CONTENTS
UHM School of Hawaiian Knowledge
Established
Sarona Aiono-Iosefa to be
Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer
The Boys & Girls Club
Visits UHM
Craig Severance Retires from
UH Hilo
Pacific Journalists Visit UHM
and the EWC
UHM Librarians Travel to Pacific
Publications, Moving Images,
and CDs
On 16 May 2007, the
UH Board of Regents unanimously approved the establishment of the
Hawai'inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at UH Mānoa. The new school
will consist of three existing units—the Kamakakūokalani Center for
Hawaiian Studies, the Kawaihuelani Hawaiian Language Program, and Ka Papa Lo'i
o Kanewai. With the departure of Hawaiian studies from the School of Hawaiian,
Asian, and Pacific Studies (SHAPS), the Center for Pacific Islands Studies is
now officially part of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies (SPAS). The
Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures has been
renamed the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures.
The merger of the
Center for Hawaiian Studies and the Hawaiian language program has been under
consideration for a number of years, as a way to better serve the needs of UH
Mānoa students. The Center for Hawaiian Studies recently inaugurated its
new master's degree in Hawaiian studies, and the UH Mānoa Graduate Council
has approved a new master's degree in Hawaiian language. The master's degree
program in Hawaiian studies offers courses in five fields—Kūkulu
Aupuni: Envisioning the Nation; Mo'ōlelo 'Ōiwi: Native Literature and
History; Mālama 'Āina: Living in Harmony with Land Resource Management;
Hālau O Laka: Hawaiian Academy of Visual and Performing Arts; and Kumu
Kahiki: Comparative Polynesian and Indigenous Studies. The master's degree
program in Hawaiian language will offer courses in three areas—Kula
Kaiapuni: Hawaiian Immersion Curriculum Development and Teacher Training;
Kalai'ōlelo: Hawaiian Linguistics; and Mo'ōlelo: Hawaiian Literature.
The Center for
Pacific Islands Studies will continue to work closely with the Hawaiian
programs. The current heads of the Center for Hawaiian Studies and the Hawaiian
language program, Jon Osorio and Naomi Losch (CPIS MA, 1980), are members of
CPIS's affiliate faculty. Earlier this semester Hawaiian studies and Pacific
Islands studies agreed to share a new rotating position in Polynesian studies,
which will be based in the Center for Hawaiian Studies. The centers will
collaborate on the selection of candidates and jointly sponsor courses and
other activities associated with this position.

Sarona Aiono-Iosefa,
author of a number of fiction and nonfiction books for children, will be the
Fulbright–Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer-in-Residence at the Center
for Pacific Islands Studies this fall. Aiono-Iosefa will be with the center
from August through October. In addition to being a writer, she is a
communications adviser at the Christchurch City Council in Aotearoa/New
Zealand.
Aiono-Iosefa first
started writing for her children, so that they could read stories about Samoan
culture. According to an interview with the media, the mother of four said,
while raising her children in Aotearoa/New Zealand, "There were no books
involving Samoan culture that my children could see themselves in." The
residency in Hawai'i will give her uninterrupted time to write and the
opportunity to meet other Pacific writers. During her residency, Aiono-Iosefa
plans to finish a teenage novella entitled O Se Mea e Tatau.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Ethnobotany
Receives Curriculum Development Grant
The ethnobotany track
of the UHM Botany Department has received a three-year National Science
Foundation (NSF) curriculum development grant entitled Ethnobotany: Segues to
Science. The project will develop ethnobotany modules that provide natural
bridges between traditional and global sciences. These modules will be designed
to show students that there is high-quality science in traditional cultures and
to introduce students to an array of global sciences that they might otherwise
never explore. Through grants such as this, the NSF hopes to introduce minority
students to careers in science.
The first UH course
into which the segue modules will be instilled is BOT 105: Introductory
Ethnobotany, a course developed by CPIS affiliate faculty member Will
McClatchey. Fifty to seventy-five percent of the course material is based on
Pacific Island regional examples, and the segue modules are expected to have a
similar percentage of Pacific Islands content.
McClatchey is the
principal investigator on the grant. Coprincipal investigators are Kim Bridges,
Tamara Ticktin, MyLien Nguyen, and David Webb. The project's preliminary website is http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/segues/.
Faculty and students interested in participating in the project are encouraged
to contact Dave Reedy at reedy@hawaii.edu.
The UH William S
Richardson School of Law's Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law has
named the first recipients of the new Pacific Asian Legal Studies (PALS)
Certificates with a Specialty in Native Hawaiian Law. Malina Koani-Guzman,
Jocelyn Macadangdang-Doane, and Kalikolihau Hannahs were awarded the
certificates, which required courses in international law, human rights and
natural resources law, and intensive legal writing on Native Hawaiian Law, in
addition to the regular course curriculum. The Center for Excellence in Native
Hawaiian Law, which was established in 2005, focuses on education, research and
scholarship, community outreach, and the preservation of invaluable historical,
legal, and traditional customary materials.
CPIS Faculty Meet with Hawai'i
State Legislators
Members of the CPIS
core faculty met with Hawai'i state legislators on several occasions during the
spring semester to lobby for additional resources in support of the center's
undergraduate major initiative and its community outreach programs. Ms Myrna Murdoch, founder of the
Children's Rights Council in Hawai'i, was especially helpful in facilitating
these meetings. An immediate
result of these efforts was a joint resolution (HCR 129, SD 1) passed by both
houses of the Hawai'i legislature that calls on the Center for Pacific Islands
Studies to help identify and address problems facing Pacific Islander
communities living in Hawai'i. The
center will address this resolution through its spring 2008 conference on the
Micronesian diaspora.
