The Pacific Heritage     2001

 

Pacific Studies: PASI 101      18 points

Victoria University of Wellington

 

Coordinator:     Teresia Teaiwa (teresia.teaiwa@vuw.ac.nz)                                         

6 Kelburn Parade, Room 203               ext 5110

 

Tutors:              tba

                       

Lectures:          Mon, Wed, Thurs 1:00-2:00pm            MC LT 102

                       

Tutorials:          1 tutorial per week                                Times/venues tba

 

For additional information:                                             Diana Felagai

                                                                                    6 Kelburn Parade

Room 101

Ext 5830

 

 

Course Aims and Objectives:

Talofa lava, Kia orana, Malo e lelei, Bula vinaka, Fakaalofa atu, Taloha ni, Yu orait no moa, Kam na bane ni mauri, Tena Koutou! Welcome to PASI 101, a survey paper covering a range of topics relevant to Pacific nations and people. We will explore both indigenous and foreign perspectives on the geography, histories, cultures, economies, politics, and arts of this amazingly diverse region! 

 

The theme for this trimester is “Coconuts Think”. This is taken from an art installation by Jim Vivieaere that we will be launching at the Adam Art Gallery in Week 4. “Coconuts Think” challenges the ways that Pacific people have been represented in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It takes a once derogatory word and re-values it. It is both an assertion and an exhortation; it’s both serious and fun. These are the challenges this paper takes up. Unlearning the negative things we’ve been taught about what it means to be from the Pacific; rediscovering some of the wonderful riches in our Pacific heritage; but most of all, bringing forth our own versions and visions of what coconuts think.

 

Students who pass the paper:

 

v     Understand that they are contributing to a rich intellectual tradition at Victoria University.

v     Are familiar with the basic geography and demography of the Pacific region;

v     Appreciate that the Pacific is a complex region politically, culturally and socially.

v     Are aware that there are different ways of researching and understanding the Pacific.

v     Are able to identify and begin to use a range of local, regional, and international resources for research on the Pacific region.

v     Are able to summarize and discuss the ideas put forward in the required texts and guest lectures.

v     Are able to ask critical questions about popular images of the Pacific.

v     Are able to confidently share their own ideas and perspectives on regional issues through written work, and oral or performance presentations.

 

Key Texts:

§         Multilith: available for purchase from Student Notes, this is the main required text for PASI 101.

§         All videos screened during lecture hours also constitute required texts for PASI 101.

§         Library Reserve Readings: a selection of optional readings will be placed on reserve to enhance and elaborate on topics covered in lecture.

§         Handouts: occasionally required readings will be handed out in lecture or tutorial.

§         Map of the Pacific: a Xerox-copied map will be handed out in lecture, but Pacific Studies majors are encouraged to invest in a good-sized map of the contemporary Pacific.

§         Speaking in Colour: Conversations with Artists of Pacific Islander Heritage edited by Sean Mallon and Pandora Fulimalo Pereira. Although this text is not required it is highly recommended for your personal collection. Many images from Speaking in Colour will be used as focal points for discussion in the course. And for Pacific Studies majors, the book will be a required text for PASI 301 Framing the Pacific.

Workloads and Mandatory Course Requirements

To be entitled to sit the final examination students need to meet the following requirements:

·        Attend at least 9/12 tutorials

·        Achieve at least 50% in coursework assignments

 

The workload for PASI 101 is consistent with other departments within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences 18 point courses. You are expected to allow on average 12 hours per week of reading and engaging with the material for this course. Students are encouraged to use the opportunities in tutorials to debate and discuss issues raised in lectures. Tutorials will be held between Week 2 and Week 13.

 

Assessment

Coursework 60%

Final Examination 40%

 

Coursework Options

1. Individual Assessment: Library Assignment, Field Trip Report and Full essay;
2. Individual Assessment: Library Assignment, Field Trip Report and Exhibition/Performance with synopsis and bibliography.
3. Combined Assessment: Individual Library assignment, Field trip report + Group Exhibition/Performance with synopsis and bibliography.

