M.A. - Pacific Islands Studies

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/2130

SEE ALSO
M.A. Plan A - Pacific Islands Studies [http://hdl.handle.net/10125/20085]
and
M.A. Plan B - Pacific Islands Studies [http://hdl.handle.net/10125/20086]

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Towards a decolonial, indigenous Polynesian language education system: Polynesian language to Polynesian language instruction (pl2pli)
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2025) Donaghy, Joseph Keola; Mawyer, Alexander; Pacific Islands Studies
In this thesis, I propose developing an approach to teaching Eastern Polynesian languages through the medium of another Eastern Polynesian language. This approach will leverage the similarities between the three languages included in this proposal – ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i, te reo Māori, and reo Tahiti – while attending to their differences by applying current theories in Second Language Acquisitions (SLA) and Third and Additional Language Acquisition (TALA) and other disciplines. I frame this proposal within broader efforts to decolonize the Pacific in many contexts, including economic empowerment, sovereignty, landback initiatives, environmental stewardship, resource management, the revitalization of cultural practices, including art, dance, music, and language, and political and legal system reforms. I acknowledge the obstacles to implementing such a proposal and noted some in the preceding paragraphs. Undoubtedly, more will emerge as language advocates across the Pacific engage with the initiatives outlined in this thesis.
AN ANALYSIS OF CONTEMPORARY NOTIONS IN LEADERSHIP AMONG EMERGING PASIFIKA DANCERS: A leadership study within the Hip-hop community across Aotearoa, New Zealand
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2024) Waetford Williams, Korerotia Mai; Perillo, Lorenzo; Pacific Islands Studies
Leadership in dance environments is complex and varies depending on the unique context in which it is played out. Many scholars have written about leadership studies over recent years; however, authenticating the significance of dance leadership in a Pacific worldview is a valuable contribution I would like to make. Importantly, I use talanoa methodology and a manaakitanga approach to conduct an “interview” process to gather data authentically. Analyzing leadership from the lens of young emerging Hip-hop dancers will help illuminate the unique experiences that Pasifika partake in within the industry. I argue the significance of dance leadership, which focuses on a servant-led, authentic leadership approach that aligns with and engages in Pacific values. I engage with dancers across Wellington and Auckland as participants were primarily based in those cities. I included five participants in this study, referred to as “The Five,” all of whom are young Pacific Islanders working within the industry. The data collection process of this study took place during April 2023, and the months following involved transcribing dialogue pulled from each talanoa for analysis. Participants showed interest in being part of this study, and those who responded were confirmed as ideal research participants. Contributing to the lack of knowledge around leadership, specifically within the Pacific diaspora of New Zealand, will directly benefit the communities involved. This work adds to the scholarship of both dance and leadership studies with a focus on young emerging performers, for which I purposefully unpack notions of leadership, pulled directly and in conversation with these dancers. I intend to uplift Pacific youth and empower them to be leaders in dance. I engage in the powerful process of talanoa with five participants of Pasifika descent, emerging as professional dancers at the time of this study. I employ the talanoa methodology, which is simply defined as an exchange or transfer of knowledge, elaborated on further in the body of this work. I facilitate talanoa with an openness to learn what the participants share with me and further analyze this discourse. All of this is practiced through the principles of manaakitanga, a Māori concept that caters to the support and care of people. Manaakitanga is practiced among Māori and is similar to other practices or decorum known across the Pacific. Leadership studies specifically focused on young, emerging Pasifika dancers within the Hip-hop community will shed light on common themes related to identity, upbringing, and socioeconomic factors that play a significant part in navigating these spaces. I adhere to the study of dance leadership, understanding what leadership looks like from a uniquely Pasifika viewpoint and expressed through an indigenous lens of knowing and seeing beyond a Western paradigm. I propose the analysis of leadership to be undertaken through direct talanoa with participants and for the unpacking of the interview-based process to highlight the findings within this community to which they belong.
