Charting Pacific (Studies) Waters: Evidence of Teaching and Learning

In this article, I chart my experience of learning and teaching in the awe-inspiring waters of the Pacific and of Pacific studies. I begin by articulating the philosophy that underpins my approach as a teacher. One of the bedrocks of my philosophy is that a teacher must continue to be a learner in order to be of any lasting benefit to themselves or their students. I have used both the canoe and the ocean as metaphors to articulate my deliberate pursuit of a cooperative learning model for Pacific studies and my desire to encourage deep rather than surface learning about the Pacific. I focus now on two other tenets of my teaching and learning philosophy: one deals with the diversity of students’ learning positionalities, and the other anticipates the students’ potential learning trajectories. I present some illustrations of my practice, including narrations about some innovations in teaching and learning in Pacific studies; student evaluations of my teaching and rates of course completion in Pacific studies and graduate successes; my pursuit of professional development and attainment of further qualifications in higher education learning and teaching; and responses from students in the form of reflections and testimonials. I conclude by reflecting on the broader context of higher education in New Zealand in which Pacific studies is situated and some of its ongoing challenges

Visualizing te kainga, dancing te kainga : history and culture between Rabi, Banaba and beyond

Visualising te kaingal, Dancing te Kainga, is an exploration of Banaban and Gilbertese history and culture through archival texts and photographs, writing in history and anthropology, film, music and dance, and fieldwork or what I call "homework" The form of the thesis resonates with its content as I explore these sites of knowledge production through analysis, narrative, poetry, memory, image, and video. Banaban history and politics has been mainly defined with respect to the British colonial and phosphate mining experiences between 1900 and 1980. Banaban or Ocean Island is viewed as the essential "homeland" while Rabi is still seen as a new and disconcerting place of exile. I go beyond this two-island frame of reference by arguing for Rabi as "home" and including Australia, New Zealand and Kiribati as valid sites for exploring Banaban and Gilbertese identities. Focusing on kainga, or home, is a tool that allows us to connect these places. Like aba, or land, kainga has multiple meanings including people (and their specific relationships), land, residence and genealogy. Banabans are connected genealogically and culturally to specific islands in Kiribati and more broadly to land, history, politics and economics in Australia and New Zealand through phosphate mining and phosphate fertiliser. Both Banaban lands and bodies have been moved over the last 100 years and "movement" is a crucial aesthetic for dealing with Banaban survival as they create their own brand of culture through song and dance on Rabi. Like dance, film contains an excess of meaning and the overall thesis is associative as well as expository inviting the reader to make meaning, along with the author, between text, image and video

Inventory of Pacific Research at Victoria University of Wellington 1999-2005

This inventory seeks to document the range of research interests and activities taking place on Pacific topics at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW). It has emerged out of a collaboration between the Office of Research and Postgraduate Studies, and the Programme in Pacific Studies. The inventory aims to provide an informed basis for the strategic development of Pacific research and teaching at VUW, through the newly established unit, Va'aomana Pasifika. By "Pacific" we mean the most inhabited portions of the Pacific basin. At times, reference may be made to "Pacific people": by this we mean people who trace descent to andtor are citizens of any of the territories commonly understood to be part of the Pacific (i.e., Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia). Alternative terms that may appear in the inventory include: "Pasifika", "Pasefika", "Pasifiki". These are respectively generic Polynesian, and specifically Samoan and Tongan variations on the word "Pacific". The terms "Asia-Pacific" or "Asia Pacific" arise occasionally: we understand that the terms do not always coincide with our emphasis on the Pacific basin and Pacific peoples, and for the most part privilege nations and peoples on the "Pacific Rim". However, we are also aware that some permutations of "Asia-Pacific" at W are more conscientiously engaged with the Pacific basin. We have allowed for the benefit of the doubt in most cases. In this inventory, distinction is made between academic staff who are "Pacific by ethnicity" and academic staff who are "Pacific by interest". Academic staff who are actively engaged in research on Pacific topics may not trace their ancestry to Pacific nations, while academic staff who are "Pacific by ethnicity" may not necessarily be conducting research on Pacific topics. This inventory does not include exclusively Maori research. Inventories of Maori research activity and services at W have already been undertaken through the office of Toiahurei, the Pro Vice Chancellor Maori at VUW. Finally, this research inventory is limited to the period 1999-2005 because of the restrictions of our staffing and research resources. While it would have been useful to have a more extensive inventory, perhaps reaching back 10 or even 30 years, this was beyond our means at the time and could be a future project. We know that we may not have captured all the Pacific research carried out during this period. We apologise for any omissions and welcome such information to add to and assist grow this inventory data base