The Center for
Pacific Islands Studies is advertising a position opening at the assistant
professor rank. The nine-month, tenure-track position would start January or
August 2008, pending position clearance and availability of funds. The duties
include coordinating planning for a new interdisciplinary undergraduate major
in Pacific Islands studies; developing and teaching interdisciplinary
undergraduate and graduate courses on issues of social change in the Pacific
Islands, such as diaspora, gender, or globalization; supervising MA students;
and sharing in advising of students. The minimum qualifications include a PhD
in the social sciences or humanities, from a college or university of
recognized standing, with an emphasis on Pacific Islands studies. Also required
is extensive knowledge of and research experience in the Pacific Islands region
outside of Hawai'i, and a strong interest in interdisciplinary research and
teaching, especially at the undergraduate level. Details of the position and
the application procedure are available at http://www.hawaii.edu/cpis/Assist_Prof2007B.pdf.
The deadline for applications is 4 September 2007.
The center has
reluctantly said goodbye to Katerina Teaiwa, who resigned in late April to take
a position as Pacific studies coordinator at the Australian National University
in Canberra. She will be sorely
missed. Katerina joined the
center's faculty in January 2003 and brought a tremendous amount of energy,
creativity, and imagination to Pacific studies at UH M'noa. In her four years with us, Katerina
developed and taught new courses on culture and consumption, the body, and
women in Oceania. She played a key
role in the revision of the center's MA program and contributed significantly
to the redesigning of both its website and brochure. A productive scholar and student advisor, Kati also sat on
the editorial board of The Contemporary Pacific and edited Indigenous Encounters, a soon-to-be published volume of graduate
student writings. Perhaps her most
notable accomplishment was the international conference "Culture Moves!
Dance in Oceania from Hiva to Hip Hop," which Katerina convened with April
Henderson and Sean Mallon. The
innovative, highly acclaimed conference took place at Wellington, New Zealand,
in November 2005, and was cosponsored by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa
Tongarewa and the Pacific Studies Program at Victoria University of Wellington.
At ANU, Katerina will
be the Pacific studies convener in the Faculty of Asian Studies, College of
Asia and the Pacific. The position was created by the vice chancellor and a
committee of Pacific research scholars who identified a gap in ANU's teaching
offerings with respect to the Pacific. Her duties include research, teaching,
program coordination, and public outreach. She is specifically developing an
under-graduate curriculum (for a major in Pacific Studies beginning in 2008)
and Pacific studies graduate courses as part of the master's in Asia-Pacific
studies (beginning next semester). She hopes the latter will soon be followed
by a master's in Pacific Studies. There is no other teaching program in Pacific
studies in Australia, so this program at ANU will be the first.
Everyone at the
center joins in thanking Katerina for her many contributions to our
program. We wish her the best at
ANU and look forward to future collaborations with her in the field of Pacific
studies.
BOYS
& GIRLS CLUB VISITS UHM CAMPUS

On 26 June, CPIS
Director David Hanlon gave a talk on Micronesian history that sparked the
interest of fourteen Micronesian teenagers who are recent migrants to Hawai'i.
The talk was part of a new program inaugurated by Boys & Girls Club of
Hawai'i. According to Dionisialynn Bernard, the program's leader, the program
grew out of a grant-in-aid that the Boys & Girls Club received from the
Hawai'i State Department of Education (DOE) to do a Micronesian needs assessment.
In surveying parents and students in the DOE's Central Honolulu District, the
interviewers learned there were needs for after-school programs on topics like
computers, for new-student orientations in the high schools tailored to
Micronesian students, and for more Micronesian staff resources on campuses.
As a result of the
survey, Bernard and others are developing a three-part program in conjunction
with McKinley High School. The first two-week session, in which CPIS
participated, was a life skills class to impart information relating to
substance-abuse prevention, classroom norms and expectations, personal hygiene,
and college counseling and orientation. The second session is a multimedia
program, "My Story." It will involve training with 'Ōlelo Community
Television to teach the students, who are from Chuuk, Pohnpei, and the Marshall
Islands, technical skills with camcorders and computers so that they can tell
their own stories. The third session, which is in the planning stages, is a
leadership training program to be held later this year.
The group's visit to
campus, which was also geared to give the students a brief orientation to UH
Mānoa, included a campus tour led by CPIS student Leticia Sisior. Incoming
CPIS student Jessica Garlock-Tuiali'i is a volunteer with the program.
The Norman Meller
Research Award of $250 is given annually to the best MA research paper at UH
Mānoa that is in the social sciences or humanities and focuses on the Pacific
Islands. Both Plan A theses and Plan B research papers and portfolios are
eligible. Submissions may be made by students or by nominations from the
faculty, and are not limited to students in the Pacific Islands Studies MA
program.
Dr Norman Meller, a
political scientist and founding director of the Center for Pacific Islands
Studies, who passed away several years ago, bequeathed the gift that makes this
award possible. To be eligible for the award, papers completed during the
2006–2007 academic year (including the 2007 summer sessions) must be
submitted by 28 September 2007
to Dr David Hanlon, Center for Pacific Islands Studies, 1890 East-West Road,
Moore Hall 215, Honolulu, HI 96822.

After thirty years of
teaching and service, Dr Craig Severance has retired from the University of
Hawai'i at Hilo. Craig began his career as an assistant professor of
anthropology in 1977, after earning a doctorate from the University of Oregon
with a dissertation titled "Land, Food and Fish: Strategy and Transaction
on a Micronesian Atoll." He served as the chair of the UHH Anthropology
Department from 1981–2004 and also as the Social Sciences Division chair
for many years.
During his tenure at
UH Hilo, Craig was honored with many awards for his outstanding teaching and
service, including a Merit Award from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1983,
an Excellence in Service Award in 1994, and the University of Hawai'i Board of
Regents Excellence in Teaching Award in 1998. In 20900, he was also the first
recipient of UH Hilo's Outstanding Advisor and Student Mentor Award.
Craig was instrumental
in establishing a certificate program in Pacific Islands Studies at UH
Hilo. Outside of the classroom, he
served as advisor to the Chuukese Student Association and as a mentor to
countless Micronesian students and anthropology majors over the years. Student Sunny Williams commented that
he "shows a lot of concern for his students, especially the Micronesians,
making sure they're doing well in their classes, checking to see if their
health is okay." With a keen
interest in applied anthropology, Craig was also an effective resource for
other faculty members at the university, and for individuals and organizations
in the community, by helping them better understand Micronesian values and
culture. "It will be a great loss not only to the Anthropology Department,
but also to this university and its students. He is a wealth of information," said student Danielle
Takeshita.
