Harold Hardrade, King of Norway Hugues Maigrot, Norman monk and diplomat A servant An old Saxon chief Other leading Saxons A Norman priest A doctor Norman barons and counsellors A Norwegian squire Norwegian warrior An English courier English soldiers Norman soldiers Anglo-Saxon priests The scene is England and France up until 1066. Act I scene 1. A forest in England. Godrith Halt, if you are a man! Mallet de Graville Halt yourself, whoever you are! Godrith Friend or foe? Graville Foe to anyone who doesn’t befriend me. Godrith You speak like a Norman. Graville And you speak like a true Saxon blackguard. Godrith What are you doing in England? Graville I am on a mission by Duke William of Normandy. Godrith What does he want of England? Graville He desires the throne after your King Edward the Confessor, who is old and frail as the last of his family. Godrith Would a Frenchman make himself King of England? Graville My good man, everyone knows, and you as well, that William of Normandy is the King’s closest of kin, being married to Mathilda, a relative of Alfred the Great.
    [Show full text]
  • Contributors
    Contributors serie (cherie) barford was born in Aotearoa to a Samoan-born mother (Stunzner/Betham/Leaega of Lotofaga and Fulu / Jamieson of Luatuanu‘u) and a pëlagi father. Her latest book, Tapa Talk, was published in 2007, and her works have appeared in multidisciplinary books, journals, and Web sites. keith l camacho is a Chamorro writer from the Mariana Islands and a former creative writing student of Albert Wendt. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the Asian American Studies Department at the University of Cali- fornia, Los Angeles. His book Cultures of Commemoration: The Politics of War, Memory, and History in the Mariana Islands is forthcoming from the University of Hawai‘i Press in the Pacific Islands Monograph Series. david chappell is associate professor of Pacific Islands history at the Uni- versity of Hawai‘i at Mënoa. For more than a decade, he has been focusing his studies on the French Pacific territories, especially Kanaky New Caledonia. sia figiel, internationally acclaimed Samoan author of Where We Once Belonged (1996), has had her work translated into at least eight languages. Author of two novels, a novella, a collection of poetry, and a collaborative spoken-word cd, she works and lives with her sons in American Sëmoa. jon fraenkel is a senior research fellow with the State, Society, and Gover- nance in Melanesia Program at the Australian National University. He previ- ously worked for eleven years at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. He specializes in Pacific electoral systems, political science, and economic history. april k henderson is a lecturer in Pacific studies at Victoria University of Wellington.
    [Show full text]
  • 21St Century Pacific Narratives Across Media a Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Division of the University Of
    CONFLICTED FLOWS: 21ST CENTURY PACIFIC NARRATIVES ACROSS MEDIA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH MAY 2018 By Steven Gin Dissertation Committee: John Zuern, Chairperson Cristina Bacchilega Vilsoni Hereniko Glenn Man Alexander Mawyer Table of Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 8 Chapter 1 Speak-Writing Beyond the Words: Mediation in Brotherson's The Missing King 26 Narrating Silence: Brotherson's Mute Narrator 30 Vaki's Language Games 55 Magical Signs and Altered States 62 Chapter 2 Narrating Pacific Oratory in Fiction and Film 76 Oratory in Patricia Grace’s Dogside Story 86 Cinematic Narration of Oratory in Tusi Tamasese’s The Orator 104 Chapter 3 The Sounds of Pacific Streets: Medial Conflicts in Pacific Audio Poetry 125 Down on the Sidewalk in Waikiki 132 I Can See Fiji 144 Chapter 4 Networking Stories: Electronic Narratives in the Pacific 157 Lani Wendt Young and the Electronic Paratext 159 Self-Publishing 162 Participatory Culture and Electronic Paratexts 169 Cyberspace and Pacific Diasporic Identity 180 Social Media Activism and Poetic Narrative in Contemporary Micronesian Poetry 190 Works Cited 214 2 Abstract Conflicted Flows looks at what I call “medial conflicts”—where stories come up against limit points in terms of medium—and their resolutions in indigenous Pacific Island literature since the turn of the 21st Century. In the Pacific Island texts, films, recordings, and electronic media that I examine, medial conflicts often present obstacles to expression, but I argue ultimately open a productive dialogic space in which media refer to and imitate one another, while bringing attention to and resisting power structures that undergird the region’s expressive culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Labor Resistance Poetry of Depression-Era Autoworkers
