Symposia

• Jean Guiart: L’ethnographie comme marathon d’une vie/Ethnography as Life’s Marathon​​

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Working Sessions

• 2022-2032 International Decade of Indigenous Languages: Pacific Languages
• Being and Belonging: Technologies of Reproduction
• Decolonising Sea of Islands 
• Growing Old in the Pacific
• Mana Moana: Protecting Sacredness
• Proliferation of Models
• Race and Power in Oceania
• Rethinking Decolonization in Papua New Guinea
• "The Soul and the Image": The Story of Film in the Pacific
• Vā Moana: Space and Relationality in Pacific Thought and Identity​

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​​Informal Sessions

• Being Pacific Islander Pasifika, Māori, Indigenous Australian during the Era of Black Lives Matter 
• Complexities of Collaboration on Climate Change
• Documentation as Relation: Experiments with and Challenges to Knowledge
• Dogs and Their Humans
• Ends of Oblivion: Continuities and Discontinuities in Oceania’s Pasts
• Food Sovereignty in the Pacific
• Museums and Repatriation
• Pacific Island Politics, Populism, and Democracy
• Pacific Perspectives: The Fluidity of Time, Space and Relations
• Possessing the Pacific City: A Comparative Dispossessions Working Group
• Slouching towards Christian Theocracy in Western Polynesia
• Trust and Care in Pacific Health Systems
• Talanoa on "The Healer and the Psychiatrist"​​

Working Session: Mana Moana: Protecting Sacredness​

Organizers: Tēvita O. Ka’ili and Nuhisifa Seve-Williams​

We are currently engaging in a global debate via media and social media by Indigenous Oceanians and others on related issues, such as cultural theft, cultural appropriation, (mis)representation, commercialization, commodification of sacredness, colonialism, consultation/collaboration, and Pacific Islander agency. 

Four years ago, Disneyʼs movie Moana raised a number of critical issues for Indigenous scholars that are still debated through media and social media with particular reference to cultural theft, islander participation, and commodification of sacredness. These debates showed that opinion on the Disney’s Moana and other related issues (such as Dwayne Johnsonʼs proposed bio-pic of King Kamehameha) within Pacific communities range from apathy seen in comments like "it’s just a movie" to gratitude seen in many comments like "we should be grateful that Disney/Hollywood is putting us on the map" to critiques from a number of Indigenous scholars via online media. The critiques are posted and archived in the Mana Moana: We Are Moana We Are Maui Facebook page and other social media sites.
 
While the organisers of this virtual session have already made transparent their position on Disney’s Moana through their petition to Disney that was circulated in July 2016, their public critiques of Disney, and the setting up of the Facebook page Mana Moana: We Are Moana We Are Maui, we welcome participants from all sides of the debate to share their thoughts on Disneyʼs Moana, Aloha Poke, Bula, kava, motifs, hula movements, Indigenous knowledge, navigational knowledge, Hollywoodʼs King Kamehameha movie or wider issues of cultural theft, cultural appropriation, (mis)representation, commercialization/commodification, colonialism, consultation, and Indigenous agency.
 
We are looking forward to talanoa at this virtual working session and invite participants to visit the Mana Moana: We Are Moana We Are Maui Facebook page and for background reading. Here is the link to the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/manamoanawearemoanawearemaui/ 
Participants interested in this session should e-mail intention to participate and a topic either to Tēvita O Kaʻili (tevita.kaili@byuh.edu) or to Nuhisifa Seve-Williams (williams346@slingshot.co.nz) by 15 December 2020. 


Participants:

• Nuhisifa Seve-Williams (Matanginifale) - Disneyfying research and consultation.
• Tēvita O. Kaʻili (Maui-Tāvā-He-Akó) - Mining the Cultural Seabed of Moana Nui: A Tāvāist Critique
• ʻOkusitino Māhina (Hūfanga) - Maui as Great Moana Comedian and Tragedian
• Malia Talakai - Is Cultural Appropriation Offensive?
• Tina Ngata - Māori Storytelling and Visual Culture as a Site of Sovereignty Reclamation.
• Anne Keala Kelly - Of Gods and Kings: The Disneyfication of the Sacred.
• Vince Diaz - "Wayfinding and the Unwitting Disavowal of Carolinian Seafaring Instrumentalities."
• Brian Kāfakafa Dawson - Manipulating Moana
• Ping-Ann Addo, Ashlie Ki'ilanikapuokalani Duarte-Smith, and Christopher Fung - ReAppropriating the Disney Formula in Drag
• Kuʻualoha Hoʻomanawanui - Moʻolelo Moana Maoli (Indigenous Oceanic Narratives of the Sea), Moʻolelo as Mana
• Tarisi Sorovi-Vunidilo - INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE, RIGHTS AND OWNERSHIP:  Case Study of the “Bula” Belongs To Fiji Movement-A Fijian Perspective

For more information, please contact Tēvita O. Kaʻili, Brigham Young University Hawaiʻi <tevita.kaili@byuh.edu> and Nuhisifa Seve-Williams <williams346@slingshot.co.nz>