Craig's interest in
and connection with the Pacific began when he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer
in Chuuk from 1967–1969.
With great aloha for his newfound family on the island of Pis Losop
(Piis Emwaar), Severance helped to protect the drinking water and wrote grants
to allow men to build a salt-fish co-op community. He also met his wife Carol, an award-winning novelist, in
Micronesia. In his retirement, he
plans to occasionally teach a course at the university, to continue fishing and
building fishing rods and lures, and to actively support local organizations
such as Micronesians United.
(Excerpted from an
article by Agnes Leilani Chow in the 13 April 2007 edition of Ke Kalahea, the University of Hawai'i at
Hilo student newspaper)
In April 2007, the
East-West Center's Pacific Islands Development Program, the UH Office of International
Education, and the Center for Pacific Islands Studies hosted eight Pacific
journalists who were visiting Hawai'i on the way to Washington, DC, where they
were to provide coverage of the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders. The
journalists' visit was sponsored by the US State Department Bureau of Public
Affairs, Washington Foreign Press Center.
The visiting
journalists were
α Suzanne Marie Chutarro (Marshall Islands
Journal)
α Antari Elbon (Ministry of Internal Affairs,
Republic of the Marshall Islands)
α Berna Gorong (The Yap Networker)
α Bill Jaynes (Kaselehlie Press)
α Nasayau Miriam Lurang (FM 100, Papua New
Guinea)
α Fermin Meriang (Island Times, Republic of Palau)
α Laisa Taga (Islands Business International)
α Greg John Tourelle (New Zealand Press Association)
The journalists
toured the island of O'ahu; heard presentations by CPIS Director David Hanlon
and others, including UH Pacific Business Center Program Director Dr Failautusi
Avegalio; and had a chance to meet with UHM Pacific Islander students at an
afternoon reception.
In April 2007,
Pacific Specialist Stu Dawrs and Pacific Curator Karen Peacock traveled to
Micronesia, visiting Majuro, Pohnpei, Guam, and Saipan. The two UHM librarians were on a
mission to replace items lost in the flood of 2004 and to acquire new
publications and materials. Peacock's travel was funded by CPIS's Title VI
National Resource Center grant, another of the many ways in which CPIS supports
library activities and acquisitions. The Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) sponsored Dawrs's travel.
Law compilations, statistical reports, books from local presses,
newspapers, and CDs of Micronesian music were among the items purchased or
received during a very successful trip.
During their travels Dawrs and Peacock were pleased to have the
opportunity to visit with librarians at the College of the Marshall Islands,
Alele Museum, the College of Micronesia, the FSM Law Library, Micronesian
Seminar, the University of Guam, the College of the Northern Mariana Islands,
and Joeten-Kiyu Public Library (Saipan), among others.
In June 2007, Dawrs
spent a week in Tahiti and a week in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, acquiring new
materials and older items needed as flood replacements. On his trip, Dawrs met
with librarians, archivists, and staff at l'Universit de la Polynsie
Francaise (UPF), the Service des Archives (Tahiti's national archives), the
Socit des tudes Ocaniennes (which also maintains an archives), the National
Library of the Cook Islands, the Cook Islands Library and Museum, and other
institutions. Special thanks go to Justina Nicholas, librarian of the National
Library of the Cook Islands, who arranged in advance for a week's worth of
meetings with key ministry officials in the Cook Islands. UH English Professor
Paul Lyons also played an integral role in Dawrs's trip, introducing him to UPF
Professor Sylvie Maurer, who arranged for a UPF student to accompany Dawrs as
an interpreter on several of his government agency visits.
Among the visitors to the center during the period April through
June 2007 were
α
Frederic Bassat,
Visiting Fellow, Research Program, East-West Center
α
Guigone Camus,
L'cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
α
Pi'ikea Clark, Te
Uru Maraurau, School of Māori and Multicultural Education, Massey
University
α
Ian Conrich,
Director, Centre for New Zealand Studies, Birkbeck College, University of
London
α
Ofa Dewes, MBA,
Obesity Prevention in Communities and Pacific Helath Research Workforce
Development, University of Auckland
α
Francis X Hezel,
SJ, Director, Micronesian Seminar, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia
α
Brendan
Hokowhitu, Te Tumu School of Māori, Pacific, and Indigenous Societies,
University of Otago
α
Lisa Kitione,
Policy Analyst, New Zealand Ministry of Health, Pacific Health Branch
α
Ann Kumar,
Director, International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies,
Australian National University
α
David Kupferman,
Dean of Academic Affairs, College of the Marshall Islands
α
Peter Larmour,
Reader/Convenor, Policy and Governance Program, Australian National University
α
Lila Lelepali,
Teacher, Roosevelt High School, Honolulu
α
Selina Tusitala
Marsh, Department of English, University of Auckland
α
Sela Panapasa,
Research Fellow, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research,
University of Michigan
α
Sailau
Sua'ali'i-Sauni, Deputy Director, Centre for Pacific Studies, University of
Auckland
α
Shari Tamashiro,
Cybrarian, Kapi'olani Community College
α
Debra Tuifao,
Lawyer, Aotearoa New Zealand
α
Imiola Young,
Teacher, Roosevelt High School, Honolulu
A poetry reading by five Pacific poets on 4 April 2007 featured
visiting poet Selina Tusitala Marsh (University of Auckland) reading with
Albert Wendt, Caroline Sinavaiana, Brandy Nālani McDougall, and Robert
Sullivan, all of UH Mānoa. An overflow crowd listened to Marsh (who was in
Hawai'i doing research for a critical anthology of the first Pacific women
poets to publish in English) read a selection of her poems. Albert Wendt read
from a novel, in poetic form, that he is working on. Caroline Sinavaiana read a
piece in which she reflected on her experience with cancer. Brandy McDougall's
poetry movingly explored traumatic events in her childhood, and Robert Sullivan
read a selection of poems that reflected, with humor, on the natural world. The
reading was organized by Robert Sullivan and the UH Department of English, and
was cosponsored by the Center for Pacific Islands Studies and the Department of
Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures.