MĀTAURANGA MOANA: CONSERVATION AND MĀORI EPISTEMOLOGY IN TĪKAPA MOANA AND ACROSS AOTEAROA
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2023) Vinson, Kallie Lou; Mawyer, Alexander D.; Pacific Islands Studies
This thesis focuses on the historical and modern approaches to conservation and sustainability discourses and practices which take into account a Māori lens in one specific area of Aotearoa from an outsider’s perspective. Specifically, I am looking at Tīkapa Moana, a contested conservation area in Hauraki Gulf which is notable as an historical site of migration for the region’s iwi from the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki. Tīkapa Moana is home to twelve different iwi and many hapū, all with specific versions of mātauranga. The heterogeneity of cultural practices and beliefs bearing on conservation hopes and anxieties, planning and decision making, across iwi and hapū are significant contexts of motivation around activism in Tīkapa Moana, situated outside Tāmaki Makaurau, the most populated city in Aotearoa, making it a popular tourist destination. As an immensely popular destination for marine tourism and holiday vacations, Tīkapa Moana has seen remarkable population growth and problematic development. Tīkapa Moana is a place of cultural significance for many iwi and hapū, but it continues to be desecrated by heavy expansion. Across Te Moana Nui a Kiwa today, efforts to include Indigenous perspectives, such as mātauranga Māori across Aotearoa, have become a notable dynamic within conservation efforts. This thesis contributes to understanding the complexity of contemporary conservation discourses in Aotearoa and across Oceania through sensitive engagement with actors and contexts around a specific site of activation—Tīkapa Moana—where scholars, activists, and environmentalists are working to ensure that the mātauranga of the twelve iwi is acknowledged and respected before further desecration and damage occurs.
Exploring the Depths: Yapese Musicality in Contemporary Spaces
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2023) Shansey, Sydney; Mawyer, Alexander; Pacific Islands Studies
This research shows how contemporary Yapese musicians are continuously innovating ways to maintain the vitality of Yapese language and culture through music using digital production and distribution technologies. It documents how a deeply rooted Oceanian community embraces changing technologies to engage with global music trends, meanwhile maintaining language and cultural vitality in home (is)lands and in diaspora. Contemporary Yapese musical production and expression are explored in their complexities, including varying motivations for creators and listeners in Yapese communities as well as possibilities for how Yapese musicians engage with non-Yapese audiences. Many of these musical expressions emphasize experiences of place-based identity in Yap and Micronesia, further emphasizing the role of musical creation in cultural practice and the maintenance and vitality of community identity in a highly mobile and rapidly changing world. Digital tools highlighted include electronic keyboards, digital audio workstations, and streaming platforms such as SoundCloud and YouTube. This work complements prior research that has too often focused exclusively on traditional musical forms and functions. It does this through an examination Yapese musicians’ integration of new musical influences into Yapese music and contemporary research in Oceania. Throughout, it employs reflections from Yapese musicians and community members to orient the focus of musical observations. This interdisciplinary approach formulates an understanding of the use for digital technology within musical creation and circulation which results in increased access to Yapese language and place-based relations for community members wherever they live. This thesis argues that accessibilities are critically evidenced within musical analysis of contemporary Yapese music, the values and agencies of musical actors, and community audience reflexive experience.
EXPLORATIONS OF BLUE SOVEREIGNTY: DISPLACEMENT, SELF-DETERMINATION, AND RĀHUI IN THE RAPA NUI AND MOTU MOTIRO HIVA MARINE PARKS
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2023) Schlieman, Lily; Mawyer, Alexander; Pacific Islands Studies
The Rapa Nui and Motu Motiro Hiva Marine Parks together protect over 740,000 square kilometers of ocean, a marine space roughly the size of mainland Chile. Their establishment were critical milestones in Chile’s emergence as a leader in international ocean policy and conservation. The Motu Motiro Hiva Marine Park was established quickly in 2010 through an executive decree without any community engagement. Due to the persistence of the Rapanui community, coupled with shifting trends in marine conservation, indigenous resource management practices and community considerations were ultimately incorporated into the design and management plans of the Rapa Nui Marine Park. As a colonized place, Rapa Nui is governed by a complicated legal-political regime. The ocean and its resources are also the focus of multiple and conflicting layers of governance that are challenged and reinforced through complicated and fluid processes often far removed from those that interact most locally with it. This thesis seeks to explore, problematize, and understand how Rapa Nui’s political status and Oceanic position impact localized marine conservation efforts, as well as its separation from and linkages to Oceania. On the basis of this exploration, I argue that the Rapa Nui and Motu Motiro Hiva Marine Parks serve as venues for Rapanui to assert sovereignty and autonomy through Chile’s formal legal and regulatory mechanisms, but also through a regional exercise of blue sovereignty - a uniquely Oceanian place-based yet networked, culturally specific yet collective form self-determination of over the region’s marine resources and future.
