Centre for Pacific Studies, University of St. Andrews

24/06/2020

On this first anniversary of the conferment of the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters upon His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Efi at the University of St Andrews on the 25th June 2019, we send our deepest respects and fondest wishes. More than ever we need reminders of the extraordinary serendipities that come when people and ideas recognise, value and connect with each other. Faafetai.

“It is a great honour to receive this award. But, in truth, the honour belongs to my forebears. It is they who had gathered and passed on to successive generations like mine, their history, culture, customs and usage, which is now ours. The most significant challenge for Indigenous peoples all over the globe is how to keep our Indigenous knowledges alive and thriving alongside the best in the world. When our theologies and philosophies are taken seriously by the top universities in the world, there is much to celebrate and be grateful for.”

His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Efi, Acceptance Speech for Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa, University of St Andrews, 25 June 2019

Alofa’a
Centre for Pacific Studies

Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters conferred on His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Efi Former Head of State and Prime Minister of Samoa Younger Gr...

30/05/2020

Lockdown in PNG

25/06/2019

Museum am Rothenbaum. Kulturen und Künste der Welt

20/02/2019

Time and the ethnographic horizon in moments of crisis

The Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of St Andrews announces a new research venture to explore the time horizons that inform people’s perceptions of crisis. It is supported by the International Balzan Foundation, as the second half of the 2018 Balzan Prize in Social Anthropology awarded to Marilyn Strathern.

https://cps.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/ethnographic-horizons/

04/11/2018

Pacific Climate Cultures: Living Climate Change in Oceania
2018. Crook, T. & Rudiak-Gould, P. (eds.) Pacific Climate Cultures: Living Climate Change in Oceania, Warsaw: De Gruyter Open
https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/502004
Open Access download available here:
https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/…/Crook_2018_P…
Low-lying Pacific island nations are experiencing the frontline of sea-level rises and climate change and are responding creatively and making-sense in their own vernacular terms. Pacific Climate Cultures aims to bring Oceanic philosophies to the frontline of social science theorization. It explores the home-grown ways that ‘climate change’ becomes absorbed into the combined effects of globalization and into a living nexus of relations amongst human and non-humans, spirits and elements. Contributors to this edited volume explore diverse examples of living climate change—from floods and cyclones, through song and navigation, to new forms of art, community initiatives and cultural appropriations—and demonstrate their international relevance in understanding climate change. A Prelude by His Highness Tui Atua Efi and Afterword by Anne Salmond frame an Introduction by Tony Crook & Peter Rudiak-Gould and nine chapters by contributors including John Connell, Elfriede Hermann & Wolfgang Kempf and Cecilie Rubow.
Endorsement from Professor Margaret Jolly, Australian National University:
This exciting volume offers innovative insights on climate cultures across Oceania. It critically interrogates Western environmental sciences which fail to fully appreciate Oceanic knowledges and practices. It reveals how climate science can be both ‘a weapon of the weak’ and ‘an act of symbolic violence of the powerful’. A compelling series of studies in the Cook islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Samoa suggest not diverse cultural constructions of ‘natural facts’ but processes of knowledge exchange and at best a respectful reciprocity in confronting present challenges and disturbing future scenarios. ’Home-grown’ Pacific discourses and ways of living emphasise the interconnections of all life on earth and in our cosmos; they do not differentiate between the natural and the moral, between environmental and cultural transformations. These studies evoke the creative agency of Oceanic peoples, too often seen as on the vanguard of victimhood in global representations of climate change, and offer distinctive visions for all humanity in these troubling times.

06/08/2018

Senior Yolngu leaders say they've grown old waiting for the original sovereign leaders of the country to be recognised.

25/07/2018

500 Sails has been busy this summer; they partnered with NMC FCYD/4-H/CREES for Summer Swim Camp, NMC’s CDI Fun in the Sun Summer Camp, Western Pacific Fisheries Summer Camp, and finally NMC’s Project PROA to introduce the island’s next generation to the Chamorro seafaring tradition.

23/07/2018

BY GEORGINA KEKEA TRADITIONAL skills and knowledge are now considered endangered with only a small group of people still practising ancient wayfinding methods. In the...

21/07/2018

The U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby has a number of opportunities for organizations in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Grant opportunities change each year. Given the competitive nature of such requests, it is important that the applicants provide information on all items listed below: P...