"Oceanic Expressions: Work from the Oceania Centre for Arts
and Culture" was the title of a talk on 25 April 2007 by graduating CPIS
MA student and artist Katherine Higgins. As a graduate student, Higgins spent
two residencies at the Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture, at the University
of the South Pacific. In her talk, she presented a selection of art works by
the Red Wave Collective artists at the Oceania Centre and talked about the
center's integrated programs in painting, sculpture, dance, and music. In
addition to her slides, Higgins displayed a variety of paintings by center
artists, accompanied by collaborative biographies of the artists, which she
produced during her second residency. The East-West Center Pacific Islands
Development Program (EWC-PIDP) and the UHM Museum Studies Graduate Certificate
Program cosponsored the talk.
On 27 April 2007, Peter Larmour gave a talk titled "What
Counts as 'Corruption' in the Pacific Islands." Larmour, an associate
professor in the Policy and Governance Program at the Australian National
University, looked at legal and popular understandings of corruption, using results
from studies of "National Integrity Systems" in fourteen Island
states. Larmour was a visiting scholar with the EWC-PIDP, which cosponsored the
talk.
On 17 May 2007 John Reid and Tim Jenkins, from Lincoln University,
Christchurch, Aotearoa/New Zealand, gave a talk titled "He Whenua
Whakatipu—Creating Abundance on the Land." The seminar described an
indigenous sustainable land development project with ancestral Māori
landowners of Ngai Tahu descent. Reid and Jenkins, scientists at Lincoln
University, discussed their experiences with participatory action research on
the project and some of the development lessons they learned. The seminar was
arranged by the UHM Environmental Center and cosponsored by CPIS and the UHM
Department of Ethnic Studies.
The center's Occasional Seminar Series will resume when next
semester begins, at the end of August 2007. To be put on the e-mail
announcement list, please contact Tisha Hickson at ctisha@hawaii.edu.
A celebration of Rotuma Day (commemorated
annually by Rotumans on 13 May) was held a few days early, 11 May 2007, at
Brigham Young University Hawai'i. It was organized by BYUH Associate Professor
Hiagi Wesley. A Native Hawaiian chant of welcome was offered by Uncle Bill
Wallace, Director of Hawaiian Studies, and Academic Vice President Keith
Roberts also extended the university's welcome. Special guests were Alan Howard
(UHM anthropology professor emeritus) and Jan Rensel (CPIS editor), to launch
their book, Island Legacy: A History of the Rotuman People (Trafford Publishing 2007); and Vilsoni
Hereniko (CPIS professor) and Jeannette Hereniko, who showed their film The
Land Has Eyes. Afterwards the
guests joined the Rotuman and Fijian students to sing Rotuma's anthem
("Atumotu Helava La Kele"), and then adjourned to enjoy a festive
potluck with more island-style singing and dancing.
Anthropology faculty member Heather
Young Leslie will spend the month of August as a visiting professor with the
Tupou Tertiary Institute (TTI), Tonga. She has been assisting TTI with the
development of curriculum and will be working with their faculty to finalize
articulation agreements with UH West O'ahu and Hawai'i Pacific University. The
plan is to have Tongan students do their first two years of university at TTI
and then complete their degrees in Hawai'i.
Nancy Lewis, director of the
Research Program at the East-West Center, just returned from the twenty-first
Pacific Science Congress in Okinawa, where she was elected vice-president of
the Pacific Science Association (PSA).
The next Inter-Congress will be 2–5 March 2009 in Tahiti, French
Polynesia. The overall theme will be "Pacific Countries and Their Ocean:
Facing Local and Global Changes."
Ethnomusicology Professor Jane Moulin
spent a week in June 2007 in Lenox, Massachusetts, at the Tanglewood II
Symposium. Tanglewood I, in 1967, focused on the role of music education in an
evolving American society. Since then, much has been learned about how the
human community processes music. The goals of Tanglewood II were to cultivate a
new understanding of music learning appropriate to the twenty-first century; to
examine values of music in culture and its effect on transmission processes;
and to think about how schools, public and private at all levels, can meet the
decades ahead with a deeper understanding of the role they can play in
supporting a musical future. Moulin was among the 32 international music
educators and distinguished scholars invited to the symposium.
After the symposium, Moulin traveled
to Europe to present a paper, "Hold Fast to the Sacred Words of Ta'aroa:
Constructing and Transmitting a Sense of Place," at the International
Council of Traditional Music conference in Vienna, Austria, 4–11 July 2007.
Best wishes to Sa'ili
Lilomaiava-Doktor, CPIS alumna (MA, 1993; PhD, geography, UHM 2004) and
visiting assistant professor with CPIS this semester. Sa'ili has accepted an
appointment as an assistant professor at UH West O'ahu, where she will begin
teaching in August. She will help develop Pacific Islands studies and Samoan
language at West O'ahu. Sa'ili is also part of a UH Pacific Business Center
Program team that has been contracted by the American Samoa Government to
conduct a study of the quantity and quality of the labor pool available in
American Samoa and Samoa. This summer she is working to establish relationships
and resource connections with government officials, institutions of higher
education, the private sector, and local villages, to lay the groundwork for
the full team's arrival.
Congratulations to our five newest
graduates! With their final papers and projects, they are
α Teresa A Brugh—Thesis: "Beliliou,
Beluu el Omechelel a Tekoi (Peleliu, the Place Where Things Begin):
Possibilities for the Re/use of Traditional Marine Conservation Practices in
the Republic of Palau" (with DVD)
Terry Brugh's interest in and
knowledge of the marine environment in Palau date to her experiences living and
working there as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 2002 to 2005. In her thesis, she
proposes using the traditional knowledge that is extant, but is not currently
widely in practice, to improve marine conservation efforts in Peleliu. The
application of this knowledge, she argues, is not only necessary to conserve
resources, but is also fundamental to maintaining the culture and identity of
Palauans. As part of her argument,
Brugh reviews the extent of environmental problems and the local dialogue that
takes place around marine conservation issues.