RECLAIMING LOLOMA: (RE) FOCUSING ITAUKEI INDIGENEITY AS AN ACTION BASED FRAMEWORK AGAINST GENDERED VIOLENCE
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2023) Cagivanua, Ulamila Monica; Mawyer, Alexander D.; Pacific Islands Studies
The United Nations advances the perceived interests of human development, peace and progress, through international frameworks that have become a collective form of standardized guidelines. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is one of these international frameworks that has been a guideline for the address of gender inequality. This is in its framework to guide member countries in defining and addressing socioeconomic and cultural barriers to achieving gender equality. The convention has been used as a form of reference after its ratification in Fiji; national policies focused on gender and gender issues have become an increasing reality in the country in its pursuit to address gender based violence, amongst other prevalent gender issues. The inquiry put forth in this research is on the clash of two very different cultures in their comprehension of the world. CEDAW represents a different culture in comparison to the iTaukei (Indigenous Fijian) culture, in the ways it intersects (in its underlying themes) the meaning of gender, women’s rights and how women’s rights are translated into the iTaukei sacred spaces for women. An analysis of the linkages between culture, gender and the effectiveness of gender policies will help reveal a missing link in CEDAW’s cultural elements- that is, an understanding of the foundational cultural values of the international community itself. The umbrella concept of ‘loloma’ that encompasses the values of vuvale (family), veirokovi (respect) and veimaroroi (protecting one another) will be distinguished as a conceptualized possible solution- a perspective that hopes to incorporate these cultural values on the level of transformative societal change, in a cultural understanding that can be incorporated into advocacy programs for a better understanding between policy institutions and individuals at the communal level in Fiji.
The Blue Continent In The Eyes Of The Dragon: Chinese News Media And Academic Representations Of Pacific Island Countries
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2021) Luan, Shuo; Wesley-Smith, Terence; Pacific Islands Studies
China has ramped up its engagement with Pacific Island countries and established itself as a major cooperative partner and assistance provider in the region. However, the Pacific Islands remain a blind spot for many Chinese people, and their perceptions of island countries are inevitably shaped by prevalent and dominant discourses at home, which further influences subsequent actions in the Pacific. While Pacific Island countries are aware of China’s growing presence, accompanied by opportunities and uncertainties, they are largely uninformed about the image of Pacific nations that circulates in China. This thesis seeks to fill this real-world and research gap by exploring Chinese news media and academic representations of Pacific Island countries, drawing on frameworks of Critical Discourse Analysis. After reviewing Western and historical Chinese representations, this thesis provides an overview of Chinese news and research articles about Pacific Island countries between 2015 and 2019 and then focuses on publications in 2019. A sample of 212 news articles and 43 research articles are then examined to extract, categorize, and dissect relevant discourses. This thesis argues that Chinese central news media paint a broad and superficial portrait of island countries because of the great caution exercised in political news and the intention of promoting China’s image and contributions. By comparison, Chinese academia presents a more multifaceted and complex profile of island countries, investigating their characteristics across various scholarly spheres. Pivoting around the ideas of development and progress, Chinese representations, whether from the perspectives of China, geopolitics, or the Pacific, mainly manifest as the projection of Chinese values and interests onto foreign and insular places.
