10th ESfO Conference Home
Sessions and Paper Submission
Programme
Other activities
Venue
Accommodation
Back to
pacific-studies.net
Back to Conference session list
Session Detail (plenary)
Plenary Session - Keynote speech by dr. Katerina Teaiwa
Our Rising Sea of Islands: Hau‘ofa’s Hope and Mara’s Way in the Age of Climate Change
Katerina Teaiwa
Australian National University
In the 20th century many Pacific leaders expressed regional visions in poetic and compelling ways. These included Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara’s “Pacific Way,” referencing Oceanian forms of dialogue and consensus building, and Albert Wendt’s articulation of empowering Oceanic literary expression. Such visions became muted as critics dismissed the ideas as elite or impractical, and neoliberal economic policies and forms of governance and development set in. Some movements, such as for gender equality, achieved region-wide participation, and Epeli Hau‘ofa’s “Sea of Islands” inspired countless scholars and students to question neocolonial framings of the Pacific Islands. Today, Climate Change, much like the earlier Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement, has begun to achieve multi-generational, multi-scalar resonance.
I will discuss scholarly, artistic, and activist networks and projects that move beyond national borders to address issues of growing regional significance. The “rising” in “rising sea of islands” references not just the impacts of global warming and Hau‘ofa’s expansive vision-- what James Clifford called “Hau‘ofa’s Hope”-- but the rising once more of critical, engaged Oceanians who are writing, performing and speaking regionally and globally about a range of important issues. The participation profile of these projects and communication via new technologies challenges what some scholars used to critique as regional idealism of interest just to political elites. I will discuss Oceania Rising in Honolulu, Oceania Interrupted in New Zealand, Oceania Now in Australia, the Rethinking and Renewing Oceania discussion forum, the 350 Pacific and Pacific Climate Warriors actions against climate change and fossil fuel consumption, and the multi-sited Wansolwara movement from which the We Bleed Black & Red campaign emerged. I will also contextualize this in terms of official Australian, New Zealand and European research and development policies, and reflect on Kate Stone’s discussion of critical regionalism and “an Oceanic identity for the ordinary people.”
