Pacific News from Ma¯noa NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTER FOR PACIFIC ISLANDS STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I No. 2 April–June 2010 On the eve of my departure for a two-year leave from INSIDE UH, it is fitting that I should briefly reflect on the past two “Celebrating Connections”:NEWSLETTER CPIS OF Annual THE CENTERConference FOR … 2PACIFIC ISLANDS STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I years, and what the CPIS faculty and staff—supported by its Wesley-Smith Succeeds Hereniko as CPIS Director ……. 2 affiliate faculty and its allies within and without—have “Night in Oceania” Is a First …..………….…….………. 3 accomplished. Because of space constraints, I will focus only Makerita Urale Will Be Visiting Writer in 2010 …....…… 3 on the highlights: Filipe Tohi: 2010 Visiting Artist ……………...…..……… 3 Many CPIS Publications Now Online …………………… 4 • Increase in teaching faculty, including three new CPIS Welcomes New Affiliate Faculty Members ……..…. 5 hires: Drs Tarcisius Kabutaulaka, Lola Quan Meller Award Submissions ………….………….………… 5 Bautista, and Julie Walsh Kroeker. Inaugural Na Nei Tou I Loloma Awards ….…………….. 5 • Increase in graduate assistants, from two to four. Student and Alumni Activities ………………….………… 6 • Approval in fall 2008 of request to plan a new BA Faculty and Staff Activities .………………….…...….…... 7 in Pacific Islands Studies, with a decision expected The Contemporary Pacific, 22:1 ……….…………..…… 8 by the end of 2010. Repositioning the Missionary Is New PIMS Volume ...… 8 • Publication of six issues of our journal, The Publications and Moving Images .………………..………. 9 Contemporary Pacific (TCP), and two new titles in Conferences and Meetings ………………....………..….. 10 the Pacific Islands Monograph Series. The CPIS Bulletin Board ……………….………….…….…..…...… 11 brochure was updated and given a new look. • Publication of a first-rate Occasional Paper, The ALOHA FROM THE DIRECTOR Space Between, edited by CPIS graduate student Marata Tamaira. It features articles, poetry, and Vilsoni Hereniko contemporary art by graduate students. • Digitization of many of our publications to make Change We Must is the title them freely accessible to worldwide audiences (see of a book by Nana Veary report of this project in this issue). that reminds us that life is th about change. But we have • A series of events in 2010 to celebrate the 60 to be open to change, and anniversary of CPIS. These included an exhibition must be able to recognize of fourteen framed TCP covers in the UHM the need for it when it comes Hamilton Library and a celebratory function that knocking at our door. Why included food, dancing, singing, speeches, and the we should change, or how formal presentation of a congratulatory certificate we should change, isn’t to the center from the Hawai‘i State Senate. always clear, but when we Senators Clayton Hee and Kalani English, both trust the inner prompting that CPIS graduates, spoke at the celebration. pushes us forward, we embrace an opportunity to become a • Two film festivals, in collaboration with Pomona change agent, not just within ourselves, but in harmony with College in California, that brought together others as well. It is with this in mind, along with a filmmakers, the general public, and academics: the confluence of personal and professional factors, that I have first was at the Honolulu Design Center, the second accepted an offer from the University of the South Pacific in at the Honolulu Academy of Art. Suva, Fiji, to be the new director of the Oceania Center for • Collaborations with the Pan-Pacific Association, Arts and Culture as well as the professor of Pacific Studies. many of whom are CPIS students, to sponsor or Pacific News from Ma¯noa April–June 2010 host performances of traditional Pacific dances. Worthy of a special mention is the elaborate and “CELEBRATING CONNECTIONS: 60 highly successful “Night in Oceania” concert in YEARS OF PACIFIC STUDIES” May 2010, the first of its kind. CPIS’s thirty-fourth annual conference, marking the sixtieth • A room in Henke Hall secured as a gathering place anniversary of Pacific Islands studies at UH M¯anoa, will for CPIS students, to be opened in fall 2010. look at Pacific studies around the globe, focusing in Were awarded a US Department of Education Title • particular on challenges and opportunities for the future. VI National Resource Center Grant for fiscal years “Celebrating Connections: 60 Years of Pacific Studies” will 2010–2014. be held 4–6 November 2010 on the UH M¯anoa campus. The • Donation of $25,000.00 received to fund travel emphasis will be on issues in undergraduate teaching and grants for CPIS students’ research in Oceania over learning in Pacific studies, as well as the importance of our the next five years. relationships with Pacific communities. Among the speakers • Fourteen UH faculty from different disciplines will be distinguished alumni of UH M¯anoa’s Center for added to the affiliate faculty. Pacific Islands Studies. For more information, see the