Small Islands, Big Issues

«This work highlights the need for a holistic approach to the confounding issues confronting the region, confronting our age. In reminding us of the many vulnerabilities and vitalities of Oceanian communities and island worlds, it shows the potential for dialogue between disciplines and consilience between academic scholarship and local community understandings. The collection’s clarion call for a new ‘ecosystem of knowledge’ is utterly timely.»

(Alexander Mawyer, Director, Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawai‘i)

«This work breaks the barriers imposed by language and distinctive intellectual traditions in presenting a wide-ranging selection of current work from the South Pacific in the humanities, social and natural sciences. Of particular significance is the fact that Francophone as well as Anglophone scholars are represented. This gathering of minds, a meritorious initiative of the University of French Polynesia, is an invitation to ‘think the Pacific’ in the vein of pioneer Oceanian intellectuals like Epeli Hau’ofa and Jean-Marie Tjibaou.»

(Eric Waddell, Adjunct Professor, Université Laval, and Chercheur invité, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Nouméa)

This work, an initiative of the University of French Polynesia, Tahiti, showcases research collaboration between small island universities in the Pacific.

It addresses a number of «big issues» for Oceania which are also big issues for the world, concerning the biosphere and human society, sustainable development and well-being. The authors seek to create an ecosystem of knowledge through a dialogue, in English and French, between the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities.

The work also brings into perspective academic and traditional knowledge, with a view to enhancing cultural and agricultural practices and the development of public policy.

Climate change, environmental degradation and food security are key questions for survival. How can the preservation of cultural heritage, the transmission of native languages and the integration of traditional knowledge into formal education contribute to a harmonious future? How is the phenomenon of violence relevant to an understanding of history, interpersonal relations and social inclusiveness, including for women in the political sphere?

The Tongan-Fijian writer Epeli Hau’ofa described Oceania imaginatively as a «Sea of Islands». This volume sees Pacific islands as being interconnected in ways beyond imagining, in which nowhere is remote, where the peripheral has become a decentred centre.