Center for Pacific Island Studies

this month at the center

Seminar
“Grounding Pacific Studies: Land, Development, and Conflicts in Oceania,” by Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka, Research Fellow, East-West Center Pacific Islands Development Program.

Date: 1 May 2008
Time: 12:00–1:30 pm
Place: UHM Center for Korean Studies Auditorium

Land-related discourses provide an invaluable insight into Pacific Island societies. This is because such discourses engage cultures, histories, oral traditions, politics, economics, globalization, mobility, gender, diaspora, and many other issues that have become the preoccupation of Pacific Studies. Land is the site, subject, and object of intellectual and spiritual interactions, as well as the source of social identity and of subsistence and economic livelihood. It is also often the site and object of social conflicts.

This presentation examines the multi-dimensional role of land in contemporary Pacific Island societies, with a particular focus on land as the site and factor of economic development and social conflicts. It explores the changes to traditional land tenure systems, the dynamics of land policies and legislation, and the impacts on contemporary Pacific Island societies.

Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka was a lecturer in history and political science at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. Born in Haimarao, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, Kabutaulaka is a leading expert on the Solomon Islands and was chief negotiator for Guadalcanal Province and the Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM) at the Solomon Islands Peace Conference in 2000. He has written extensively on political development and the peace process in the Solomon Islands as well as on rural development and forestry.

Seminar
“Three Canoes: Writing, Research, and Teaching Pacific Studies,” by Steven Winduo, Professor of Literature and English, University of Papua New Guinea

Date: 8 May 2008
Time: 12:00–1:30 pm
Place: UHM Center for Korean Studies Auditorium

To make sense of a life as a writer and scholar in the Pacific, Steven Winduo will employ the metaphor of three canoes - the vehicular embodiment of writing, research, and teaching Pacific studies. Through these three canoes he has undertaken many creative, intellectual, and cultural journeys in and out, around and forward in Oceania. He will talk about these experiences and how they feature as the qualities he embodies as a writer, scholar, and teacher in Pacific studies.

Dr Winduo is a senior lecturer in literature and English at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG). He was formerly the director of Melanesian and Pacific Studies at UPNG. Currently he is a visiting professor in the Department of English, University of Minnesota. Linking creativity with scholarship, Dr Winduo writes poetry, short stories, and commentaries on literature and culture in Papua New Guinea.

Seminar
Greg Dvorak, Australian National University PhD, post-doctoral fellow at the University of Tokyo

Date: 13 May 2008
Time: 12:00–1:30 pm
Place: UHM Center for Korean Studies Auditorium

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