A project of the East-West Center and the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
The Pacific Islands’ media landscape, crucial for cultural preservation and social accountability, faces challenges from climate change, political interference, and limited resources. It plays a pivotal role in promoting Indigenous voices, educating on environmental issues, and advocating for press freedom. Embracing digitization and regional cooperation is essential for the media’s evolution and sustainability.
This essay examines a deep underlying cause of many societal ills in the Pacific: trauma resulting from abuse. Abuse, combined with patriarchal, colonial and capitalistic influences lead to depression, gender-based violence, addictions, and broken relationships, but we don’t usually talk about trauma. Any viable way forward must embrace inclusion, creation of safe spaces to talk about and heal trauma, and building on intersectional efforts.
The Sensitive Provenance-Human Remains from Colonial Contexts (2021-2024) Project at the University of Gottingen in Germany is a research platform that encourages collaborative approach by working together across the museum sector, with other government institutions and local communities. To date, we have successfully undertaken repatriation to Hawaii, Aotearoa/New Zealand and the Republic of Palau, and more will take place in the near future.
A brief exploratory snapshot about some culturally responsive teaching pedagogical practices that can enhance academic engagement and benefit Pacific learners in Aotearoa New Zealand.
In Papua New Guinea Financial Inclusion is fast becoming an important development challenge as its economy transforms itself from a largely agrarian subsistence based economy to a more monetised modern economy. The Bank of Papua New Guinea through the Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI) has been at the forefront of an effort to bridge the divide between the “banked and the unbanked” population of PNG, said to be about 70-80% of the total population. Aided by reforms and innovation, the financial inclusion story of PNG has been a remarkable one. However, for financial inclusion to make a lasting impact on the lives of Papua New Guineans, the government needs to come in and support its expansion into the provinces and districts where the bulk of Papua New Guineans 9 million plus population resides. In this piece we take a look at the efforts that is currently underway in PNG to aid this cause.
Unexploded World War II bombs in the Solomon Islands pose growing, deadly risks to locals.
To win the hearts and minds of Pacific Islanders, the U.S. and Japan must address the wrongs of the past that continue to kill.
As China and the U.S. jockey for control of the Pacific, little attention is being paid to the bombs that litter the island nation.
Floyd K. Takeuchi’s photo exhibition challenges local prejudices against Micronesian immigrants.