Hawaiian & Pacific Collections

The University of Hawai‘i-Mānoa Library recently coordinated the purchase of a subscription to  Ethnographic Video Online , which provides faculty, staff and students throughout the UH system with online access to  over 1,300 hours of streaming video, including ethnographic films, documentaries, feature films and previously unpublished fieldwork.  The collection includes the work of a number of UH faculty members, as well as several highly regarded Hawai'i- and Pacific-based filmmakers, including (among many others) Vilsoni Hereniko, Eddie and Myrna Kamae, Tom Coffman, Stephanie J. Castillo, Peter Rockford Espiritu, Puhipau, Wendy Arbeit. In addition to searching out specific titles, users can browse in a variety of ways, including by Cultural Group, Places Discussed, and People Discussed. The purchase of this collection was made possible in part by a generous donation from Eddie and Myrna Kamae’s Hawaiian Legacy Foundation. Special thanks also go to Kris Anderson, w...

The below is excerpted from an email circulated by the Center for Pacific Islands Studies: Aloha kākou,  Please join us for these events: Three events Tuesday, 2/11   1:30-2:45   Talk story with Dr. Edvard Hviding, University of Bergen, (see bio below) in Hale Pasifika (Henke Hall 308) ​ 3:00-4:15pm   ​ “The Legacies of a Hawaiian Generation: From Territorial Subject to American Citizen.”   ​by ​ Dr. Judith Schachter ​ ​ in George Hall 301 Judith Schacter is Professor of Anthropology and History, Department of History, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has been doing fieldwork in Hawai`i for over two decades, and the material has been published in chapters and essays as well as in her recent book, The Legacies of a Hawaiian Generation: From Territorial Subject to American Citizen (Berghahn 2013). Recent publications include:  “Sovereignty, Indigeneity, Identities: Perspectives from Hawai `i”...

O n  Monday July 15 at 12pm  in Burns Hall room 3012, East-West Center,  Fr. Fran Hezel will be giving a brown bag seminar called "Cultural Dilemmas in Development," which stems from nearly fifty years of experience living and working in the Federated States of Micronesia. Fr. Hezel's talk will also draw on his recently published  Making sense of Micronesia : the logic of Pacific island culture   (University of Hawai'i Press, 2013). The Seminar is co-sponsored by The Pacific Islands Development Program and the Center for Pacific Islands Studies. For more information, click on the flyer at right.

The below message is quoted from an email circulated by the UH-M Center for Pacific Islands Studies: Aloha kākou, Please join us at 12pm on Thursday (2/14) for the first Pacific Connections Seminar of the semester. Bruno Saura, University of French Polynesia, will present “Pulotu, Hawaiki, Kahiki: Remembrance of Ancestral Lands in Pre-European Polynesia” from Tahiti via videoconference. Pulotu, Hawaiki, Kahiki: Remembrance of Ancestral Lands in Pre-European Polynesia Hawaiian people have kept the memory of the land of origin of their ancestors: Kahiki. They have also adopted for one of their islands the designation Hawaiʻi, which throughout Eastern Polynesia and Aotearoa refers to a land of origin as well as to the final destination of the deceased spirits: Hawaiki. Dr Saura will analyze Hawaiians’ inclusion of Raiatea in the concept of “Kahiki,” while the Tahitians call that island Havaiʻi. After considering another concept, Pulotu, which in Western Polynesia corresponds to what is ...

A group of scientists at Simon Fraser University have published research suggesting that the first human settlers in Tonga lived on the islands between 2,830 and 2,846 years ago. They arrived at this date using new techniques to date coral files that had been used on wood and shell surfaces. The report is published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE . Click here to download the article.

The Center for Pacific Islands Studies'  Pacific Film Series continues today (November 1) at the UH-Manoa Art Auditorium with an excerpt preview of the new NOVA-National Geographic special  Mystery of Easter Island  featuring Professor Terry Hunt and Dr Carl Lipo. For more information, click on the flyer at right.

A recently announced gathering to be held at UH-Manoa campus will be of special interest to writers, readers and scholars of Hawaiian and Pacific literature. As the conference website notes, " The ʻAha Moʻolelo Hawaiʻi is a Hawaiian literature, history and writing symposium. 2012 is the first gathering of scholars and practitioners of Hawaiian literary arts and history in conversation with indigenous Pacific and North American writers and scholars." For more information, click on the image at right.

The below is quoted directly from a release circulated by the UH-Manoa Center for Pacific Islands Studies. All listed events are free and open to the public. Good morning,  Please join us today [Weds, 10/3/12] at 12 pm for " Chamorro Voices:  Sovereignty, Decolonization, Militarization, Language, and Diaspora" with  UHM undergraduate poet Joleen Togawa Salas, chairperson of Guam’s Independence Task Force Michael Lujan Bevacqua, We are Guåhan cofounder Leevin Camacho, and indigenous rights attorney Therese Terlaje  (more information below) .  These speakers will address issues of sovereignty, decolonization, militarization, language, and the diaspora. UHM assistant professor Craig Santos Perez will moderate the panel . The seminar will be in the Tokioka Room, Moore 319 and is cosponsored by the English Department.  On Friday, 5 October from 5-8pm, the Marianas Club will be hosting I Kinalamten Gi Fina'tinas-ta (The Movement Through Our ...

