Celebrating Connections: On Being Indigenous and Human in Oceania

November 12, 2010 from 7:30 p.m.-10 p.m.
Hickman Room 105
University of Victoria, Victoria, BC

This talk, which took place in Victoria, British Columbia on the evening of November 12, 2010, attempted to explore the following questions: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be indigenous and why is it important to privilege one's indigenous roots?

As we seek to celebrate our shared humanity, what must we seek to retain and protect at the same time? And finally, how might we translate the answers to these questions into our academic research, writing, and teaching in order to reinvigorate Pacific Studies in Oceania?

Originally from the village of Mea on the island of Rotuma, Vilsoni Hereniko is the author of Woven Gods: Female Clowns and Power in Rotuma and co-editor of Inside Out: Literature, Cultural Politics, and Identity in the New Pacific, as well as numerous scholarly articles, essays, plays and films, including the feature film The Land Has Eyes.

This lecture was part of Pacific Peoples' Partnership's Pacific Wayfinders: 35 Years of Action and Solidarity conference that took place from November 10 to 13, 2010.