Hawaiian Enough: Insecure Identities, Racialization, and Recognition among Kānaka Maoli
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Hennessey, Shannon Pōmaikaʻi; Tengan, Ty P.; Pacific Islands Studies
Many Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) carry insecure cultural identities, or feel they are not “Hawaiian enough.” In recent decades, scholars have agreed that accusations of “inauthentic” Indigenous people and cultures are relics of settler colonialism. However, authenticating measures of “Hawaiianness,” including racialized criteria based on blood quantum and phenotype, have been internalized and imposed within our community. To address the gap in scholarship that directly confronts this insecurity, I facilitate in-depth interviews with eight Kanaka Maoli participants. Validating felt knowledge from the naʻau (gut, source of feeling and instinct), I employ what I call “naʻauao as methodology” during interviews, encouraging participants to name their emotions, thus elucidating emotional realities and creating spaces for healing. Instructed by these responses, as well as my own lived experience as a Hawaiian, I draw from the ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi term “ʻike” (to see, to know, to feel) to suggest a relationship between feeling, knowing, and seeing in insecure Kanaka Maoli identities. Not feeling Hawaiian enough is deeply connected to a lack of knowledge (real or perceived) about what it means to be Hawaiian. For Kānaka who do not code as Hawaiian, not feeling adequately Hawaiian can be fundamentally linked to not being seen as Hawaiian. In particular, Kānaka who code as white or Asian might not know their community, nor will they be seen as Hawaiian, by virtue of their racial and socioeconomic privilege. Rooted in an intellectual moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy) of Indigenous resurgence and relationality, I propose we refuse state-based logics of identity and protect our relationality through reciprocal kōkua (help, support, work) and reciprocal recognition to affirm that we are Hawaiian enough.
Mapping Contemporary 'Ori Tahiti Dance in Virtual Formats
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Cabrera, Krystine Ann; Mawyer, Alexander; Pacific Islands Studies
This thesis seeks to contribute to understanding how 'Ori Tahiti (Tahitian dance) occupies particular online spaces and fosters particular imaginaries of Tahiti and Oceania more broadly. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the presence and role of online platforms in creating and maintaining specific communities and imaginaries are more visible than ever. In the context of this present, highly digital cultural moment, this thesis seeks to explore the dynamic place of Tahitian dance groups online and connections made between the participants of this space and how it has transformed. It will investigate representations of Tahitian dance circulating through multiple social platforms, particularly within the United States, and the emergence of Tahitian dance competitions worldwide in an online format during the COVID-19 pandemic. This thesis concludes that digital platforms have become contemporary sites for mediating Tahitian dance communities, including for Mā'ohi practitioners in their home islands, for Mā'ohi in diaspora, and diversely positioned non-Mā'ohi practitioners also engaged in these spaces
The Chamoru Language Is [not] Dead: Language Revitalization In The Online Space
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Franquez Garrido, Heather Ann; Mawyer, Alexander; Pacific Islands Studies
This thesis explores Chamorro language revitalization and perpetuation in the 21st century. Chamorro is the native language of Taotao Mariånas (people of the Mariåna Islands) and is repetitively claimed to be a dying language. The current state of the Chamorro language directly results from American colonization and their manipulative teachings of English as a superior language. Despite an increase in the usage of English, Chamorros remained resilient in their language creating Chamorro language resources for their people. This thesis documents these vital resources focusing on those resources found within the internet, termed the online space. The online space is a part of our daily lives and Chamorros are utilizing it to perpetuate and revitalize their language. Through an ecological analysis of Chamorro found within websites, blogs, Zoom, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, this thesis documents that Chamorro is primarily utilized to educate language seeking learners in hopes of perpetuating the language. Utilizing YouTube as a case study, the Chamorro language is mainly created and consumed for the purpose of education and music. More importantly, this platform revealed language ideologies of Chamorro pride in identity and language as well as agency to perpetuate and learn the Chamorro language in the 21st century.