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses November 2016 Protest Lyrics at Work: Labor Resistance Poetry of Depression-Era Autoworkers Rebecca S. Griffin University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the American Literature Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, Labor History Commons, and the Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Recommended Citation Griffin, Rebecca S., "Protest Lyrics at Work: Labor Resistance Poetry of Depression-Era Autoworkers" (2016). Doctoral Dissertations. 838. https://doi.org/10.7275/8808502.0 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/838 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PROTEST LYRICS AT WORK: LABOR RESISTANCE POETRY OF DEPRESSION-ERA AUTOWORKERS A Dissertation Presented by REBECCA S. GRIFFIN Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2016 English © Copyright by Rebecca S. Griffin 2016 All Rights Reserved PROTEST LYRICS AT WORK: LABOR RESISTANCE POETRY OF DEPRESSION-ERA AUTOWORKERS A Dissertation Presented by REBECCA S. GRIFFIN Approved as to style and content by: _______________________________________ Ruth Jennison, Chair _______________________________________ Nicholas Bromell, Member _______________________________________ Eve Weinbaum, Member ____________________________________ Jenny Spencer, Chair English Department DEDICATION To Mike “Rise Above” ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to my advisor, Ruth Jennison, for supporting me throughout this process and offering me invaluable suggestions and insight.
    [Show full text]
  • Valles Caldera National Preserve Land Use History
    More Than a Scenic Mountain Landscape: Valles Caldera National Preserve United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Land Use History Rocky Mountain Research Station General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-196 September 2007 Kurt F. Anschuetz Thomas Merlan Anschuetz, Kurt F.; Merlan, Thomas. 2007. More than a scenic mountain landscape: Valles Caldera National Preserve land use history. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-196. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 277 p. Abstract This study focuses on the cultural-historical environment of the 88,900-acre (35,560-ha) Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) over the past four centuries of Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. governance. It includes a review and synthesis of available published and unpublished historical, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic literature about the human occupation of the area now contained within the VCNP. Documents include historical maps, texts, letters, diaries, business records, photographs, land and mineral patents, and court testimony. This study presents a cultural-historical framework of VCNP land use that will be useful to land managers and researchers in assessing the historical ecology of the property. It provides VCNP administrators and agents the cultural-historical background needed to develop management plans that acknowledge traditional associations with the Preserve, and offers managers additional background for structuring and acting on consultations with affiliated communities. The Authors Kurt F. Anschuetz, an archaeologist and anthropologist, is the Program Director of the RÍo Grande Foundation for Communities and Cultural Landscapes in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He provides educational opportunities and technical assistance to Indian, Hispanic, and Anglo communities working to sustain their traditional relations with the land, the water, and their cultural heritage resources in the face of rapid development.
    [Show full text]
  • Extensions of Remarks Hon
    Septembm· 9, 1975 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 28219 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS METRIC CONVERSION ACT secondary mathematics teachers having un­ is increasing: and, (B) increased use of such dergone the aforementioned training under metric system in the United States ls in­ Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) evitable, and such a metric system will be­ HON. DONALD M. FRASER guidance in 1972. By M-day, plus one year, come the dominant system of weights and 90% of elementary and secondary teachers OF :MINNESOTA measures in the United States; and in Minnesota public schools shall have un­ Whereas, the Minnesota Legislature has di­ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES dergone related training in metric measure­ rected the Commissioner of Education and :Monday, September 8, 1975 ments. the Commissioner of Administration to de­ 2. Inservice material shall be available for velop and implement a plan of public educa­ Mr. FRASER. Mr. Speaker, although teachers not already trained in metrics. (To tion on the metric system of weights and I was unable to be present for the vote be accomplished by December 31, 1975.) * measures and has directed the Commissioner on the Metric Conversion Act, H.R. 8674, 3. The Minnesota Department of Education of Education to implement such plan; and because of my commitment to serve on shall actively encourage all teachers and Whereas, a Minnesota Plan for Metric Edu­ the U.S. delegation to the United Nations school administrators to familiarize them­ cation has been developed and approved by this fall, I would like to express my sup­ selves with metric usages by July 1, 1976, and the Commissioner of Education and the Com­ port for the measure.
