Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures

Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures
Author: Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2022-08-31
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0824893514

In this anthology of contemporary eco-literature, the editors have gathered an ensemble of a hundred emerging, mid-career, and established Indigenous writers from Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and the global Pacific diaspora. This book itself is an ecological form with rhizomatic roots and blossoming branches. Within these pages, the reader will encounter a wild garden of genres, including poetry, chant, short fiction, novel excerpts, creative nonfiction, visual texts, and even a dramatic play—all written in multilingual offerings of English, Pacific languages, pidgin, and translation. Seven main themes emerge: “Creation Stories and Genealogies,” “Ocean and Waterscapes,” “Land and Islands,” “Flowers, Plants, and Trees,” “Animals and More-than-Human Species,” “Climate Change,” and “Environmental Justice.” This aesthetic diversity embodies the beautiful bio-diversity of the Pacific itself. The urgent voices in this book call us to attention—to action!—at a time of great need. Pacific ecologies and the lives of Pacific Islanders are currently under existential threat due to the legacy of environmental imperialism and the ongoing impacts of climate change. While Pacific writers celebrate the beauty and cultural symbolism of the ocean, islands, trees, and flowers, they also bravely address the frightening realities of rising sea levels, animal extinction, nuclear radiation, military contamination, and pandemics. Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures reminds us that we are not alone; we are always in relation and always ecological. Humans, other species, and nature are interrelated; land and water are central concepts of identity and genealogy; and Earth is the sacred source of all life, and thus should be treated with love and care. With this book as a trusted companion, we are inspired and empowered to reconnect with the world as we navigate towards a precarious yet hopeful future.

Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia

Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia
Author: Evelyn Flores
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0824877381

For the first time, poetry, short stories, critical and creative essays, chants, and excerpts of plays by Indigenous Micronesian authors have been brought together to form a resounding—and distinctly Micronesian—voice. With over two thousand islands spread across almost three million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, Micronesia and its peoples have too often been rendered invisible and insignificant both in and out of academia. This long-awaited anthology of contemporary indigenous literature will reshape Micronesia’s historical and literary landscape. Presenting over seventy authors and one hundred pieces, Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia features nine of the thirteen basic language groups, including Palauan, Chamorro, Chuukese, I-Kiribati, Kosraean, Marshallese, Nauruan, Pohnpeian, and Yapese. The volume editors, from Micronesia themselves, have selected representative works from throughout the region—from Palau in the west, to Kiribati in the east, to the global diaspora. They have reached back for historically groundbreaking work and scouted the present for some of the most cited and provocative of published pieces and for the most promising new authors. Richly diverse, the stories of Micronesia’s resilient peoples are as vast as the sea and as deep as the Mariana Trench. Challenging centuries-old reductive representations, writers passionately explore seven complex themes: “Origins” explores creation, foundational, and ancestral stories; “Resistance” responds to colonialism and militarism; “Remembering” captures diverse memories and experiences; “Identities” articulates the nuances of culture; “Voyages” maps migration and diaspora; “Family” delves into interpersonal and community relationships; and “New Micronesia” gathers experimental, liminal, and cutting-edge voices. This anthology reflects a worldview unique to the islands of Micronesia, yet it also connects to broader issues facing Pacific Islanders and indigenous peoples throughout the world. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Pacific, indigenous, diasporic, postcolonial, and environmental studies and literatures.

Indigenous Pacific Approaches to Climate Change

Indigenous Pacific Approaches to Climate Change
Author: Jenny Bryant-Tokalau
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2018-04-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319783998

This book explores how Pacific Island communities are responding to the challenges wrought by climate change—most notably fresh water accessibility, the growing threat of disease, and crop failure. The Pacific Island nations are not alone in facing these challenges, but their responses are unique in that they arise from traditional and community-based understandings of climate and disaster. Knowledge sharing, community education, and widespread participation in decision-making have promoted social resilience to such challenges across the Pacific. In this exploration of the Pacific Island countries, Bryant-Tokalau demonstrates that by understanding the inter-relatedness of local expertise, customary resource management, traditional knowledge and practice, as well as the roles of leaders and institutions, local “knowledge-practice-belief systems” can be used to inform adaptation to disasters wherever they occur.