The history of the Pacific Islands Studies Program at the University of Hawaii
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1986) Quigg, Agnes; Pacific Islands Studies
In the immediate post-war years, when colleges and universities across America were establishing area study programs, the University of Hawaii (UH) inaugurated a program to promote Pacific awareness. For more than thirty-five years this program has contri
Kau Ngāue Ofa (Peace Corps): in the Kingdom of Tonga, 1967-1971
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1975) Starkweather, Michael F.; Pacific Islands Studies
This is a study of the Peace Corps in the Kingdom of Tonga from 1967 through 1971. During this period eight groups of volunteers were trained in Hawaii and sent to the Kingdom of Tonga. In 1970, the Peace Corps, under the direction of Joseph Blatchford, r
War shields of southeast Papua New Guinea
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1976) Outram, Catherine Erica Anne; Pacific Islands Studies
This thesis assembles collected data on shields from Southeast Papua New Guinea. The examination of shields in museum collections and publication illustrations has made it possible to classify shields from this region into eight different categories based
Early Hawaii and Samoa: a reference unit
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1971) Okino, Charles T.; Pacific Islands Studies
This master's thesis in Pacific Island Studies examines and draws comparisons between the climate, flora, social organization, land tenure, political organization, etc. of Hawaii and Samoa.
O le tatatau: an examination of certain aspects of Samoan tattooing to the present
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1973) McGrevy, Nöel L.; Pacific Islands Studies
Between the 1820s and the 1970s, the practice of Polynesian tattooing has disappeared from all of its former island homes save Western Samoa. The discovery of this intriguing fact compelled the author to research Samoan tattooing to discover its origins a
A history and some traditions of Pingelap, an atoll in the Eastern Caroline Islands
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1977) Hurd, Jane N.; Pacific Islands Studies
Pingelap atoll in the Eastern Caroline Islands, between Ponape and Kosrae, has received very little attention from modern investigators, or earlier from Western observers, including whalers, missionaries, and adventurers. In the last few years, several el
Sāmoana As Atunuʻu: The Samoan Nation Beyond The Mālō And State-centric Nationalism
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2020) Patu, John; Wesley-Smith, Terence; Pacific Islands Studies
Historical and contemporary Western discourse on the concept of the nation is often framed in terms of primordial-modernist debates and the various forms of ethnic and civic nationalisms. The referent of the nation today is the civic-nationalist notion of the nation-state, which narrowly confines the concept of a Samoan nation to the Independent State of Sāmoa (and, thus, this Sāmoa has become the referent for Samoa). This presents an obvious dilemma, despite, 1) the existence of two distinct Samoan polities, Sāmoa and American Sāmoa, and 2) the demographic shift in which more Samoans now live in the diaspora (and thus outside of this Samoan nation-state). This thesis deconstructs the nation-state as an inadequate model to describe the current state of the Atunuʻu, the Samoan conceptualization of nation today, by interrogating its transformation throughout prehistory until now: 1) through its initial conception through Indigenous cosmogonies and Western settlement theories, 2) the creation of the Indigenous sociopolitical structure under the Fa‘asāmoa and the Fa‘amatai, 3) the transformation under initial contact with the West and subsequent colonization, 4) the postcolonial construction of the nation-state, and finally, 5) the transformation of the bounded-state into a more fluid, transnational Atunu‘u. Given that these paradoxes confound conventional Western notions of the nation as embodied in the nation-state, can there be alternative conceptions of the nation? This thesis argues that the Atunu‘u can no longer be defined only in terms of the nation-state but must account for the transnational nature of the nation that is inclusive of the diasporas and Indigenous notions of nation, migration, and tausi va (maintaining socio-spatial relationships). This thesis then proposes that the Atunu‘u can be reconceptualized as Sāmoana, the Samoan Atunu‘u that is inclusive of all Samoans as a people, whether they are in the ‘homeland’ or the diasporas. These indigenous conceptualizations of the nation are necessary to describe not only the current phenomena but to explore the contributions of Indigenous concepts that underlie the transformation of the Atunu‘u.