    [Show full text]
  • RISING TIDE Social Justice
    A collection of Pacific poems about human rights and RISING TIDE social justice Rising A collectionTide of Pacific poems about human rights and social justice Edited by Dr Francis Mangubhai Suva, Fiji, 2020 © The Pacific Community (SPC) 2020 All rights for commercial/for profit reproduction or translation, in any form, reserved. SPC authorises the partial reproduction or translation of this material for scientific, educational or research purposes, provided that SPC and the source document are properly acknowledged. Permission to reproduce the document and/or translate in whole, in any form, whether for commercial/ for profit or non-profit purposes, must be requested in writing. Original SPC artwork may not be altered or separately published without permission. Original text: English Pacific Community Cataloguing-in-publication data Mangubhai, Francis Rising tide: a collection of Pacific poems about human rights and social justice / edited by Dr Francis Mangubhai 1. Human rights - Oceania. 2. Social justice - Oceania. 3. Poetry - Oceania. 4. Literature - Oceania. I. Mangubhai, Francis II. Title III. Pacific Community 323.0995 AACR2 ISBN: 978-982-00-1286-8 Prepared for publication at SPC’s Suva Regional Office, Private Mail Bag, Suva, Fiji, 2020 www.spc.int | [email protected] Printed at Quality Print, Suva, Fiji Rising Tide About the Anthology This publication is one of the outcomes of a social citizenship education programme for school children carried out by the Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) of the Pacific Community (SPC). The SCE programme is funded by the European Union. As part of the programme, RRRT requested Dr Francis Mangubhai, the notable Fiji-born educator and researcher in applied linguistics, to compile this anthology of Pacific poetry.
    [Show full text]
  • The Middle Parts of Fortune Somme and Ancre, 1916
    The Middle Parts of Fortune Somme and Ancre, 1916 Manning, Frederic (1882-1935) A digital text sponsored by Australian Literature Gateway University of Sydney Library Sydney 2003 http://purl.library.usyd.edu.au/setis/id/manmidd © University of Sydney Library. The texts and images are not to be used for commercial purposes without permission Source Text: Prepared from the print edition published by The Piazza Press [London?] Printed in Glasgow 1929 2 Volumes, 453pp. This first edition was published privately and issued under subscription by Peter Davies. This work was subsequently published and reprinted many times in expurgated version under the title Her Privates We. All quotation marks are retained as data. First Published: 1929 823.91/M283/J2 Australian Etext Collections at novels 1910-1939 The Middle Parts of Fortune Somme and Ancre, 1916 [London?] Printed in Glasgow The Piazza Press 1929 TO PETER DAVIES WHO MADE ME WRITE IT Prefatory Note While the following pages are a record of experience on the Somme and Ancre fronts, with an interval behind the lines, during the latter half of the year 1916; and the events described in it actually happened; the characters are fictitious. It is true that in recording the conversations of the men I seemed at times to hear the voices of ghosts. Their judgments were necessarily partial and prejudiced; but prejudices and partialities provide most of the driving power of life. It is better to allow them to cancel each other, than attempt to strike an average between them. Averages are too colourless, indeed too abstract in every way, to represent concrete experience.