 

Required Written Assignments         4% Library Assignment—due Friday 4pm, Week 2

6% Field Trip Report—due Friday 4pm, Week 5

 

v     The Library Assignment has been especially designed for us by our Library Liaison Officer, Sue Hirst. In addition, Sue has compiled an extremely useful Subject Guide to the Vic library’s Pacific Studies resources for you—ask the Reference Desk for one when you’re at the library. The library is a treasure house and doing this assignment will help you learn how to get the maximum out of it!

 

v     Wellington is an exciting place to do Pacific Studies!! There are so many things happening here that make us realize how much Pacific people have to offer, and how important it is to understand national and international issues from Pacific perspectives. So that you begin to make the links for yourselves between what we’re studying and what’s going on in “the real world,” this Field Trip assignment requires you to attend or visit a Pacific event outside of class hours and write up a one-page report of what, where, when, who, why, how?

 

v     Here are some suggestions for places to go on your field trip. Some are free and others cost money but are well worth it. You can also do your field trip report on a regular or special events in your own or a friend’s community:

 

§         “Mana Pasifika” at Te Papa Tongarewa. (FREE)

§         “Pacific Dreams and Island Realities” at National Archives. (FREE)

§         “Tired of Silence” (new paintings by Andy Leleisi’uao), “First offerings” (paintings by local Pacific island youth) and much more at the Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt. (FREE)

• “Native Chef”—As part of the Fringe Festival, Erolia Ifopo cooks and serves up laughs at Masi Café, Willis Street, starts March 11,12,13 & 15,16,17. ($)

• “Paradise”—a new play by Toa Fraser, Circa Theatre, March 17-April 14. ($)

• “Our Back Yard”—the Black Grace dance company at the Opera House, March 22-23. ($)

 

Your essay will take up the theme of “Coconuts Think” and expand it into an area of your choice. If you are having difficulty deciding on an essay topic, do not hesitate to discuss your interests and concerns with your lecturer or tutor—the earlier the better. We will check in with you around Week 4 to make sure you’ve started your process.

 

After you have decided on a topic and made an outline for yourself, your essay will grow from an initial library search of all available and related material on the topic. Your final essay will emerge from an engagement with a smaller, focused set of sources. Your essay should be based on a bibliography of at least five sources, one of which must be a required reading for this course. Your bibliography should include authors’ names, full title of publication, place of publication, publisher, and year of publication. The bibliography should be presented in the alphabetical order of the authors’ last names. Your bibliography may include a few references to information technology sources like internet sites or URLs. Try to avoid consulting encyclopedic reference books—as a university student you have access to so many more specialized sources. Take advantage of your university privileges.

 

Written assignments are to be turned in to the Pacific Studies Administrative Assistant at 6 Kelburn Parade no later than 4pm on the Friday of the week that they are due. Late assignments will have marks deducted at the rate of one percentage point a day.

 

You may compose or “cover” a song or rap; you may choreograph a dance; you may write and dramatize a short play; you may present a painting, a collage or do an installation work; or you may choose to integrate different forms. You may choose to be assessed individually or as a group. Your performance must be conceptualized around themes raised in PASI 101. You will be required to present a synopsis (i.e. summary or description) of your performance, and a bibliography of at least five sources that you’ve consulted for the production. You will be assessed on the sincerity of your exhibition/performance; the care shown in the overall production of your work; the relevance to the course themes; as well as the quality of your synopsis and bibliography.

 

Class Exercise           10% for tutorial attendance and participation

5% for seminar presentation (goes with Essay Option)

 

Tutorials are meant to be a supportive forum for exploring new as well as familiar areas of knowledge. While all students are encouraged to participate through verbal exchanges opportunities are provided for written and dramatic or mimed contributions during tutorials!