The below is quoted from a press release circulated by UH Libraries Outreach Coordinator, Teri Skillman: Contact:   Teri Skillman, (808) 956-8688   Outreach Coordinator, Library Services Jaimey Hamilton, Assistant Professor of Art History at UH Manoa, will give the first lecture in the Fall 2012 Faculty Lecture Series from 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Monday, September 10, 2012, in Hamilton Library Room 301.  Refreshments will be provided and admission is free.   "SPAM MAPS: Questions about Contemporary Asia Pacific Art" is an overview of the transformation of contemporary art in the Asian Pacific economy.  It will showcase conversations among the Asia-Pacific creative community who propose new “maps” and models of economic relationships in our community, the Pacific Islands and Asia.   Many of the people involved are widely recognized as innovators in the arts and culture of the region.  They include Wu Hung, Terry Smith...

Volume 24, no. 2 (2012) of The Contemporary Pacific was recently released. This latest edition of TCP features artwork by Ani O'Neill and contributions by  Jonathan D. Baker, David Chappell, Stuart Dawrs, Vicente M Diaz, Mark Falcous, Jon Fraenkel, Andrew D. Grainger, Nic MacLellan, Gordon Leua Nanau, Joshua I. Newman, Howard Van Trease, Irene Visser and Muridan S. Widjojo. To view a complete table of contents, click on the image at right. Hard copy issues of the journal are available in the Pacific Collection, and UH-Manoa students, faculty and staff can also access electronic copies of the current issue (and all issues dating back to 2000) via Project Muse . All issues prior to the current two (i.e., from 1989 through 2011) are freely available on the internet via the UH-M Scholarspace digital repository .

The Center for Pacific Islands Studies newsletter, Pacific News from Manoa , is now available in blog format at   http://blog.hawaii.edu/cpis/ . Back issues of Pacific News can also be found on the Center's website at  http://www.hawaii.edu/cpis/publications_7.html . (The newsletter also continues to be distributed electronically as a pdf file; for more information on receiving the newsletter via email, visit the blog.)

The below is quoted directly from an email circulated by the UH-Manoa Center for Pacific Islands Studies. Iọkwe koṃ aolep Free tuition for 201 Intermediate Marshallese through UHM Outreach College again for fall semester.  This is a special opportunity to take 4 credits of a Pacific language for only $180.50 (administration fees). See the attached flyer for additional details.  Please pass this announcement on to your networks. Thank you,  Katherine -- Katherine Higgins, PhD Outreach Director Center for Pacific Islands Studies University of Hawai'i at Manoa Moore 212 1890 East-West Road Honolulu, HI 96822 (808) 956-2658

Another round of Hawai'i- or Pacific-related electronic books have been added to the Hamilton libraries, to further enhance accessibility to high-use titles. The recent batch includes: Title : Endangered Languages of Austronesia Author : Florey, Margaret eISBN : 0191571210 Access URL : http://www.UHM.eblib.com/ patron/FullRecord.aspx?p= 472258 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Title : Tourism and National Identity Author : Frew, Elspeth; White, Leanne eISBN : 1135146845 Access URL : http://www.UHM.eblib.com/ patron/FullRecord.aspx?p= 669201 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Title : Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology Author : Craig, Robert D. eISBN : 0313069468 Access URL : http://www.UHM.eblib.com/ patron/FullRecord.aspx?p= 494982 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Title : Language, Space, and Social Relationships : A Foundational Cultural Model in Polynesia Author : Bennardo, Giovanni eISBN : 0511539932 Access URL : http://www.UHM.eblib.com/ patron/FullRecord.aspx?p= 442859 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...

UH-Manoa's Hamilton Library has recently added several electronic books to its holdings, including some high-demand titles of interest to Hawai'i and Pacific researchers . More are currently in the process of being purchased, but in the meantime the below titles are now available. (As new titles are added, links will be included with their records in the library's online Voyager catalog): Aloha betrayed : native Hawaiian resistance to American colonialism / Noenoe K. Silva American Pacificism : Oceania in the U.S. imagination / Paul Lyons American Surfer : Radical Culture and Capitalism   / Kristin Lawler. Anthropology and the Racial Politics of Culture  /    Lee D. Baker Asian settler colonialism : from local governance to the habits of everyday life in Hawaiʻi / Candace Fujikane and Jonathan Y. Okamura, editors. Date which will live : Pearl Harbor in American memory   / Emily S. Rosenberg The gifts of civilization : germs and genocide in Hawaiʻi ...