α Sara B Lightner—Thesis: "Ples Blong
Olgeta Sista: Ni-Vanuatu Catholic Sisters Navigating Places and Spaces"
Sara Lightner, who lived for two
years in 2001-2002 at la Mission de Melsisi, on the island of Pentecost,
explored the individual stories of Vanuatu's Catholic Sisters to examine their
role within the "places and spaces of life in contemporary Vanuatu."
In the summer of 2006 she returned to Vanuatu and traveled to various missions
on Santo, Efate, Ambae, and Pentecost to spend time with the sisters and to
hear their stories. She explored their reasons for joining the missions and how
they meld their familial and community relationships and lives as Ni-Vanuatu
women with service to the mission and its congregation.
α Nicole Kau'i Baumhofer—Thesis: "For
the Health of a People: The Recruitment and Retention of Native Hawaiian
Medical Students at the University of Hawai'i's John A Burns School of
Medicine, A Genealogical Approach"
Nicole Baumhofer, who is on her own
journey toward becoming a physician, explored the issue of culturally competent
Native Hawaiian physician workforce development and the recruitment and
retention practices at the John A Burns School of Medicine. Her interviews with
twelve Native Hawaiian doctors, medical students, and premedical students led
her to propose programs such as formal mentoring for premedical students in
order to keep students from "falling through the cracks."
α Katherine Higgins—Portfolio Project:
"Biau Kula: Space, Process, and Creativity at the Oceania Centre for Arts
and Culture, with DVD (A Tour of the Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture)"
Katherine Higgins, an artist who has
always been intrigued by the process of artistic creation and spaces for art,
began her relationship with Pacific art during her volunteer experience in the
Marshall Islands. As a student she became interested in the Oceania Centre for
Arts and Culture at the University of the South Pacific, in Fiji, eventually
spending two residencies there. In her in-depth look at the center she highlights
possibilities for spaces for art in Oceania. As a part of her second residency,
she worked on biographies of the artists, as a tangible way of reciprocating
the center's generosity in hosting her. Her portfolio project includes a DVD
with scenes from the center and interviews with the artists.
α Mariana Ben—Plan B paper: "My
Mwoakilloa: Self-Concept of the People of Mwoakilloa"
Mariana Ben is on the Social Science
Faculty at the College of Micronesia–FSM, where she is the coordinator of
the Micronesian Studies Program. She has a special interest in Micronesian
politics, women's issues, and gender in the Pacific.
The spring brought a wealth of news
from CPIS alumni about their activities and the contributions they are making
to their communities.
Alumna Joanna Jacob (MA, 2002) is
working as a Chuukese school/home assistant with the Hawai'i State Department
of Education (DOE). She is also partnering with the DOE's Parent Community
Network Center to facilitate a class, "Parent Project," which works
with parents of children who are at risk academically or who have been in
trouble with the law. Joanna is also involved with other projects in the
community including the "Micronesian Cultural Awareness Project,"
which she and others in the community (Lilllian Segal, Canisius Fillibert, Ruth
Truce, Gloria Lani, and Josie Howard) started. This project, which is funded
through the Hawai'i State Office of Community Service, consists of workshops in
the O'ahu public schools about the cultures of Micronesia and ways of working
with Micronesian students.
Alumna Brooke Nevitt (MA, 2005) just
finished the year as director of Northern Marianas Academy, a small private
high school on Saipan and Brooke's alma mater. Because of Saipan's economic
problems, the year has not been easy for the school, but working with young
people on Saipan to try and make positive changes has been very rewarding for
Brooke.
Alumna Portia Richmond (MA, 2003) is
a research administrator for ethics and internal research grants at Unitec
Institute of Technology in Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand. With others, she has
started a Māori and Pacific Islanders support group, which has grown quite
large. The group is exploring networking, the research culture, funding,
indigenous methodologies, and the cultural ethics of research, among other
areas.
Alumna Katie Wright (MA, 2005) is
working for the Kokua Hawai'i Foundation, which was started by singer Jack
Johnson and his wife to support environmental education in the schools and
communities of Hawai'i. Among the foundation's many programs are field trips,
recycling, and a number of hands-on projects.
Alumna Aurelia Kinslow (MA, 2005)
will soon begin teaching Pacific Islands studies across grades at Honoka'a
Elementary School on the Big Island of Hawai'i. Aurelia is also teaching
Tahitian dance at the Waimea Community Education Center and plans to begin
teaching French and Pacific Islands studies later in the year at the UH Hilo
Honoka'a Extension.
Recent alumna Sara Lightner (MA,
2007) has returned to Vanuatu as a program officer for AusAID's Governance for
Growth Program. The program's overall theme is generating economic growth and
improving service delivery through good governance, especially in the rural
areas outside of Vila. Sara's work involves organizing communications and
information dissemination and designing a research fund that will accept
applications for research on topics such as service delivery and economic
growth.
Alumna Faustina Rehuher (MA, 1989),
director of the Belau National Museum, has been awarded a Pacific Islands
Visiting Fellowship by Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge,
England. The fellowship is an annual program under which mid-career scholars
who are citizens of the Pacific Islands nations can spend eight weeks in
Cambridge. Tina's study topic is Palauan artifacts and items in museums in
England. She will spend the latter part of this summer in England identifying
objects, looking at collections management, and investigating how to establish
and maintain partnerships with other museums. For more information on the
fellowship, see the website at http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/oldmembers/news.php?newid=112.
CPIS alumnus Greg Dvorak (MA 2004)
was interviewed on Radio Australia's "In the Loop" podcast segment on
3 July 2007. Dvorak talked about the research he is doing as part of his ANU
Interdisciplinary Cross-Cultural Research PhD on the multilayered history of
Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. As a part of his thesis, he is making
a movie as a way of making Kwajalein peoples' stories accessible to a wide
audience in the Pacific.