    [Show full text]
  • Albert Wendt's Critical and Creative Legacy in Oceania
    Albert Wendt’s Critical and Creative Legacy in Oceania: An Introduction Teresia Teaiwa and Selina Tusitala Marsh The Flyingfox has faced the dark side of the moon and knows the gift of loneliness The stars have talked to him of ice He has steered the sea’s secrets to Aotearoa Fiji Hawaii Samoa and gathered the spells of the albino atua He has turned his blood into earth and planted mischievous aitu in it His is the wisdom of upsidedownness and the light that is Pouliuli (Albert Wendt, “For Kauraka”) (the dark side of the moon) We find ourselves at a moment of witnessing both the retirement, in a pro- fessional sense, and the inevitable passing away of many who constituted the first substantial wave of Pacific academics, intellectuals, and contem- porary artists. Although this collection was planned and initiated several years ago, we have been finalizing it in the shadow of mourning such formidable Pacific patriarchs as poet and activist Hone Tuwhare; scholar, writer, and arts patron Epeli Hau‘ofa; researcher and publisher Ron Cro- combe; poet and writer Alistair Te Ariki Campbell; and philosopher and educator Futa Helu. The contributors to this issue have in various permu- tations been part of conversations taking place in and around Oceania, about what the first wave—that first full generation of conscious, consci- entious Oceanians—has bequeathed to the generations who follow them. The contributions contained here thus document a process of deliberate reckoning with a unique intellectual inheritance. The Contemporary Paci²c, Volume 22, Number 2, 233–248 © 2010 by University of Hawai‘i Press 233 234 the contemporary pacific • 22:2 (2010) This special issue focuses on one of our predecessors and elders, Albert Wendt.
    [Show full text]
  • And Celestine Hitiura Vaite (Tahiti)
    ARTICLE WENDY E COWLING Island Lives: The Writing of Sia Figiel (Samoa) and Celestine Hitiura Vaite (Tahiti) INTRODUCTION I come from a very small island – it’s closed in – in a sense that everyone knows everyone… it can be very confining.1 The word insular, meaning “like an island,” is frequently used pejoratively by English speakers to imply narrow-mindedness and a lack of interest in or knowledge about others. But the word is also sometimes used to imply circumscription – people may be socially constrained by their age, gender and social status and, in many tradition-bound communities, by the requirements of custom; that is, they are duty-bound to behave in specific ways in particular contexts. I will be exploring some of the effects of insularity in both the geographical sense as well as the pejorative sense when discussing the works of Figiel and Vaite. I could focus on several other readings of their writing such as their depictions of gender relations, for in both Samoa and Tahiti, men are not always particularly estimable, while women have to be strong, and strong-willed, or they would not survive emotionally. Another reading could be related to the lasting effect on the peoples of Samoa and of Tahiti of their experiences of colonisation, although their first foreign rulers were from different European countries. Samoa was governed by Germany for 16 years until 1914, and then by New Zealand until 1960, when the then Western Samoa achieved independence. In Tahiti, the French colonial presence, which began in 1847, is on-going. During the colonisation process of both island groups the local peoples were required to learn the languages of the incomers, with a concomitant subordination of the indigenous languages and of the oral transmission of extensive bodies of knowledge, including histories, mythologies and genealogies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evolution of Orality in Samoa Cheryl Nunes Swarthmore College Abstract Orality and Literacy Are Two Very Different Yet Perma
    The Evolution of Orality in Samoa Cheryl Nunes Swarthmore College Abstract Orality and literacy are two very different yet permanently related aspects of human language. All languages have their origins in primary orality, and only a fraction of all existing languages have actually ever been written down. This research focuses on the adoption of literacy by the Pacific island nation of Samoa1 and the active response taken by Samoan citizens in the face of this tremendous cultural shift. Samoa was colonized by British missionaries in the 1830s, and within decades they had established literacy in the local language. It was not until after the turn of the twentieth century that the English language gained priority in Samoa, and this fact has allowed for a strong sense of ‘Samoan-ness’ to persist beneath an evolving Samoan society. Though many Samoan oral traditions have undergone transformations at the hands of literacy and westernization, these changes have not necessarily entailed a loss of the Samoan culture. On the contrary, Samoans have used the tools of the colonizers to ensure a proliferation of Samoan identity and a redistribution of orality, finely exemplified through the literary works of Albert Wendt and Sia Figiel. These Samoan writers have indigenized the arena of creative literature, through an innovative use of the English language and unique styles of writing that serve to emphasize native orality and secure an enduring sense of Samoan self. Through resilience and creativity, Samoans have refused to simply let literacy transform their traditions, but rather they have actively perpetuated Samoan culture through adapted outlets of expression, and an adopted world language.
    [Show full text]