 

Those of you who choose the essay option will be required to give a short seminar presentation in tutorial. Seminar presentations are scheduled between Weeks 10 and 12. Students will be reminded to sign-up for their seminar dates and times after the Mid-Trimester break. Seminar presentation topics may be based on work done in the essay, or may be a focused response to particular readings, videos, or guest lectures. If you choose the first option, you may either read your paper or speak from it; if you choose the latter option, you will need to do supplementary reading—please consult the lecturer or tutor for direction. Each seminar is to be 7-10 minutes in length, and assessment will be based on organisation, relevance to course discussions, accuracy, and the provision of references.

 

Class Test      Thursday April 23—50 minutes--MC LT 102

10% summaries of selected readings

5% identifications (short answers)

5% a short essay

 

Final Exam     3 hour Registry Examination—Date and Times tba

10% summaries of selected readings

                        15% identifications and reproductions

                        15% 2 short essays

 

The test and examination emphasize a familiarity with the readings and discussions in lecture and tutorial. If you’re up-to-date on your work, you’ll be all right! Last year’s Final examination is available if you’d like to have a look at it.

 

Accommodation for Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities requiring information on support and services, or wanting to discuss any particular concern about studying at the University, should contact the coordinator for Students with Disabilities located at 2 Waiteata Road, phone 4721-000 ext 8231. For matters relating to your participation in PASI 101 please contact the course coordinator in the first instance. Accommodation arrangements for students with disabilities need to be discussed as soon as possible with the course coordinator.

 

General University Requirements

Students should familiarise themselves with the University’s requirements, particularly those regarding assessment and course study requirements, and formal academic grievance procedures, contained in the statutes in the Calendar, and should read the requirements of this course outline in that context. The Calendar also contains the Statute on Conduct, which ensures that members of the University community are able to work, learn, study and participate in the academic and social aspects of the University’s life in an atmosphere of safety and respect. The statute contains information on what conduct is prohibited and what steps can be taken if there is a complaint.

 

Grievance Procedures

If you have any academic problems with your paper you should talk to the tutor or lecturer concerned or, if you are not satisfied with the result of that meeting, see the Head of Department/School or the Associate Dean (Students) of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Class representatives are available to assist you with this process.

 

Avoiding Plagiarism

(Adopted and adapted from SAMO 111 Course Outline 1999 and Auckland University’s 271.201 Pacific Worlds Course Outline 2000)

 

What is plagiarism? It is copying another student’s essay or work, taking material directly from books and other sources without acknowledgement, and re-using some work you have already handed in to another course. It is a serious offence. Doing this will cost you marks. It may even mean you get your work back ungraded and this means you fail. In extreme cases, university procedures may be invoked.

 

Of course, everyone uses other peoples’ ideas and information (if not their exact words) to write essays. But it is important that these ideas and words are acknowledged and cited. Different academic disciplines have different conventions for citing sources. You are asked to follow those current in Pacific Studies. The proper formats for citations and references are illustrated below:

 

The following is a direct quote:

 

“Most Pacific Islanders are reluctant to make difficult decisions, even if they appear to be the right ones, for fear of giving offence” (Latukefu 1992:30).

 

You could paraphrase the above quote in different ways. Here are two examples:

 

Many Pacific people fear offending others and as a result, even their beliefs do not seem to help them make difficult decisions (Latukefu 1992:30).

            or:

Latukefu suggests that many Pacific people shy away from making choices that are unpopular even if they are right (Latukefu 1992:30).

 

The following is plagiarism:

 

For fear of giving offence, most Pacific Islanders reluctantly make difficult decisions, even if they are the right ones.

 

Note: in the last example, not only was there a very simplistic paraphrasing of the original, but there was also no citation provided.

           

                                                                              

M         Video excerpt: Sons for the Return Home; Course Outline

W        Na kilakila mada/Aap ketna jante he; Discussion.

Th        What (the heck) is Pacific Studies?

 

NO TUTORIALS

 

 

M         “Pacific Images in Popular Culture”; Discussion.

W        Guest Lecture: Christine Robertson (Press Secretary to Hon. Mark Gosche, Minister of Pacific Islands Affairs).