Book Reviews

Book Reviews: The Great Land: How Western America Nearly Became a Russian Possession by Jeremy Atiyah ; Sacred Claims: Repatriation and Living Tradition by Greg Johnson ; Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai'i? by Jon M. Van Dyke ; White Enough to Be American?: Race Mixing, Indigenous People, and the Boundaries of State and Nation by Lauren L. Basson ; Colonizing Leprosy: Imperialism and the Politics of Public Health in the United States by Michelle T. Moran ; Pacific Performances: Theatricality and Cross-Cultural Encounter in the South Seas by Christopher B. Balme ; Guardian of the Sea: Jizo in Hawai'i by John R. K. Clark ; Pathways to the Present: U.S. Development and Its Consequences in the Pacific by Mansel G. Blackford ; "Whole Oceans Away": Melville and the Pacific edited by Jill Barnum, Wyn Kelley, and Christopher Sten ; Ka Mo'olelo o Hi'iakaikapoliopele: Ka Wahine i ka Hikina a ka la, ka u'i Palekoki Uila o Halema'uma'u -- The Epic Tale of Hi'iakaikapoliopele: Woman of the Sunrise, Lightning-Skirted Beauty of Halema'uma'u by Ho'oulumahiehie ; We Go Eat: A Mixed Plate From Hawai'i's Food Culture edited by Susan Yim ; The White Pacific: U.S. Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas after the Civil War by Gerald Horn

Gendered representations in Hawai‘i’s anti-GMO activism

The aim of this article is to analyse some of the representations of intersectional gender that materialise in activism against genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It uses the case of Hawai‘i as a key node in global transgenic seed production and hotspot for food, land and farming controversies. Based on ethnographic work conducted since 2012, the article suggests some of the ways that gender is represented within movements against GMOs by analysing activist media representations. The article shows how gender, understood intersectionally, informs possibilities for movement-identification, exploring how themes of motherhood, warrior masculinities and sexualised femininities are represented within these movements. The article suggests that some activist representations of gender invoke what could be considered as normative framings of gender similar to those seen in other environmental, food and anti-GMO movements. It is suggested that these gendered representations may influence and limit how different subjects engage with Hawai'i anti-GMO movements. At the same time, contextual, intersectional readings demonstrate the complex histories behind what appear to be gender normative activist representations. Taken together, this emphasis on relative norms of femininities and masculinities may provide anti-GMO organising with familiar social frames that counterbalance otherwise threatening campaigns against (agri)business in the settler state. Understood within these histories, the work that gender does within anti-GMO organising may offer generative examples for thinking through the relationships between gendered representations and situated, indigenous-centred, food and land-based resistances

Towards framing the global in Global Development: prospects for development geography

This paper examines data in the public sphere on the global scope of geography’s UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) projects. Building on decolonial critiques of development research, I argue that geography should frame ‘the global’ of global research as a sphere of ethical choices in research design and practice. The distribution of funded projects in the UKRI Gateway data suggests geographers succeed where they extend on the more worthy aspects of the discipline’s Area Studies legacy. The discipline’s engagements with Early Career Researchers, international colleagues, and the development sector, however, have potentially been reshaped by GCRF and thus need closer examination. While the UK government has brought the GCRF programme to a close, further work on these themes should inform the next iteration of global research. The ethical choices which make research global will remain fundamental to equitable design and impact in Global Development projects, thus scholars in development geography should prepare to make their projects more transparent and accountable