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PACIFIC 200: PACIFIC STUDIES

 

 

CONVENOR:

Dr Lisa Uperesa

Office:

Room 102J, Building 273, Centre for Pacific Studies

Phone:

373 7599 extn 84291

Email:

l.uperesa@auckland.ac.nz

Office Hours:

Tuesdays 3-4 and by appointment

Room 108, Centre for Pacific Studies, Building 273

LECTURE TIME/VENUE:

Monday 10-11 am 206-315 (Arts 1 315)

Tuesday 1-2 pm 206-209 (Arts 1 209)

TUTORIAL TIME/VENUE:

Wednesday 10-11 am CAG18/114-G18

Wednesday 4-5 pm CAG18/114-G18

Wednesday 5-6 pm 206-215

 

TEACHING TEAM:

Dr Melani Anae

Assoc. Prof. Damon Salesa

Dr Melenaite Taumoefolau

Dr Tarisi Vunidilo

TUTOR:

Dr Tarisi Vunidilo

Office:

Room 273 Centre for Pacific Studies, Building 273

Phone:

373 3577 extn 84994

Email:

tarisi.vunidilo@auckland.ac.nz

Office Hours:

Wednesday 11-12pm

 

Key websites: Class CANVAS website,

login: https://canvas.auckland.ac.nz/courses/23156

 

 

PACIFIC STUDIES 200

Welcome to Pacific Studies 200.

This is a course designed to broaden and deepen your knowledge of the Pacific, and of Pacific Studies as an interdisciplinary way of knowing the Pacific. Where Pacific 100: Introduction to Pacific Studies focused on an introductory knowledge of the Pacific, introducing you to its history, cultures, economics, politics and contemporary issues, Pacific 200: Pacific Studies develops further your understanding of key debates, influential thinkers, and critical issues in the Pacific.

  

Pacific Studies   Overview

Stage one Pacific Studies courses ground students in knowledge about the Pacific, and to introduce some elementary and central issues relevant to understanding the Pacific. Stage one courses are designed to build core knowledge about the Pacific as a place, to learn about the scope of the Pacific’s cultural and population diversity, and to be introduced to some of the Pacific’s key concerns and issues.

  • Pacific 100: Introduction to Pacific Studies
  • Pacific 105: Pacific World Views
  • Pacific 110: Pacific Music and Dance

 

Stage two Pacific Studies courses build on the foundational knowledge of stage one Pacific Studies papers, and introduce key concepts and approaches in the interdisciplinary field of Pacific Studies. In addition to extending and deepening students’ knowledge of the Pacific, students begin to learn about distinctive ways of studying and analysing the Pacific. Students learn about the interdisciplinary approaches that set Pacific Studies apart from other branches of the university, through its utilization of a range of academic tools, drawing particularly from the humanities, social sciences, environmental science, linguistics, and bringing this into engagement with indigenous knowledge and critique.

  • Pacific 200: Pacific Studies
  • Pacific 207/308: Topics in Pacific Arts
  • Pacific 209/309: Pacific Leadership: Navigators of change
  • Pacific 211/311: Polynesian Warriors: Sport and Pacific Cultures

 

Stage three Pacific Studies courses continue building on the foundations of stage one and two courses, adding both depth and breadth of knowledge. Stage three courses also build on the critical, intellectual and scholarly engagements with Pacific Studies as a form of inquiry that is introduced in stage two. Stage three courses also begin extending what is required from students, particularly developing student capacity for extended and individual research, introducing core research skills and tools, and providing opportunities to extend students, teachers, and the field itself.

  • Pacific 300: NZ-Born Pacific Identities
  • Pacific 302: Pacific Language Structures
  • Pacific 304: Advanced Pacific Studies (Capstone course)
  • Pacific 310: Koneseti

  

PACIFIC 200

PACIFIC 200 builds students’ core knowledge of the Pacific, introducing key debates and interdisciplinary methods in Pacific Studies. The course tackles critical concerns in the Pacific Islands’ region, including those of its peoples, transnationalism and globalization, government and economy, health, wellbeing and climate.