My Urohs

My Urohs
Author: Emelihter Kihleng
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 74
Release: 2008
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0979378834

The first collection of poetry by a Pohnpeian poet, Emelihter Kihleng's My Urohs is described by distinguished Samoan writer and artist Albert Wendt as "refreshingly innovative and compelling, a new way of seeing ourselves in our islands, an important and influential addition to our [Pacific] literature."

Habitat Threshold

Habitat Threshold
Author: Craig Santos Perez
Publisher: Omnidawn
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9781632430809

"Native Pacific Islander writer Craig Santos Perez has crafted a timely collection of eco-poetry comprised of free verse, prose, haiku, sonnets, satire, and a form he calls "recycling." Habitat Threshold begins with the birth and growth of the author's daughter and captures her childlike awe at the wondrous planet. As the book progresses, however, Perez confronts the impacts of environmental injustice, global capitalism, toxic waste, animal extinctions, water struggles, human violence, mass migration, and climate change. Throughout, Perez mourns lost habitats and species and faces his fears about the world his daughter will inherit. Yet this work does not end at the threshold of elegy; instead, the poet envisions a sustainable future in which our ethics are shaped by the indigenous belief that the earth is sacred and all beings are interconnected--a future in which we cultivate love and "carry each other towards the horizon of care.""--

Ocean Mother

Ocean Mother
Author: Arielle Taitano Lowe
Publisher: University of Guam Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-01-15
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9781935198864

Ocean Mother tells the story of a young woman's decision to heal herself, her family, and her home. The poet gives voice to her experience as a CHamoru girl raised in the Pacific Island of Guåhan (Guam), located in Micronesia. Weaving together narratives of family, environment, Indigenous identity, decolonial love, and her CHamoru culture, the poet goes on a journey inward and overseas. She explores the relationships between culture and identity, colonialism and inherited trauma, sense of place and generational healing.

Sex and Gender in the Pacific

Sex and Gender in the Pacific
Author: Angela Kelly-Hanku
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2023-02-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000844315

This book examines sex, sexuality, gender and health in the Pacific with a focus on three key sets of issues: young people, culture and education; sexual and reproductive health and well-being; and belonging, connectedness and justice. Bringing together the work of scholars from across the Pacific region, this innovative volume showcases traditional knowledge and diverse disciplinary scholarship of policy and practice relevance. In addition to focusing on relationships, health, education, family and community, chapters engage with a number of cross-cutting themes, including violence, justice and rights, and sexuality and gender diversity. Drawing on the diversity and richness of the Pacific, its cultures, languages and people, the book lays the foundations for future conversations and scholarship for, and by, those within the Pacific. Sex and Gender in the Pacific is an important resource for students, researchers and practitioners working in Pacific studies, sexuality and gender studies, public health, nursing, public policy, sociology, education and anthropology.

Reppin'

Reppin'
Author: Keith L. Camacho
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2021-05-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0295748591

From hip-hop artists in the Marshall Islands to innovative multimedia producers in Vanuatu to racial justice writers in Utah, Pacific Islander youth are using radical expression to transform their communities. Exploring multiple perspectives about Pacific Islander youth cultures in such locations as Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Hawai‘i, and Tonga, this cross-disciplinary volume foregrounds social justice methodologies and programs that confront the ongoing legacies of colonization, incarceration, and militarization. The ten essays in this collection also highlight the ways in which youth throughout Oceania and the diaspora have embraced digital technologies to communicate across national boundaries, mobilize sites of political resistance, and remix popular media. By centering Indigenous peoples’ creativity and self-determination, Reppin’ vividly illuminates the dynamic power of Pacific Islander youth to reshape the present and future of settler cities and other urban spaces in Oceania and beyond.

Native Cultures of the Pacific Islands

Native Cultures of the Pacific Islands
Author: Douglas L. Oliver
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 188
Release: 1989-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780824811822

Even before Western contact, the Pacific Islanders inhabited nearly every island north and east of Australia - a thousand distinctive peoples. This overview of the cultures of the Pacific Islands treats their physical setting, prehistory, activities, and social relations before European influences subjected them to radical changes. It is intended mainly for college-level students in courses dealing with the region, but Native Cultures of the Pacific Islands will also be enjoyed by those interested in the Pacific Islands and by visitors to the Pacific. The book is an abridgement of the author’s larger, two-volume work, Oceania: The Native Cultures of Australia and the Pacific Islands. Native Cultures of the Pacific Islands contains a number of maps and illustrations from the larger work.