Th        Guest Lecture: Jennifer Shennan (Music and Dance).

 

Tutorial Discussion:       What can you tell about Pacific Studies from this week’s and last week’s readings? Identify the most important issues that each of the articles raises.

Tutorial exercise:           Making your stamp on Pacific Studies

 

Readings for next week: “The Island Peoples,” in Felix Keesing, Native Peoples of the Pacific World. New York: Macmillan, 1945:8-29. Ann Stephen, “South Pacific Stories: A Photo Essay,” in Meanjin 53(4):679-688 (in reader); “Dance as a Reflection of Rotuman Culture” by Vilsoni Hereniko from Rotuma Hanua Pumue: Precious Land, Anselmo Fatiaki et al. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, 1991:120-141. (handout)

 

 

M         Guest Lecture: Neil Ieremia (Black Grace).

W        Embodied Histories.

 

M         40,000 years; 1200 cultures; 7 million people…and we’ve got how many weeks to cover it all in?!

W        Installation of COCONUTS THINK! At Adam Art Gallery

Th        Guest Lecture: Paul D’Arcy (History)

 

Tutorial:            View Pacific Passages and discuss cultural differences and similarities among Pacific people. Where do we get our views of the past from? How far back into the past do you think we need to go to appreciate our heritage? Do you want to learn about as many Pacific cultures as possible, or only about your own? How does COCONUTS THINK! make you feel?

 

Readings for next week: Doug Munro, “Who Owns Pacific History? Reflections on the Insider/Outsider Dichotomy”, The Journal of Pacific History 29(2):232-37. Roger M. Keesing, “The Past in the Present: Contested Representations of Culture and History” in Michael Goldsmith and Keith Barber (eds.), Other Sites: Social Anthropology and the politics of representation 1992:8-28. (handouts)

 

Haunani-Kay Trask, “Natives and Anthropologists: The Colonial Struggle” in Voyaging through the Contemporary Pacific, David Hanlon and Geoffrey M. White (eds.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000:255-263. Michael King, “The Climate Changes” from Being Pakeha: an encounter with New Zealand and the Maori Renaissance 1985: 174-193. (on reserve)

 

 

 

M         Nationalist Movements in the Pacific

W        Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation

Th        Fiji: A Year After the Coup.

 

Tutorial Discussion:       Did the U.S. Marines have the right to overthrow the Hawaiian Monarchy in 1893? Did the Fiji military have the right to overthrow the Bavadra government in 1987? Where do we get our notions of “rights” and “what’s right” from? Does the land give Pacific people laws? Or do people make up laws and say that they got it from the land/their ancestors? Is the truth out there to be discovered? Or is it constructed to be deconstructed?

 

Readings for Week 6: Vince Diaz, “Simply Chamorro: Telling Tales of Demise and Survival in Guam” in The Contemporary Pacific 6(1):29-58. (in reader) Anna S. Meigs, “Blood kin and food kin,” in Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology edited by Spradley and McCurdy, 1987:117-124. (handout)

 

 

 

 

 

M         MID-TERM TEST

W        Guest Lecture: Damon Salesa, (Ph.D. Oxford, National Library Fellow)

Th        The Samoan Heart (video); Discussion.

 

Tutorial exercise:           Is being ‘afakasi a blood thing? Or a life-style thing? Where do we get our ideas about identity from? How do Vince Diaz’s and Anna Meig’s articles help us think about modern Pacific identities? What is Damon Salesa’s take on identity? What are the conflicts presented for the artists in Samoan Heart? What strategies do they use to overcome these?