The below is quoted directly from an email circulated by the UH-Manoa Center for Pacific Islands Studies. For more information, see links at bottom, or click on the images at right. Aloha friends and colleagues,  Please join us for films and seminars during the final weeks of the semester:  Thursday 4/19  – Pacific Film Series presents   Shiro’s Head   (Guam) 2008 6:30 pm   Tokioka Room, Moore 319 cosponsored by the Pacific Islands Development Program and Pan Pacific Association  Tuesday 4/24 – Marata Tamaira, PhD candidate Australian National University (CPIS MA, 2009), “Visual Sovereignty and Indigenous Countervisuality: Picturing Contemporary Kanaka Maoli Art Practice in Hawai‘i”,   12:00 pm  John Burns Hall room 3121/3125, East-West Center cosponsored by the Pacific Islands Development Program  Wednesday 4/25 – Semir Al Wardi (University of French Polynesia), “Democracy in French Polynesia”  12:00 pm John Burns Ha...

The below is quoted directly from a release circulated by the UH-Manoa Department of English: Announcing the Amos P. and Edna Lee Leib Fellowship for Graduate Study of  Literatures of the Pacific Application Deadline: April 23, 2012 Notification of Award: April 27, 2012 For the next four years, the Amos P. and Edna Lee Leib Memorial Fellowship  for the Graduate Study of Literatures of the Pacific will support one  graduate student  each year pursuing the study of literatures of the Pacific  (defined as Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian) at the graduate-level  through the English Department, the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and  Literatures, or in any graduate program at UHM. Pacific literatures must be  the primary focus of the applicant's studies and special consideration will  be given to those students whose career goals include the teaching and  dissemination of Pacific literary texts within the regions listed above....

The below is quoted directly from an email message circulated by the UH-M Center for Pacific Islands Studies: Aloha friends and colleagues,  Tomorrow, Wednesday March 14 , Fa'anofo Uperesa, Ethnic Studies UHM, presents “Attenuated Sovereignties and Possible Futures: The Case of American Samoa” as part of the ICSCP Spring Speakers Series at 12:00 – 1:15 pm, John Burns Hall 2118, East-West Center. Abstract: Will American Samoans remain U.S.Nationals or opt for U.S. Citizenship?    Would the full application of the U.S. Constitution destroy the communal land system and the indigenous hierarchy of chiefs (matai)?    What is the relative balance of power between the local and the federal governments?    Although the relationship between the islands and the United States remains unresolved and contradictory in the minds of many, current challenges aim to push the ‘unincorporated, unorganized’ territory of the U.S. to resolve the status question.  ...

The below message, regarding a new trans-Pacific seminar series, is quoted from a message circulated by the UH-M Center for Pacific Islands Studies: Aloha friends and colleagues, Please join us for the inaugural presentation in the Pacific Connections Seminar Series featuring Professor Serge Dunis, University of French Polynesia. [Re]connecting Hawai‘i and Tahiti : South Pacific Perspectives on Hawai‘i and Pacific Travel in the Precolonial Period Tuesday, 21 February 2012, 12:00-1:00 p.m. Room 3121/3125, John Burns Hall, East West Center Professor Serge Dunis University of French Polynesia Tahiti Nui It is believed that Hawai‘i was first settled by migrants coming from the Marquesas, followed by a second wave of immigration launched from Bora Bora. Understanding movements during this exciting era relies heavily on interpreting oral traditions, embracing indigenous knowledge, as well as other methods of uncovering t...

The below is quoted directly from an email circulated by the UH-M Center for Pacific Islands Studies: Micronesian Connections Thursday 16 February 1:30 pm – 6:00 pm, John Burns Hall room 3125/3121, East-West Center This free public event offers perspectives on Micronesian communities in Hawai‘i featuring personal stories from students, presentations on public policy and issues relating to discrimination, and an overview of COFA, health, housing, and education for Micronesian communities. For more information, see the attached flyer or contact Dr. Ulla Hasager at ulla@hawaii.edu or 956-4218. Seminars:   Wednesday 15 February Ty P. Kawika Tengan (Ethnic Studies) “Return to Fort Kamehameha: Martialing Memory in Occupied Hawai‘i” in ICSCP Speakers Series, 12:00 – 1:15 pm, John Burns Hall room 2118, East-West Center. Lt. Colonel Joe Estores (retired, U.S. Army) came back to Hawai‘i in 2006, a Vietnam Veteran with 20 years of service as a soldier and over 30 years as a fede...

The below is quoted directly from an email circulated by the Center for Pacific Islands Studies: Native Voices: A reading and lecture series presents:  Flora Aurima Devatine Caroline Sinavaiana Michael Puleloa Lauren Mālialani Cabaniss Leilani Johnson-Hagmoc Joleen Togawa Salas When: Friday, February 3, 2012, 4pm Where: Halau o Haumea, Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai'i, Mānoa, campus Curated by Brandy Nālani McDougall & Craig Santos Perez Author Bios: Flora Aurima Devatine is a Ma‘ohi scholar, member of the Tahitian Academy, writer and an editor of the first Tahitian review Littérama‘ohi, which unites a group of apolitical Polynesian writers. Her book Tergiversations et reveries de l’écriture orale, which she describes as “a controlled drift,” endeavors to braid together the different aspects of her culture: Ma‘ohi and French. This gives birth to a very original poetry and returns, through writing, to the sacredness of ancestr...