PACIFIC 200 follows on from PACIFIC 100, the introductory course to Pacific Studies. PACIFIC 200 deepens the knowledge learned in PACIFIC 100, sets it in a much broader context, and begins the critical process of examining the interdisciplinary approaches of Pacific Studies. PACIFIC 200 focuses on five core areas of concern in Pacific Studies: governance and economy; connectivity; indigeneity; health, wellbeing and society; and climate, environment and technology. These topics are the frame through which the key issues will be introduced and covered, and particular examples will be covered in much greater depth.

The course addresses this content through three units of the course.

 

Unit 1: Studying the Contemporary Pacific

This unit focuses on approaches to contemporary issues in the Pacific, with an emphasis on how this analysis happens: what frameworks, theories, disciplines and methods are used in research about the Pacific.  This year these key methods include:

  • Health research, interviews, longitudinal study
  • Quantitative, economic, statistical
  • Political and survey
  • Ethnographic, anthropological, cultural studies
  • ‘Pacific research methods’ such as

 

Unit 2: Pacific Thinkers 

This unit traces the development of Pacific Studies as a field of inquiry, and a diverse field, by concentrating on the genealogies of Pacific Studies. By choosing an important and representative set of Pacific Studies scholars, and setting this in the context of the field, both as it developed and as it currently stands. The Pacific Thinkers on which we focus are:

  • Bernard Narokobi
  • Grace Molisa
  • Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara
  • ‘Epeli Hau‘ofa
  • Maualaivao Albert Wendt
  • Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese
  • Konai Helu Thaman

 

Unit 3: Critical Debates

The final unit introduces some of the key debates in Pacific Studies. This allows students to see different methods, and different scholars, engaging with critical concerns, thus integrating unit 1 and 2, and developing deeper understandings of core issues and material. The ‘critical debates’ we have chosen are:

  • Remittances and Migration
  • Development and Aid
  • Identity and Culture
  • Environment and Ocean
  • Mobility and Connection
  • Inequality and Education
  • Geopolitics and security

This unit prepares students for thinking about, and developing, ideas about their own research, as well as engaging them in the key streams of current Pacific Studies, and deepening their understanding of the Pacific, the region, and its people and cultures.

 

Assessment 

  • Final Exam: 50%
  • Coursework: 50%
    • Essay 2000 words 20%
    • Midterm Exam 10%
    • Group Project 10%
    • Tutorial Assignments and Participation 10%

Further details will be distributed in class and made available via CANVAS. Test dates are indicated on the class schedule.

 

What is Pacific Studies?

Pacific Studies is an interdisciplinary enterprise that employs different ways of studying and analysing ‘the Pacific’. What this means is that unlike traditional discipline-based knowledge formations (like history, or psychology, or economics, or biology) Pacific Studies pursues its enquiries through multidisciplinary intellectual approaches. In every Pacific Studies course you will learn using more than one disciplinary method.

 

Pacific Studies’ ‘interdisciplinarity’ (as it is called) is innovative and unusual in the university. You will notice it in the course as your teachers all have different scholarly training and backgrounds. Unlike most places in the university, people of different disciplines occupy the same physical and intellectual space in Pacific Studies: anthropologists, political scientists, economists, historians, sociologists, literary critics, health researchers, environmental scientists, educators, art historians, linguists and cultural experts (amongst others) not only share in the conversations about the Pacific, they even share the teaching of courses and buildings.

 

The Pacific, as you may know and will learn, is the largest thing on earth. There is more to learn in the Pacific than we will ever know. The Pacific has such huge dimensions, it is too large to encompass in any single way, and certainly in any single course. Pacific Studies is similar too: although Pacific Studies scholars share conversations, they do not share identical ideas or approaches, and consequently have different senses of what Pacific Studies is, or should be. What unites the interdisciplinary enterprise of Pacific Studies is not a common background and way of seeing (as with most departments and centres on campus) but the shared subject of the Pacific and its peoples, and the shared scholarly and intellectual conversations about the Pacific.

 

Course Schedule

 

 

Introduction

 

06 March

Class Orientation

 

07 March

What is Pacific Studies?

•      Teaiwa, T. K. (2010). For or before an Asian Pacific studies agenda? Specifying Pacific studies. Remaking area studies: Teaching and learning across Asia and the Pacific, 110-124.