Web • New partnerships developed with Pomona College, site at www.hawaii.edu/cpis/2010conf. the East-West Center’s Arts Program, the Hawai‘i International Film Festival, Pasifika Foundation WESLEY-SMITH SUCCEEDS Hawai‘i, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts, to HERENIKO AS CPIS DIRECTOR name a few. Professor Terence Wesley-Smith I wish to thank everyone who supported CPIS and me personally during my tenure as center director. These past will become director of CPIS on two years have been very rewarding and stimulating. I have 1 August 2010. He first came to learned so much about what it is like to lead a group of UH from New Zealand in 1981 people toward a common vision. I am a better person as an East-West Center degree fellow to pursue a PhD in because I was open to leadership in 2008; at that time, I had political science. His doctoral no idea that two years later, another change would come knocking on my door. dissertation explored the political economy of mining in Bougainville, I look forward with excitement to my two-year stint at Papua New Guinea. In 1985 he joined USP in Fiji. During my absence from UH, I am confident what was then the Pacific Islands Studies Program, at a time that CPIS will continue to thrive and excel under the leadership of its new director, Dr Terence Wesley-Smith. I when the only other teaching faculty was Professor and wish him, and all of you, the very best. Director Robert C Kiste. He was appointed graduate chair in 1993, and since that time has been heavily involved in student advising and curriculum development in the MA program. In 2003 he received the Board of Regents’ The Center for Pacific Islands Studies Excellence in Teaching Award. School of Pacific and Asian Studies As chair of the Curriculum and Student Affairs University of Hawai‘i at Ma¯noa 1890 East-West Road Committee, Terence also helped nurture the development of Honolulu, HI 96822 USA the new BA program in Pacific Islands studies, which, Phone: (808) 956-7700 subject to final approvals, should be up and running soon. In Fax: (808) 956-7053 recent years, his research has focused on the notion of “failed e-mail: [email protected] states” and the changing nature of self-determination in the Vilsoni Hereniko, Director region. He has also examined the growing influence of Letitia Hickson, Editor The newsletter can be read online at China, and coedited (with Edgar Porter) China in Oceania: www.hawaii.edu/cpis/Newsletter.htm Reshaping the Pacific? a collection of essays on the Items in this newsletter may be freely reprinted. implications for Island states of China’s new role in the Acknowledgment of the source would be appreciated. To region (Berghahn Press, 2010). receive the newsletter electronically, contact the editor at the e-mail address above. He continues to write about issues associated with area The University of Hawai‘i at Ma¯noa is an studies scholarship, with a particular emphasis on the nature Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution and development of Pacific Islands studies. His book Remaking Area Studies: Teaching and Learning Across Asia 2 Pacific News from Ma¯noa April–June 2010 and the Pacific (edited with Jon Goss) was published by UH Heathen’s Way will focus on the social dynamics that come Press in 2010. Since 1995 he has convened four CPIS annual into play when Pacific Islanders have made their way into conferences, the latest of which, “Pacific Alternatives: this world. Urale will also be conducting research for two Cultural Heritage and Political Innovation in Oceania,” was Pacific documentaries. co-convened with Edvard Hviding (University of Bergen) In addition to Frangipane Perfume (published in 2004), and held at UH in March 2009. He was the founding which was named as one of the ten best plays of the decade associate editor of The Contemporary Pacific, and has been by literary magazine The Listener, Urale has a number of editor since August 2008. films to her credit as director, producer, or writer. These include The Hibiscus, Savage Symbols, Mob Daughters, “NIGHT IN OCEANIA” IS A FIRST Children of the Revolution, and, most recently, Waiata Whawhai: Songs of Protest. The UH–EWC Pan-Pacific Association ended the school year with a burst of energy and a wonderful gift to the UH The Fulbright–Creative New Zealand residency is community—“Night in Oceania,” an extended evening of designed to support New Zealand writers of Pacific heritage music and dance performances, including a fashion show and with strong literary track records, whose work explores refreshments, at H¯alau o Haumea, Kamakaku¯okalani Center Pacific identity, culture, or history. During their residencies, for Hawaiian Studies, on 29 April. CPIS MA students helped writers work on specific projects, develop professional links guide the production, with Daniel Kapalikuokalani Maile with Hawai‘i writers and literary networks, and take part in offering the Hawaiian ‘oli komo (welcome chant), and Keola the intellectual life of the university and the community.