v7n1

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. The Island/Sea/Territory Relationship: Towards a broader and three dimensional view of the Aquapelagic Assemblage
    Christian Fleury
    AbstractKeywords
    Keywords: Aquapelagic assemblage, aquapelago, Channel Islands, Island Studies, maritories/merritoires, St-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Trinidad
    Abstract: Through my research in geography I have developed a particular interest in insularity and territorialisation of marine spaces. By linking these two elements, the concept of aquapelagic assemblage has appeared at the right time and provides me with the opportunity of making a contribution to the exchanges about it in two directions. The first will pick up Philip Hayward’s remark that aquapelagic research “does not simply offer a surface model, it also encompasses the spatial depths of the water” (2012a: 5). This sentence reminds us of the stress on the issues that constitute – out of any specifically insular context – an important tendency in the appropriation process of marine space. Furthermore, the author, in a second article, has taken care to dispel doubts on a question which, he tells us, produced a reaction in a number of readers of his initial exposition of the concept – namely that the aquapelagic assemblage cannot simply be equated with archipelagic sites (2012b: 1-2). By promoting this concept, he establishes a distinction of a chorographic nature that deserves to be extended to more strictly insular and coastal contexts. I will return to this point in the second part of this article, principally with reference to examples of islands with which I am more familiar.
  4. Locating Shima in Island Drumming: Amami Ōshima and its Archipelagic Drum Groups
    Henry Johnson and Sueo Kuwahara
    AbstractKeywords
    Keywords: Amami Ōshima, community, drum groups, Japan, shima
    Abstract: Amami Ōshima to the southwest of Japan is an island between cultures. Geographically situated between Okinawa prefecture to the southwest and the much larger island of Kyūshū to the northeast, Amami Ōshima is the largest of a chain of islands known as Amami-guntō (the Amami archipelago) within Kagoshima prefecture and the Nansei archipelago. In the contemporary sphere of global cultural flows, some new traditions of group drumming have emerged on Amami Ōshima that have recognised roots either in Okinawa, in mainland Japan or in Amami Ōshima itself. This article focuses on these new traditions of ensemble drum performance and has the aim of showing not only where, how and why such groups have been established but also how a notion of community is constructed within these groups on several different levels of island and archipelagic identity. In doing this, the discussion draws on the notion of shima, meaning both ‘island’ and ‘community’, as a way of discussing select drum groups on the island as case studies for cultural analysis. As well as outlining the background of the drum groups, the article focuses on exploring the notion of shima from different perspectives that cover local, regional and national cultural flows. The article argues that the unique geographic terrain of the island is inextricably linked to a specific notion of islandness, and that this relates to further spheres of belonging in an islandscape of drum groups, villages, islands and archipelagos.
  5. Austronesian Cultural Heritage: Historic Preservation and Archaeological Conservation in the Western Pacific
    William S. Ayres
    AbstractKeywords
    Keywords: Historic preservation, island archaeology, archaeological heritage, Austronesians, Micronesia, Pohnpei
    Abstract: The idea of shared cultural heritage is significant today for many who speak languages of the widely-dispersed Austronesian language family and who are bearers of a set of related island cultures found extensively in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Shared heritage is an emerging issue throughout the region from Taiwan to Rapa Nui (and even Madagascar to the west), and from Hawai’i to New Zealand. In this paper, cultural heritage is considered in relation to ‘historic’ or ‘heritage’ preservation and archaeological conservation. Historic preservation includes a set of concepts related to conservation of materials from the past and their interlinked interpretations that we value today and selectively re-use. Since the 1970s, archaeological work done in the chains of small islands representing Micronesia in the west central Pacific has been adding to our understanding of the origins and adaptations of early Austronesian colonisers beginning some 3,000-4,000 years ago; it has also provided training in historic preservation at the local level. Illustrations, primarily from Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, reflect some of the developments in historic preservation in that area.
  6. Mission-Educated Girls in 19th Century Saint-Louis and their Impact on the Evolution of Tayo
    Karin Speedy
    AbstractKeywords
    Keywords: Tayo, creole languages, Saint-Louis, New Caledonia, Mission schools, sociolinguistics
    Abstract: Between 1860 and 1920, a creole language, Tayo, emerged as the community language of Saint-Louis a former Marist mission in southern New Caledonia. This article briefly introduces the demographic history of Saint-Louis and the arrival of Melanesian neophytes from different ethno-linguistic areas of the colony before discussing the influence of education on the development of Tayo, the Pacific’s only French-lexified creole language. It closely examines the role played by the mission-educated Saint- Louis girls in the formation of this language of intra-village communication, exploring the teaching conditions at Saint-Louis at both the boys’ and girls’ schools and comparing these with other mission schools in New Caledonia. Highlighting the exceptional nature of the linguistic ecology of Saint-Louis, it considers the reasons why a French-based creole evolved in Saint-Louis as opposed to an indigenous language-based creole or the adoption of one of the Kanak languages spoken by the neophytes as a vehicular language.