 

Unit 1

Studying the Contemporary Pacific

 

13 March

1.1 Indigenous Research Methods: Talanoa (Vunidilo)

•            Nabobo-Baba, U. (2008). Decolonising framings in Pacific research: Indigenous Fijian Vanua Research Framework as an organic response. AlterNative 4(2), 140–154.

•            Baba, T. (2004). Pacific and Indigenous Research: Beyond Bondage and Patronage.  Researching the Pacific and Indigenous Peoples: Issues and Perspectives. eds. T. Baba, O. Mahina, N. Williams, U. Nabobo-Baba. Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Auckland, 95-104.

 

14 March

1.2    Pacific Environment Management, Climate and Ecology: Pacific Studies and the Environmental Sciences (Salesa)

•      Finucane, M. L. Why Science Alone Won't Solve the Climate Crisis: Managing Climate Risks in the Pacific. AsiaPacific Issues 89 (2009).

•      Taniera, T. (1994). Traditional Fisheries in Kiribati: Survival and Sustainability. Science of Pacific Island Peoples Volume 1 (USP), 113-120.

 

20 March

1.3    Indigenous Knowledge: Intellectual Property Right and Cultural Appropriation: Pacific Studies and Indigenous Studies (Vunidilo)

•      Mead, A. & Ratuva, S. (2007). Pacific genes & life  patents: Pacific indigenous experiences & analysis of the commodification & ownership of life. Call of the Earth Llamado de la Tierra (Organization); Institute of Advanced Studies.  Wellington, N.Z.; Yokohama, Japan: Call of the Earth Llamado de la Tierra and the United Nations University of Advanced Studies. (page numbers: tbc)

 

21 March

1.4    Culture and Identity: Pacific Studies, Anthropology, Sociology and Ethnography (Anae)

•      Diaz, V.M. & Kauanui, J. K. (2001). Native Pacific Studies on the Edge. The Contemporary Pacific 13(2), 315-342.

27 March

1.5  Globalization and Transnationalism: Pacific Studies over Long Distances (Uperesa)

•      Macpherson, C. & Macpherson, L. ‘Migration and   Social Transformation’, in The Warm Winds of Change: Globalisation in Contemporary Samoa (Auckland UP, 2009), 59-97.

28 March

1.6 Representing Moana

•            Teresia Teaiwa: I was once seduced by Disney.  But no longer. E-Tangata (9 October 2016). (read main article and linked articles)

Unit 2

Pacific Thinkers

03 April

2.1    The Development of Pacific Studies (Uperesa)

•      Wesley-Smith, T. (1995). Rethinking Pacific Islands Studies. Pacific Studies 18(2), 115–136.

04 April

2.2    Epeli Hau’ofa (Anae)

•      Hau’ofa, E. (1994). Our Sea of Islands. The Contemporary Pacific 6(1), 147–161.

10   April

2.3 Ratu Sir Kamasese Mara (Vunidilo)

  • Corbett, J. and J. Connell. (2014). The Promise of the 1970s: Ratu Mara on the World Stages. The Round Table, 1-10. PDF posted on Canvas

  • Lawson, (2010). ‘The Pacific Way’ as Postcolonial Discourse: Towards a Reassessment. Journal of Pacific History 45(3), 297-314.

  • Mara, R. S. K. (1997). The Pacific Way: A Memoir. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. Available in the Library

11 April

 

*****Midterm Test*******

In class, in lecture (45 minutes)

 

Mid-Semester Break

(April 14- April 29, 2017)

01   May

2.4 Konai Helu and Futa Helu (Taumoefolau)

•         Helu-Thaman, K. (2003) Decolonizing Pacific Studies: Indigenous Perspectives, Knowledge, and Wisdom in Higher Education. Contemporary Pacific 12(1), 1-17.

•         Helu, F. (1981) Education Crisis in the South Seas. Directions: Journal of Educational Studies 5, 17-21.

 

02 May

2.5 Bernard Narokobi and Grace Molisa (Salesa)

•      Narokobi, B. (1980). The Melanesian way: total cosmic vision of life. Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies Port Moresby.

•      Molisa, G. M. (1987). Colonised people. Port Vila, Vanuatu: Blackstone Publications, 8-30.