 

Readings for next week: Galumalemana Hunkin-Tuiletufuga, “Pasefika Languages and Pasefika Identities: Contemporary and Future Challenges,” in Tangata o te Moana Nui: The Evolving Identities of Pacific Peoples in Aoteaora/New Zealand edited by Cluny Macpherson, Paul Spoonley, Melani Anae. Auckland: Dunmore Press: 196-211. Teresia Teaiwa, “yaqona/yagona: roots and routes of a displaced native” in UTS Review 4(2): 92-106; “O ‘Oe Se A?” by Tate Simi. Apia: Samoa Observer, n.d. (handouts)

 

 

M         Native Tongues

W        Guest Lecture: Galumalemana Alfred Hunkin (Samoan Studies)

Th        E Ola Ka ‘Olelo Hawai‘i (video); Discussion.

 

Tutorial exercise:           Is language revival important? Would you try to learn a language that wasn’t your own? Why or why not? Memorize and discuss “O ’Oe Se A?” in Samoan. What difficulties do you have? Would you remember this poem more easily if it was in your own language?

 

Readings for next week: Excerpts from Epeli Hau’ofa’s Kisses in the Nederends. Auckland: Penguin, 1987; selected readings on HIV/AIDS in the Pacific. “The Health Benefits of Coconut Oil,” by Romulo N. Arancon Jr. in Cocoinfo International Vol. 7 (2):15-19. (handouts)

 

Pacific Studies Volume 13(3), Special Issue on domestic violence in Oceania. (on reserve)

 

 

M         Our lives—our health.

W        Compassionate Exile (video)

Th        Maire (video); Discussion.

 

Tutorial exercise:           What are the similarities and differences in social responses to leprosy and HIV/AIDS in the Pacific? Do we think about our health every day? What steps can we take to being living healthier lives? How do our readings help us think critically about health issues?

 

Readings for next week: “Afterword: Tatauing the Post-colonial Body” by Albert Wendt from Inside Out: Literature, Cultural Politics, and Identity in the New Pacific edited by Vilsoni Hereniko and Rob Wilson. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999. (in reader)

 

Handouts: tba

 

 

 

M         Happy Birthday Tutu Ruth (video); Discussion.

W        Chamoru Dreams (video); Discussion.

Th        Ripley’s “Believe it or not!” Discussion.

 

Tutorial Discussion:                   How is the way we relate to the symbols of our heritage different or similar to way we relate to our elders? In what ways are generation gaps bridged by Pacific people? In what ways are generation gaps unbridgeable for us?

 

 

M         Small is beautiful?

W        Living on Islands (video).

Th        Why do we leave?

 

Tutorial Discussion:       What is Epeli Hau’ofa’s theory about Polynesian migration? How does Futa Helu’s explanation of the Maui legends help us? What do the poems in Lali tell us about the islands and why people might choose to leave? How does the video portray life in the islands? Would you go back?

 

Readings for next week: Vilsoni Hereniko, “Representations of Cultural Identities” in Tides of History: The Pacific Islands in the Twentieth Century edited by K.R. Howe, Robert C. Kiste and Brij V. Lal. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1994:406-433, Susan Cochrane, “Art in the Contemporary Pacific” from Art AsiaPacific c.1997:50-59, Excerpts from Lali, Albert Wendt (ed). Auckland: Longman, c. 1985. (in reader) “Niu Directions in Pasifika Art,” Teresia Teaiwa in Loop (the Polifusion edition). (handout)

 

 

M         Guest Panel: Anton Carter (MC), Makerita Urale (producer), Toa Fraser (playwright), Audrey Brown (poet), Robert George (visual artist).

W        Niu Directions: Looking Back, Moving Forward; Evaluation.

Th        Revision and Discussion.

 

Tutorial Discussion:                   How is art that’s produced by Pacific people in Aotearoa/New Zealand similar to the art that’s produced in the islands? How is it different? Did our guest panelists have any common themes that they were working on?

 

Tutorial exercise:           Making your stamp on Pacific Studies (reprise)

Readings for next week: NONE!

 

 

M         Guest Lecture: Katerina Teaiwa (Ph.D. Student, Anthropology, ANU)

W        Revision and Discussion (Facilitated by tutors)

Th        Revision and Discussion (Facilitated by tutors)

 

Tutorial exercise:

 

 

            F          Na Hoku Hanohano