HON498_Fall 2024_Moon Library Instruction_Aiken: Ryann

SummaryThis study addresses the neglected history of the people of the Federated States of Micronesia's (FSM) engagement with the outside world. Situated in the northwest Pacific, FSM's strategic location has led to four colonial rulers. Histories of FSM to date have been largely written by sympathetic outsiders. Indigenous perspectives of FSM history have been largely absent from the main corpus of historical literature. A new generation of Micronesian scholars are starting to write their own history from Micronesian perspectives and using Micronesian forms of history. This book argues that Micronesians have been dealing successfully with the outside world throughout the colonial era in ways colonial authorities were often unaware of. This argument is sustained by examination of oral histories, secondary sources, interviews, field research and the personal experience of a person raised in the Mortlock Islands of Chuuk State. It reconstructs how Micronesian internal processes for social stability and mutual support endured, rather than succumbing to the different waves of colonisation. This study argues that colonisation did not destroy Micronesian cultures and identities, but that Micronesians recontextualised the changing conditions to suit their own circumstances. Their success rested on the indigenous doctrines of adaptation, assimilation and accommodation deeply rooted in the kinship doctrine of eaea fengen (sharing) and alilis fengen (assisting each other). These values pervade the Constitution of the FSM, which formally defines the modern identity of its indigenous peoples, reasserting and perpetuating Micronesian values and future continuity.


Introduction -- 1. Writing Micronesian history -- 2. Pre-colonial society and identity -- 3. Responding to colonisation -- 4. Negotiating independence -- 5. The constitution and post-colonial identity -- 6. Engaging with China and the US -- 7. Managing climate change -- 8. Contemporary challenges.

Introduction Local practice and global interactions in the Pacific- making the global local / Paul D'Arcy, Daya Dakasi De-Wei Kuan -- Section One : Pacific Indigenous sustainable development -- Introduction : Knowledge retained Pacific Indigenous sustainable development / Paul D'Arcy, Daya Dakasi De-Wei Kuan -- Intimacies Poetics of a land beloved / Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo`ole Osorio -- Beauty beyond the eye of the beholder : the efficacy of Indigenous seasonal calendars in northern Australia / Emma Woodward -- Knowledge and practices of growing wild edible plants in 'Amis home gardens : content and social distribution of a traditional ecological knowledge system of 'Etolan, south-eastern Taiwan / Su-Mei Lo, Jer-Ming Hu -- Traditional Pacific Agrosystems and sustainability into the future Vanuatu as a case study / Vincent Lebot, Stuart Bedford -- Section Two : Reviving the land and the sea -- Introduction Knowledge applied : reviving the land and the sea / Paul D'Arcy, Daya Dakasi Da-Wei Kuan -- The Badjao and the sea : indigenous entanglements with coastal resource management : the case of the 'settled' sea nomads in the Philippines / Regina Macalandag -- The importance of Aboriginal marine park management concepts for Australia / Chels A. Marshall -- Integrated Indigenous management of land and marine protected areas in Teahupo`o (Tahiti, French Polynesia) : a way to enhance ecological and cultural resilience / Tamatoa Bambridge, Marguerite Taiarui, Patrick Rochette, Takurua Parent, Pauline Fabre -- Indigenous youth responses to water and waste management in Kuchuwa, Federated States of Micronesia / Myjolynne Kim, Gonzaga Puas, Nicholas Halter -- Section Three : Local responses to climate change -- Introduction : Knowledge contested local responses to climate change / Daya Dakasi Da-Wei Kuan, Paul D'Arcy -- Indigenous responses to environmental challenges : artificial islands and the challenges of relocation / Jenny Bryant-Tokalau -- The future of the Federated States of Micronesia in the era of climate change / Gonzaga Puas -- 'We are not drowning' : Pacific identity and cultural sustainability in the era of climate change / Lynette Carter -- Negotiating political climate change agency in the Pacific region / George Carter -- Section Four : Pacific lessons for humanity -- Introduction : Knowledge adapted and shared : Pacific lessons for humanity / Paul D'Arcy, Daya Dakasi Da-Wei Kuan -- Collective land tenure systems and greenhouse gas mitigation among Māori famers in Aoteroa New Zealand / Tanira Kingi, Steve Wakelin, Phil Journeaux, Graham West -- Matriliny under siege? : exploring the matrilineal descent system in a modernising Bougainville / Anita Togolo -- Collective action for sustainable development : a case study of a Tayal Indigenous community in Taiwan / Ai-Ching Yen, Yin-An Chen -- Māori and Pacific Islander cultural, educational and economic exchanges with the Mapuche of southern Chile / Roannie Ng Shiu, Paul D'Arcy -- Sumak Kawsay and biodiversity conflicts in the Galápagos Islands : a case study of the relationship between local fisherfolk, sea lions and state environmental discourses / José Guerrero Vela -- The Ocean in the Anthropocene Pacific perspectives / Melody Tay -- Conclusion : Redefining progress in the Anthropocene : Pacific trajectories for global alternatives / Daya Dakasi Da-Wei Kuan, Paul D'Arcy.