Unit 3

Critical Debates

08   May

2.6 Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Taisi Tupuola Efi and Albert Wendt (Salesa)

•      Wendt, A. (1999). Afterword: Tatauing the post-colonial body. Inside out: Literature, Cultural Politics, and Identity in the New Pacific, 399–412.

•      Efi, T. A. T. T. T. (2005). Clutter in indigenous knowledge, research and history: A Samoan Perspective. Social Policy Journal of New Zealand 61.

**Group Assignment Proposal Due uploaded to Canvas**

09 May

3.1    Migration and Remittances (Uperesa)

•      Bertram, G. (2006). Introduction: The MIRAB model  in the twenty-first century. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 47(1), 1–13.

•      Lee, H. (2006). ‘Tonga Only Wants Our Money’: The Children of Tongan Migrants. Globalisation and Governance in the Pacific Islands: State, Society, and Governance in Melanesia, ed. Stewart Firth. Canberra: ANU Press. 121-136.

12 May

 ** Essay Due, hard copy to Arts 1 and uploaded to Turnitin.com via canvas **

15 May

3.2   Development and Aid (Salesa)

•      Murray, W. E., and J. Overton. (2011). The Inverse Sovereignty Effect: Aid, Scale and Neostructuralism in Oceania. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 52(3): 272–284.

16 May

3.3   Natural Resources, Geoscience, and Culture: Mauna Kea & TMT (Uperesa)

•      Peralto, L. Portrait. Mauna a Wakea: Hanau Ka Mauna, the Piko of our Ea. A Nation Rising, eds. N. Goodyear-Kaopua, I. Hussey, and E. K. Wright. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 233-243.

•      Rios, H. He Welo. The Value of Hawaii 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 280-287.

•      Kahea TMT Fact Sheet (2015)

22 May

3.4  Rebuilding Fiji, Geopolitics and Security (Vunidilo)

•      Firth, S. (2013). ‘New Developments in the International Relations of the Pacific’. The Journal of Pacific History 48 (3): 1–8.

 

23 May

3.5   Militarization: The American Pacific (Uperesa)

•      Perez, C. S. ‘I Lina’la’ Tataotao Ta’lo’: The Rhetoric and Aesthetics of Militarism, Religiosity, and Commemoration. Huihui: Navigating Art and Literature in the Pacific, eds. J. Carroll, B. N. McDougall, and G. Nordstrom. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 181-199.

∞ Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. (2011). Broken Promises, Shattered Lives: The case for justice for Micronesians in Hawai’i.

•      Warriors Born: American Samoans in the U.S. Military (Dir: Rachel Kahn Taylor, 22mins) 

29   May

3.6  Climate Change Warriors and Refugees (TBA)

•            Moana: The Rising of the Sea. (1998). Directed by Vilsoni Hereniko, produced by Vilsoni Hereniko, fl. 1998 (Suva, Central (Fiji): University of the South Pacific, 2013), 35 mins

•      Jitner-Kijiner, K. Tell Them. The Value of Hawaii 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 70-72.

•      CSIRO, Australian Bureau of Meteorology and SPREP (2015). Climate in the Pacific: a regional summary of new science and management tools. Pacific-Australia Climate Change Science and Adaptation Planning Program Summary Report. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Melbourne, Australia.

 

30   May

3.7   Pacific Leadership Today: Transnational Fa’amatai (Anae)

•      Tcherkezoff, S. (200.)  The Samoan Category Matai (“Chief”): A Singularity in Polynesia? Historical and Etymological Comparative Queries. Journal of the Polynesian Society 109(2): 151-190.

2 June

**Group Project Reports Due Uploaded on Canvas**

5 June

Holiday: Queen’s Birthday (no class)

 

Class Conclusion

6 June

3.6    Conclusion: A Sea of Islands: Is the Pacific Isolated or Connected? (Uperesa)

•      Hau’ofa, E. (1994). Our Sea of Islands. The Contemporary Pacific 6(1): 147–161. (Consult your notes  from 2.2)

•      Jolly, Margaret. (2007). ‘Imagining Oceania: Indigenous and Foreign Representations of a Sea of Islands’. The Contemporary Pacific 19(2): 508–545.

26 June

Final Exam, Start time 17:45

Course summary:

Date Details Due