Consuming Transformed Islands: Representing Human Interactions with Mobility Infrastructures with GoPro Cameras in Tahiti Nui, Mā'ohi Nui/French Polynesia
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2019) Bennett, Elizabeth Mulvey; Mawyer, Alexander; Pacific Islands Studies
This thesis is centered on the analysis of videos created by filmmakers using GoPro cameras in French Polynesia. It argues that video representations of interactions between filmmakers and the infrastructures that facilitate their mobilities reveal how the filmmakers relate to the transformed landscapes of Tahiti Nui, the Society Islands. The mobility infrastructures that facilitated French invasion and maintain neocolonial power structures transform the built and natural landscape and people’s interactions with and use of these infrastructures is mediated through the use of GoPro cameras. By investigating this body of moving images, I seek to shed light on how mobility infrastructures allow for the movement of capital, ideas, people, and things across built and natural landscapes and between people. I derived two types of interpersonal relationships and activities: romantic and non-romantic dynamic and action activities and non-action.
Nā Pōhaku Ola Kapaemāhū a Kapuni: Performing for Stones at Kupuna Crossings in Hawaiʻi
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2019) Morris, Teoratuuaarii Stacy; Mawyer, Alexander; Pacific Islands Studies
Nā Pōhaku Ola Kapaemāhū a Kapuni is a Kanaka Maoli cultural monument in the heart of the world famous Waikīkī, on the island of Oʻahu. While this site plays a vital role in the preservation of indigenous knowledge systems and navigational histories, these stones have not always been visible and tell a dynamic story through how they have been valued and interacted with differently across time. By weaving a genealogy of this culture keystone place, this thesis reveals the complex and complicated “life” of this site through its the legendary, historical, and contemporary histories. In looking at its legendary traditions within a cultural and regional comparative of stone sites, this site is shown to have multidimensional meanings encoding epistemological and geographical knowledges and connects to other sacred sites in Hawaiʻi and the wider Pacific. Yet, looking at the newspaper archives and how these stones were physically displaced in the 20th century, Nā Pōhaku Ola also reveals histories of a contested and changing landscape and how various social and historical processes shaped discourses regarding their value. These sacred stones document a story of colonial forces but also a story of revitalization and the perdurance of Hawaiian history in the unlikeliest of places. Finally, this thesis investigates the contemporary meanings of this site by looking beyond the archive to intercultural protocol moments. This focus on performed histories and site engagement reveals how Nā Pōhaku Ola’s various meanings are performed and remembered in the present. Further, it shows that this cultural site is mediating the space between Maoli and Mā’ohi worlds by revealing longstanding mobilities and the building of contemporary solidarities. Thus, this thesis aims to show that Nā Pōhaku Ola Kapaemāhū is dynamic and a living piece of Hawaiian history.
Climate Change, Watershed Management, and Resiliency to Flooding: A Case Study of Papeno’o Valley, Tahiti Nui (French Polynesia)
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2018-12) Wheeler, Jennifer Vehia; Minerbi, Luciano; Pacific Islands Studies
Mā’ohi communities in Tahiti Nui are adaptive to changing times. Historically, this has been shown through the ways that communities have adapted to changing weather, changing land issues, continuous migration, and Western acculturation. This type of adaptability and knowledge of adaptability will be of use in addressing upcoming climate change issues that Tahiti Nui will face. Papeno’o Valley, Tahiti is prone to yearly flooding due to heavy rains during the rainy season, especially during the months December, January and February. Scientific evidence suggests that global climate is changing, which anticipates that these yearly rainfalls and flooding will increase. In response, ways of adapting to these changing times is necessary and important. A combination of adaptation methods such as community awareness of risks through oral histories, restoring natural floodzones, and managed retreat will help to ensure stability of the people of this valley and the livability of this valley over the long-term, which constitutes as resiliency. This thesis examines the ways in which Mā’ohi communities respond to flooding in Papeno’o, how government agencies respond to flooding in Papeno’o and concludes with how to maximize both efforts into a more collaborative approach for resiliency in the valley.

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