MYTHS, TERRORISM, AND JUSTICE
Themes in Pacific and Asian Literature and Film

Imin Conference Center
Honolulu, Hawai‘i
5–8 November 2002

The attacks on the New York World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, and the US response, carry significant worldwide implications. Peoples and nation-states in the Asia-Pacific regions are dealing with many of these implications, including what appear to be a global realignment of political and economic alliances, a hardening of various fundamentalisms, and a possible expansion and deepening of US military roots in these regions.

What are the challenges confronting peoples of the Asia-Pacific regions, particularly indigenous peoples? How can film, writing, indigenous myths, oral literature, and other repositories of our cultural heritage shed light on the current geopolitical situation, on terrorism, and on justice? What are the myths we circulate about people who are different from us? These questions and more will be the focus of some of the world's foremost filmmakers, producers, scholars, and writers who will present their work as well as discuss the many ways that different forms of storytelling can help us better understand our new world. The themes of the conference and Fall Celebration of Writers underscore our collective need to understand the nature and causes of terrorism as we strive together for peace and justice for all peoples everywhere.

Vilsoni Hereniko and Ruth Hsu are the conference conveners. The conference is made possible by a grant to the UH Center for Pacific Islands Studies from International Education and Graduate Programs, US Department of Education. Program information will soon be available on-line or contact Tisha Hickson, tel (808) 956-2652; fax (808) 956-7053; email ctisha@hawaii.edu.

The conference is being held in collaboration with the Hawaii International Film Festival; Pacific Islanders in Communications, through funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; and NETPAC/USA (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema).