To Hell With Drowning: Inspiring a Sea Change

Photo by Ishan @seefromthesky on Unsplash

It’s time. There’s a big wave coming. It’s surging forth towards The Australian National University (ANU) and will wash over campus from 11 to 14 April with a powerful message: To Hell with Drowning!

The 2023 Australian Association for Pacific Studies (AAPS) conference “To Hell With Drowning” hopes to bring with it a sea change—to inspire discussion and action on resisting and reframing fatalist and narrow representations of Oceania.

From the highlands to the islands, the conference will look to advance multiscopic understandings of Oceanic people’s relationships and relationality of places through storytelling rooted in a trans-disciplinary, critical and creative Pacific Studies.

In the words of Indigenous human rights lawyer and writer from Guam Julian Aguon, “We need stories. And not just stories about the stakes, which we know are high, but stories about the places we call home. Stories about our own small corners of the Earth as we know them. As we love them.”

As such, this flagship event hosted by the AAPS, the ANU School of Culture, History & Language (CHL) and the ANU College of Law seeks stories and conversations that illuminate fierce attachments to place and the immense beauty, magic and abundance of Oceania.

The AAPS community recognises both ancestral and contemporary kinships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, South Sea Islanders, Māori and Pacific Islanders. The 2023 conference will take place at ANU, an institution located on the unceded lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people and central to the Australian coloniality that continues to impinge upon the sovereignties of First Nations of this Country and beyond in Oceania. It is also an institution central to the decolonial possibilities envisaged by Pacific Studies in CHL.

The Brightest Jewels of the Pacific…

This landmark conglomeration will bring together high-profile Pacific political leaders such as Dame Meg Taylor, Tuiloma Neroni Slade, Senator Hilda Heine, President Anote Tong and Ambassador Kaliopate Tavola into conversation with many other prominent Pacific and Indigenous academics, activists and artists. These include Professor Alice Te Punga Somerville, Emeritus Professor Terence Wesley Smith, Professor Katerina Teaiwa, Joy Lehuanani Enomoto, Dr Melinda Mann, Kim Kruger, Ronny Kareni, Maureen Penjueli, Yuki Kihara, Sana Balai, Lisa Hilli, Dr April K. Henderson, Dr Léuli Eshrāghi, Dr Virginia Marshall, Professor Mahendra Kumar and many more.

The four-day gathering is all set to be a feast of Pacific discourse and creative initiative, featuring panel discussions on positioning Pacific diasporas on Aboriginal Lands, reframing and transforming oceans governance in Oceania, Voices for climate justice and decolonial futures, critical approaches to law and Pacific peoples, and Indigenous Diplomatic Pathways in the Contemporary Pacific, to name a few.

All this has been made possible with the support of many, including the College of Asia and the Pacific, the ANU Gender Institute and the ANU Pacific Institute.

Citing Ourselves

Scheduled to open alongside the conference is the Citing Ourselves exhibition (1 April–21 July 2023), a unique showcase that draws upon the living practices of Pacific artists, activists and the legacy of Pacific Studies scholars to explore the issue of Pacific climate justice. Pacific female and fa’afafine, grassroots activists, academics, and artists are the inspiration and reference points to archival materials drawn from the ANU Archives, Pacific Research Archives, and the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. The exhibition also honours and acknowledges Pacific Studies scholars including ANU alumna and notes the impact and influence of their intellectual and creative legacies that ripple and flow on to present and future generations to follow in their wake. Citing Ourselves is a collective review and distinct Pacific perspective to inform the ongoing climate impacts, challenges and solutions faced and initiated by Pacific people and cultures.

Citing Ourselves is curated by ANU School of Culture, History & Language PhD candidates Talei Luscia Mangioni and Lisa Hilli, held on Ngunnawal, Ngunawal and Ngambri Lands at Menzies Library, home of the ANU’s Pacific Research Archives and part of the Australian Association of Pacific Studies Biennial Conference 2023.

The project was greatly supported by Stella Hibbins, Luseane ‘Ofa, Jemimah Bryson and James Lowrie.

Acknowledgements: ANU Gender Institute, ANU Pacific Research Archives, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (PAMBU), Australian Association for Pacific Studies, School of Culture, History & Language

Theses Oceania Room CHL, supplied by Katerina Teaiwa

More than 1,000 theses on Pacific Studies…

Another very important part of the Pacific Studies legacy at ANU resides in the new OCEANIA room at the HC Coombs Building. The ANU School of Culture, History & Language is regarded as one of the leading interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary schools at the forefront of Pacific Studies. This collection credits this claim with its prestigious list of PhD alumna in the disciplines of history, anthropology, political science, languages, archaeology and gender, media and cultural studies. This includes the renowned “father of Pacific Studies”, Professor Epeli Hau'ofa, a pioneer and visionary in the field, with his anthropology PhD thesis on the Mekeo people of Papua New Guinea. He is today most known for his influential essays “Our Sea of Islands” and “The Ocean in Us”, both of which proposed a radical revisioning of the Pacific as Oceania. Some other prominent alumnae whose theses we have are Sione Lātūkefu, Pacific Island historian and first Tongan to complete a Bachelor of Education, Dr. Alumita Durutalo, an expert in Pacific politics, development, and indigenous leadership, Dr. August Kituai, early Indigenous historian of Papua New Guinea and Reverend Dr. Kambati Uriam, renowned I-Kiribati theologian and historian. All mentioned had completed their PhDs through the ANU Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS), now CHL.

These theses serve as the cornerstones of Pacific Studies at ANU and internationally today, and reflect CHL’s enduring commitment to the field. They are examples that challenge colonial structures concerning the region and instead introduce innovative frameworks and ideas to accommodate Pacific ways of knowing and being. Many employ creative devices, such as storytelling and metaphors, within these theses to convey their messages and construct disciplinary criticisms.

Carl F. K. Pao (1971- ) 0'ahu, Hawaii | Pasifika | acrvlic on plywood | Canberra | 2012

And so, get set for an exciting journey aboard this Pacific canoe, which will navigate many diverse and dynamic discussions directed at positive change; and more importantly, action-centric roadmaps for the future of Pacific studies and decolonisation of the academy.

This is a very significant milestone for Pacific Studies in Australia and the region, and a strategic opportunity for ANU colleagues to bring about positive thought leadership and change, as it aligns with the larger ANU commitment to the Pacific region.

For full details of the sessions, visit the official event website.