Lec 3: Our sea of Islands

Question 1

What is the problem with the oceania region being called the Pacific?

Answer 1

1. we are not homogenous
2. bounderies set are not clear e.g., Fiji
3. Pacific peoples moved and changed overtime and space.
4. Our cultures are dynamic not static

Question 2

What does the term Te Moana Nui a Kiwa mean?

Answer 2

1. An example of indigenous understandings of place and ocean.
2. Name from the Cook Islands and also Aotearoa for the body of water that connects them
3. Named for the ancestor Kiwa = connected knowledge.

Question 3

What are some of the different trade routes and connections through Oceania?

Answer 3

1. Massim Kula - 18 island communities spread across Massim archipelago.
2. Sawei - Indigenous route that connect Yap and other islands in the Micronesian region e.g., religion, politics, social networks etc.
3. O Le Vasa Loloa - Routes of exchange of people, knowledge, ideas and items e.g., tattooing, medicine, canoes, fine mats etc.

Question 4

What are other examples of mapping our pacific ancestors used?

Answer 4

Marshallese stick map that mapped the currents, weather, fishing routes etc

Question 5

What are the main points to Epeli Hau’Ofas text Our Sea of Islands?

Answer 5

1. Challenge colonial worldviews that are often limiting.
2. Ideas of isolation - methodology
3. Critically examining power.
4. Transformed dominiant approaches to studying the pacific.

Question 6

What is the difference between ISLANDS IN A FAR SEA and OUR SEA OF ISLANDS?

Answer 6

Islands in a far sea:

• we’re suppose to be all spread out and isolated.
• Just dots in the sea
• Far - location is relative
• Some island communities won’t be well known, so they don’t matter in a Euor-American sense
• Stresses the importance of land and not the ocean.
• ” island countries of the pacific are too small to rise above the current situations”
• bleak future and scarcity model

Our Sea of Islands:

• we have access to, trade with and work together as people of Oceania.
• we belong to this region (use of pronoun OUR)
• Even though we are spread out we are still connected
• the environments are expansive, huge and vast, it’s not just land but oceans too.
• ” island countries of the pacific are too small to rise above the current situations”

Question 7

What is oceania?

Answer 7

1. region defined by connections and vastness rather then disconnection and smallness.
2. Ocean is not a barrier but a channel of deep connectivity and opportunity.

Question 8

How does Hau’Ofa change his thinking and teaching about the pacific? why is this shift important?

Answer 8

1. he changes his mindset from one of smallness and participating in the belittlement of Oceania to one of learning, hope and teaching others to decolonize our minds. How we set up our future generations for the way they see themselves
2. We have the power to dictate how we see ourselves as a people and region.

Question 9

What was the purpose of Hau’ofa telling the story of the friend he ran into in Hawaii?

Answer 9

It strengthens the notion that:

1. we’re not small and we’re not irrelevant.
2. breaking an unnatural confinement
3. wherever we go we always take the pacific with us.

Question 10

How does the ocean connect us?

Answer 10

1. Marine life e.g., whale migration, cycle of turtles
2. Plants e.g., variations of coconut, breadfruit etc across the regions
3. animals - domestication in different envrionments
4. Rubbish - environmental degradation
5. Weather systems
6. Arts and festivals