Upcoming Colloqium and Seminar


The Center for Pacific Islands Studies has announced two upcoming events:


1: Anthropology Colloquium Series

Merging Archaeology with the Local Community: The Molokai Archaeological Training Program and Wailau Research Project, Molokai Island, Hawaii
byWindy McElroy
Senior Archaeologist, Garcia & Associates

Date: Thursday, 11 March 2010
Time: 3 p.m.
Place: UH-M Crawford Hall 115

(click on flier at right for more information)

2. Pacific Islands Occasional Seminar

The Origins of Maori in Parliament: The 1867 Maori Representation Act in New Zealand
by Ilana Gershon, Indiana University

Date: Monday, 15 March 2010
Time: 12 pm
Place: UHM Moore Hall 319

Why did the settler New Zealand parliament decide in 1867 to pass a bill that set aside four seats in the House of Representatives for Maori representatives? This unique British colonial legislative act supporting indigenous rights has allowed subsequent Maori members of parliament to help transform New Zealand's politics of recognition and advocate for indigenous rights. This paper will examine the political debates surrounding this 1867 legislation, and, in particular, how New Zealand settler politicians' ideologies of political performance and oratory underpinned the debates over whether to grant indigenous people self-representation. It is largely about how settlers perceive indigenous political performances and address how these perceptions, or ideologies of performance, influenced the ways legislative structures were established in the early stages of New Zealand's settler nation building to include indigenous actors.

Ilana Gershon is a cultural anthropologist in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University. Her previous research compared Samoan migrant experiences in New Zealand and the United States, focusing on the contrasts between how governments and migrants understand what it means to have a culture. In her current research project, she is looking at Maori members of the New Zealand parliament, exploring how indigenous self-representation in the national legislature has contributed to the current Maori renaissance.

The seminar is cosponsored by the UHM Center for Pacific Islands Studies, the UHM Department of Anthropology, and the Maori Language and Culture Program in the UHM Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures. For information, and disability access, please call 808-956-7700.

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