As part of a service-learning
program through ethnic studies at UH Mānoa, incoming CPIS student Jessica
Garlock-Tuiali'i is volunteering in the Micronesian Community Youth Program,
run by the Boys & Girls Club of Hawai'i. The program introduces Micronesian
high school students to a range of activities, from life skills to training in
technology.
Former UHM ethnomusicology student
Brian Diettrich has accepted a position as music instructor with the College of
Micronesia in Palikir, Pohnpei. He will begin teaching in the fall.
Finally, warm wishes to CPIS alumnus
Scott Kroeker (MA, 1999) and julie walsh (PhD, anthropology, UHM 2003)
on the birth of their second son, Max Andrew Kroeker, on 14 April 2007.
House
Girls Remember: Domestic Workers in Vanuatu, edited by Margaret
Rodman, Daniela Kraemer, Lissant Bolton, and Jean Tarisesei, gives voice to the
women who worked as maids—known as "house girls" in Vanuatu and
elsewhere in the Pacific. The stories they tell resonate with the experiences
of domestic workers around the world. The book includes workshop reports by
eleven ni-Vanuatu women fieldworkers and ten others who spoke about their lives
as house girls during the colonial period and more recently. 2007, 176 pages.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3012-0, cloth, US$45.00.
Facing
the Pacific: Polynesia and the US Imperial Imagination, by Jeffrey
Geiger, a senior lecturer in American studies at the University of Essex, is an
account of early twentieth-century fascination in the United States with
"Polynesianess." In his book, Geiger looks at a variety of texts, by
both writers and filmmakers, that helped to invent a vision of Polynesia for US
audiences. He also explores the context for these texts—US expansionist
ideologies and frontier anxieties of the 1920s. 2007, 336 pages. ISBN
978-0-8248-3066-3, cloth, US$59.00.
The
White Pacific: US Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas after the
Civil War, by historian and African-American studies
professor Gerald Horne of the University of Houston, reconstructs the history
of "blackbirding" (slave trading) in the Pacific region. Horne
examines the role of US citizens in the trade and its roots in Civil War
dislocations. 2007, 264 pages. ISBN 978-0-8248-3121-9, paper, US$29.00.
Pathways
to the Present: U.S. Development and Its Consequences in the Pacific, by Mansel G
Blackford, professor of history at Ohio State University, is an account of
economic and environmental change in the postwar US-affiliated Pacific and rim
countries. The book ranges widely, beginning in Hawai'i and touching on
Seattle, San Francisco, Hiroshima, Okinawa, Guam, the Philippines, and American
Samoa. 2007, 280 pages. ISBN 978-0-8242-3073-1, cloth, US$48.00.
UH
Press has announced that Daniel Peacock's book about the famous Lee Boo, Lee
Boo of Belau: A Prince in London, is back in
print. 2007, 262 pages. ISBN 978-0-8248-3230-8, US$20.00. The original edition
was published in 1987 as part of CPIS's South Sea Books series.
UH Press books
can be ordered through the Orders Department, University of Hawai'i Press, 2840
Kolowalu Street, Honolulu, HI 96822-1888; website http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu.
Tiare
in Bloom: A Novel, the third and final volume in the popular
Materena Trilogy, by Tahitian writer Clestine Vaite, has been published by
Back Bay Books. The novel follows the ups and downs of Matarena's life and her
marriage to Pito in the nexus of relationships in Faa'a, Tahiti. In Tiare, Vaite picks
up the threads of previous stories from preceding books and continues her
exploration of Tahitian identity. 2007, 288 pages. ISBN 978-0316114677, paper,
US$12.99.
Animals
the Ancestors Hunted: An Account of the Wild Mammals of the Kalam Area, Papua
New Guinea, by Ian Saem Majnep and Ralph Bulmer (edited by
Robin Hide and Andrew Pawley), gives an insider's view of the wild mammals of
Kalam and shows how Kalam animal lore is woven into the customary life of the
area. Majnep, who is from the Kalam area, describes 53 species of wild
terrestrial mammals according to the Kalam taxonomy. Majnep was anthropologist
Bulmer's leading field assistant and coauthor in a series of projects. The book
was completed by Hide and Pawley after Bulmer's death in 1988. Published by
Crawford House. 2007, 452 pages. ISBN 978-1-86333-298-9, paper, A$59.95.
Island
Legacy: A History of the Rotuman People, by
anthropologists Alan Howard and Jan Rensel, is a historical account of the
people of Rotuma Island, from legendary times, through the era of British
colonial domination, until the end of the twentieth century. Alan Howard is
professor emeritus of anthropology at UH Mānoa, and Jan Rensel is managing
editor at the UH Center for Pacific Islands Studies. Published by Trafford
Publishing. 2007, 458 pages. ISBN 1-4251-1124-6, paper, US$33.00.
From
Election to Coup in Fiji: The 2006 Campaign and Its Aftermath, edited by Jon
Fraenkal and Stewart Firth, is a collection of essays by 31 of Fiji's
best-known commentators on Fijian affairs. Between them, the authors provide an
analysis of the lead-up to, the outcome, and the aftermath of Fiji's historic
May 2006 election, including the December coup. Some of the areas covered are
traditional chiefly systems, race relations, economics, constitutionality, the
military, and ethos and religion. Published by the Institute of Pacific
Studies, University of the South Pacific (USP), and Asia Pacific Press at the
Australian National University. 2007, 510 pages. ISBN 978-982-01-0808-0, paper,
US$30.00. Available from the University Book Centre, on the Web at
http://www.uspbookcentre.com. It may also be downloaded, free of charge, from
the ANU E Press website at http://epress.anu.edu.au.
