Islanders Can Only Accomplish "Small" Things
“Our Sea of
Islands” by Epeli Hau’ofa: Veiwing the Pacific Differently:
Hau’ofa distinguishes the differences between viewing
the Pacific as the “Pacific Islands” and “Oceania.” She refers to these
differing views as, “islands in the far sea” or as “a sea of islands.”
She argues that the first example, denotes a belief
of “smallness”, tiny islands with tiny people in a large and remote sea.
Historical evidence of relationships of dominance and subordination, and
because the early Europeans believed to hold a dominant position over the
natives; helped to further perpetuate the idea that there is a “bigger” man and
a “smaller” one. The belittling of the indigenous people, the subordination to
their masters, the imaginary lines and boundaries that were drawn by the
Americans and Europeans which were used to “confine ocean peoples to tiny
spaces for the first time,” all helped to perpetuate this view.
She further argues that “a sea of islands” would be
the view that most peoples of Oceania would have held. In their eyes their
world was anything but tiny. It was vast and huge, like the ocean. Their world
was not measured or defined by the amount of land they lived on. They were
people of the sea and master seafarers, they connected to the heavens and were
guided by the stars, and they were stewards and conquerors of the lands that
they were so brave enough to explore and settle on. This view included not just
the tiny lands they sat on, but the heavens and the underworld as well.
I absolutely loved reading this. It
awakened my spirit to remember the way our ancestors viewed themselves as
anything but “small” or “tiny” people. My love for the stars, the vastness of
space, and understanding the universe and how it works, must’ve come from my
ancestors and their desire to explore the world and the universe they lived in;
which included the seas, the lands, and the stars. I feel like this is of
utmost importance, for the study of Pacific Islands.
This is clearly an example of an
“Empowerment Rational” of study, as stated in Terrance Wesley-Smith’s, Rethinking Pacific Island Studies. (When
the objects of study, “Pacific Islanders” have gained the educational abilities
to speak up for themselves and express their concerns for how they desire to be
viewed, studied, and portrayed in the academic setting. It is when the
indigenous peoples feel their voices need to be heard in order to truly
understand them.)
Students, and Pacific Islanders
need to remember who we really were, so that we no longer perpetuate this ideal
that Islanders can accomplish only “small” things.
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