  7. The Determinants of Migration in Small Islands
    Jingqiu Guan and Jerome L. McElroy
    AbstractKeywords
    Keywords: Small islands, migration, political status, immigrant, emigrant
    Abstract: This study examines the determinants of migration in forty two small mainly tropical islands less than three million in population. Thirteen independent variables are used to measure various economic, social and demographic influences on small island migration patterns. Two profiles are constructed contrasting the characteristics and behaviour of twenty three immigrant and nineteen emigrant islands. The former are found to be more affluent than their emigrant counterparts with higher per capita income and lower unemployment. They also exhibit lower infant mortality, fertility and greater progress through the demographic transition. Immigrant islands are also characterised by dependent political status and the assumed favourable advantages of substantial trade, investment and tourism linkages with their patron countries. Finally, a provisional multivariate model is developed that suggests a combination of determinants account for most of the variation in island migration. They include per capita income, working-age population, literacy and political status.
  8. The Blasket Islands and the Literary Imagination
    Irene Lucchitti
    AbstractKeywords
    Keywords: Blasket Islands, Tomás O’Crohan, Maurice O’Sullivan, Irish literature, cultural politics
    Abstract: As part of an ancient mythology that saw an animated nature reflected in every place and thing, the island motif has long resonated with spiritual and political significance within Irish culture, and none more so than the Blasket Islands, which rose to prominence as Ireland undertook the processes of national Revival. Reverberating with the ancient significances of the island motif as a place of heightened metaphysical experience, the Great Blasket Island, home of Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Peig Sayers and Muiris Ó Suilleabháin, stirred the imaginations of those who lived upon it and of those who visited. Although the island community ceased to be more than half a century ago, the Blasket Islands continue to fascinate. This article will offer a brief telling of the Blasket story and then examine the various significances of the island motif in Irish culture that drew the Blasket Islands into the nation’s story of cultural and political revival. It will then consider various representations of the Blaskets in literature written since the demise of the island community – poetry, including Brendan Behan’s ‘A Jackeen Says Goodbye to the Blasket’, Desmond Egan’s ‘The Great Blasket’, Dairena Ní Chinnéide’s suite of poems ‘An Blascaod Mór/The Great Blasket’, and Julie O’Callaghan’s poem, ‘The Great Blasket Island’ followed by two short stories, ‘The Islanders’ by Andrew Sean Greer and Brian Doyle’s ‘The Train’.
  9. But who Crafted the Craftspeople? Examining craft policy on three Atlantic Canadian islands
    L. Lynda Harling Stalker
    AbstractKeywords
    Keywords: Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, craftspeople, identity, cultural production
    Abstract: Drawing upon the work of Pierre Bourdieu, this paper sets out to examine the connection between craft policy and the construction of the island craftsperson. This involves examining the craft policies of three Atlantic Canadian islands: Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. These policies were all released in the early 2000s with desires to promote their respective islands to tourists. Through this examination, it is evident that the notion of the craftsperson is not self-determined, is not tied to class of origin, and is not presented as being connected to the culture of the particular island. The official construction of the craftsperson is one that is market- driven and determined by perceived tourists’ desires.
  10. 'Patangis-Buwaya': Reflection and praxis ten years after engaging with Iraya- Mangyan internal refugees
    Jonas Baes
    AbstractKeywords
    Keywords: Iraya-Mangyan, internal refugees, Philippines, Mindoro, Luzon, ‘Patangis-Buwaya’
    Abstract: In January 2003, I heard the news that a number of Iraya-Mangyan families from Mindoro Island had fled their homes and ancestral domain to seek refuge in the island of Luzon. The news reported that they were escaping a growing militarisation of their island. Having engaged the Iraya-Mangyan in ethnomusicological research from 1982 to 1987, I felt the dire necessity to at least find out who these families were and what the situation was on the island. Through a reliable network of cultural workers and after a month’s search, I eventually found them in a place they called Kanlungan (a ‘place of refuge’) and there heard horrifying stories of terror inflicted by paramilitary units, of arbitrary arrests and of summary executions. That was too much for a people who have lived through the land and relied mainly on the forests for sustenance. I am a composer and an ethnomusicologist by profession and while my academic position in one of the most prestigious universities in the Philippines gives my praxis some degree of stature, my work both as ethnomusicologist and composer fits uncomfortably in both those fields. In looking back, ten years after my last engagement with the Iraya-Mangyan, I reflect on my praxis and the manner in which the plight of the Iraya-Mangyan informed the creation of my composition ‘Patanngis-Buwaya’, a work that attempts to give insight into the Iraya-Mangyan experience for international audiences.
  11. About The Authors