Let's
All Celebrate, a collaboration of writer Angela Naidu and
graphic artist Andree Matson Yee, combines the writing and artwork of students,
playwrights, poets, and painters from Fiji as it explores the concepts of peace
and tolerance. The aim of the project, and the beautiful book that was
produced, is to inspire Fiji's young people to deepen their respect for their
neighbors and to build racial harmony and national unity. The book was funded
by the European Union and the Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education, and
Advocacy (ECREA). 2006, 85 pages, paper, US$25.00. Available from the USP Book
Centre, on the Web at http://www.uspbookcentre.com.
Tā
Kupesi: Emerging Themes & Methodologies from Educational Research in Tonga, edited by Lia
Maka, Seu'ula Johansson Fua, and Frances Pene, looks at Tongan education
through the eyes of a number of Tongan educators. It is hoped that the book
will encourage other Pacific educators to conduct research in their own
settings. 2006, 117 pages. ISBN 9789820107380, paper, US$10.00. Published by
the USP Institute of Education and available from the University Book Centre,
on the Web at http://www.uspbookcentre.com.
Tirohia
Kimihia: A Māori Learner Dictionary, the first
monolingual Māori dictionary, is a finalist in this year's Montana New
Zealand Book Awards. Produced by Huia Publishers for the NZ Ministry of
Education, it is competing in the reference and anthology section. The book
took a team of five linguists seven years to complete. 2006, 260 pages. ISBN
1-86969-179-2, paper, NZ$25.00.
The
Power of Perspective: Social Ontology and Agency on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu, by University
of Bergen anthropologist Knut Mikjel Rio, focuses on different forms of agency
in North Ambrym social life. The model proposed by the author challenges the
premises of much of Western thinking about reciprocity and suggests new
directions in the analysis of Melanesian societies. Published by Berghahn
Books. 2007, 272 pages. ISBN 978-1-84545-293-3, cloth, US$80.00.
Tokelau:
People, Atolls, and History, by Peter
McQuarrie, is a history and description of Tokelau, Aotearoa/New Zealand's only
Pacific Island Territory. It is written for Tokelauans and others interested in
the history of the Pacific Islands. The book emphasizes the links between
Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Tokelau. 2007, 266 pages. ISBN 978-1-877449-41-3, paper,
NZ$35.95. To order the book, contact McQuarrie at petermcq@CLEAR.NET.NZ.
The
Severed Snake: Matrilineages, Making Place, and a Melanesian Christianity in
Southeast Solomon Islands, by
anthropologist Michael Scott, examines land, identity, and the indigenization
of Christianity on the island of Makira in Solomon Islands. Published by
Carolina Academic Press. 2007, 414 pages. ISBN 13 978-1-59460-153-8, paper,
US$45.00.
Japanese
Army Operations in the South Pacific Area: New Britain and Papua Campaigns,
1942–43, is the first published translation, by Steven
Bullard, of sections of the Japanese official history of the invasion of
Rabaul; the battles along the Kokoda Trail and at Milne Bay; and the
destruction of the Japanese forces at Buna, Gona, and Giruwa, in northern
Papua. The publication is available in hard copy and may also be downloaded at
the Australia–Japan Research Project website at http://ajrp.awm.gov.au. 2007, 260 pages. ISBN 9780975109487, paper,
A$24.95.
Plant
Names of Western Polynesia, by Karl H
Rensch and W Arthur Whistler, has been published by Archipelago Press and Isle
Botanica. 2006, 381 pages. ISBN 0957731566, US$59.00.
HIV/AIDS
in Rural Papua New Guinea is a special
issue of Oceania (77:1; March 2007), edited by Alison Dundon
and Charles Wilde. It contains ethnographic articles that describe and analyze the
national response in Papua New Guinea to HIV, AIDS, and STDs. The focus of the
volume is on rural themes, peoples, concerns, and locations. In addition to
contributions by the editors, there are articles by Katherine Lepani, Verena
Keck, and Lawrence Hammar.
The
first issue of Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island
Cultures, a new online and printed peer-refereed
research journal supported by the Island Cultures Research Centre (ICRC) at
Macquarie University, is on the Web at www.shimajournal.org/current.html. The
first issue contains a short article on the social significance of the
traditional canoes of Kiribati, by Tony Whincup.
Micronesians
Abroad is issue 64 of the Micronesian Counselor, published by Micronesian
Seminar, in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. This twenty-three-page
publication by Francis X Hezel, SJ, and Eugenia Samuel, begins with some brief
but informative background on migration out of Micronesia. The remainder of the
article describes what a team from Micronesian Seminar found when they visited
communities in Hawai'i and the continental United States that have large
Micronesian populations. The purpose of the visits was to see how these
populations were doing. The authors claim that "not only have the
Micronesians abroad done well for themselves, but they are doing well by their
country." The paper can be downloaded at no charge from http://www.micsem.org.
A
new report titled "Voices of Pacific Island Women Residing in the Pacific
Northwest: Reflections on Health, Economics, Education, and More" was
released on 11 May 2007. It surveyed more than 200 Pacific Islander women, in
focus groups, about concerns they and their families have about health,
economics, and education. The focus groups and the report were the work of the
Pacific Island Women's Association (PIWA), in Seattle, Washington. The group
hopes that the report will play a significant role in creating awareness of
Pacific Islander issues and will help to educate and inform policy makers on
the needs and concerns of this often ignored population. For more information
see the website at http://www.pacificislandwomen.org.
Struggling
for a Better Living: Squatters in Fiji (2007, 50
minutes, DVD). According to the latest estimates, 12.5% of Fiji's population
today is living in over 182 informal or "squatter" settlements around
the country. Besides having no proper legal title to their homes, the vast
majority of these people lack basic amenities such as piped water, sewerage,
and electricity. Struggling for a Better Living is a
documentary about this population. It seeks to demystify the reasons why there
are so many squatters in Fiji today, and analyses government efforts to reduce
their numbers. It explores the problems squatters face in their daily lives and
the human rights issues their situations present. US$30.00. Available from the
USP Book Centre, on the Web at http://www.uspbookcentre.com.
Run (35 mm, 2007,
15 minutes), from Aotearoa/New Zealand, directed by Mark Albiston, was one of
eleven international short films selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the
2007 Cannes Film Festival, and received Honorable Mention. Written by Louis
Sutherland, Run is about a Samoan brother and sister who live
in fear of their overprotective widowed father. Together they learn that they
have the strength to stand up to him. The film was produced with financing from
the New Zealand Film Commission and is marketed by the commission.
Hans
Up! Buai o Laip Belong Yu! (Hands Up! Your Betel Nut or Your Life!) (DVD, 2006, 7
minutes), directed and produced by Brendan Walsh and Emmanuel Narokobi,
captures what happens when two hapless raskols cross paths with a poor betel
nut seller on a street in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. For more information,
contact Narokobi at emmanuel@masalai.net.
The
Tattooist (2007), a new feature film from Aotearoa/New
Zealand, will be released 30 August 2007, following a gala premiere in Auckland
on 29 August. The story concerns an American tattoo artist, Jake, who becomes
captivated by the world of traditional Samoan tattoo and, in a thoughtless act,
unwittingly unleashes a powerful angry spirit. In this supernatural thriller,
Jake must find a way to save his new love, Sina, and recover his own soul.
Peter Burger directed the film. The actors include David Fane, Robbie Magasiva,
and Nathaniel Lees.
Together
We Stand, by Apprentice, a reggae-pop group from the
Solomon Islands, makes reference to some of the struggles Solomon Islands has
been going through. The group has been playing together since 1996. The CD is
on the Sharpnote label.
The
theme of the Third Micronesian Medical Symposium 2007, to be held on Guam,
19–21 October 2007, is "Childhood and Adolescence Obesity and Its
Complications and Impact in the Asia Pacific Region." The abstract submission
date is 1 August 2007. Abstracts of 500 words or less may be sent to
ssafa@ite.net or mms3abstract@yahoo.com. For further information, contact Leah
F Metra at guammedicalsociety@yahoo.com.
The Institute for Community, Ethnicity &
Policy Alternatives, at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, is
sponsoring "Reinterpreting Pacific Governance: Voices of the Pacific
Conference," 22–24 November 2007 in Melbourne. The conference aims
to engage civil society perspectives from across the Pacific Islands, on the
aspirations of the region. The organizers welcome proposals from nongovernment
agencies, church and community organizations, researchers, and policy makers,
among others. For information, see the website at http://conferences.vu.edu.au.
The
University of Utah's American West Center (AWC) invites proposals for an
interdisciplinary conference investigating the relationship between Pacific
worlds and the American West, to be held 8–9 February 2008 in Salt Lake
City. The organizers welcome proposals addressing questions of indigeneity,
religion, the environment, colonialism, hybridity, and other topics. Proposals
may also examine specific local sites in the Pacific or in the American West,
or they may employ comparative or transnational methodologies. Proposals and
questions may be addressed to Anapesi Ka'ili at anapesi@amwest.utah.edu.
Proposals are due 30 September 2007.
Call for Papers: Oceanic
Connections
The
organizers of the second conference of the Australian Association for the
Advancement of Pacific Studies invite proposals for their 16–18 April
2008 conference at the Australian National University. The theme is
"Oceanic Connections," and the topics include, but are not limited
to, governance, representations, boundaries, economies, performances,
environments, and education. The proposal deadline is 12 September 2007. For more
information contact Katerina Teaiwa (katerina.teaiwa@anu.edu.au) or Stewart
Firth (stewart.firth@anu.edu.au).
α
The workshop
"Pacific History and Film" will be held 6–8 February 2008 at
the Australian National University. For information, see the website at http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pah/filmandhistory.
α
The 2008
Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO) meeting will be held in
Canberra, Australia, 13–16 February. For more information see the ASAO
website at http://www.asao.org.
The
Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury,
Christchurch, Aotearoa/New Zealand, invites applications for positions for
research or visiting scholars for 2008. An applicant's proposed topic of
research must be of interest and relevance to the peoples, cultures, and
countries of Melanesia, Micronesia, and/or Polynesia (including Aotearoa/New
Zealand). The application deadline is 10 August 2007. For
information, see the website at http://www.pacs.canterbury.ac.nz.
Cornell
University Society for the Humanities is calling for applications for
fellowships for 2008–2009. Six to eight fellows will be appointed.
Applicants must have received their PhD degree before 1 January 2007 and should
be working on topics related to the year's theme—"Water, A Critical
Concept for the Humanities." Applications must be postmarked on or before 1
October 2007. For information, see the website at http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum.
The
Palau Historic Preservation Office is advertising a position for a cultural
anthropologist/ethnographer. The primary duties are to assist with the
recording and indexing of oral histories and traditional laws of Palau for the
purposes of preservation and education, in accordance with the US National
Historic Preservation Act. The position, which includes housing, has a salary
of $30,000 to $35,000. The closing date is August 2007 or until the
position is filled. Applicant must have a graduate degree in anthropology with
a specialization in applied cultural anthropology or a closely related field,
plus a minimum of two years of appropriate full-time professional experience.
Additional information is available from Roland Merar, at the Palau Historic
Preservation Program, e-mail histpres@palaunet.com.
The
Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, in Fiji, invites qualified individuals to
apply for the position of gender issues adviser. The appointee's
responsibilities will include strengthening the capacity of regional
intergovernmental organizations and Forum Island Countries to integrate gender
equality into their development programs. Information on the position is
available at http://www.forumsec.org. The application deadline is 31 July 2007.
Kagoshima
University Research Center for the Pacific Islands seeks a visiting foreign
professor or associate professor to collaborate with center staff on research
focusing on the Pacific Islands. The visiting position is for six to eleven
months between 1 May 2008 and 25 March 2009. The application deadline is 31
August 2007. The center's website is http://cpi.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/index.html.
The Center for Pacific Islands Studies
School of Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
1890 East-West Road
Honolulu, HI 96822 USA
Phone: (808) 956-7700
Fax: (808) 956-7053
E-mail: cpis@hawaii.edu
website: www.hawaii.edu/cpis/
David Hanlon,
Director; Letitia Hickson, Editor
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