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Published Books

Decolonising Peace and Conflict Studies through Indigenous Research

Michael Ligaliga
This book focuses on how Indigenous knowledge and methodologies can contribute towards the decolonisation of peace and conflict studies (PACS). It shows how Indigenous knowledge is essential to ensure that PACS research is relevant, respectful, accurate, and non-exploitative of indigenous peoples, in an effort to reposition Indigenous perspectives and contexts through Indigenous experiences, voices, and research processes, to provide balance to the power structures within this discipline. It includes critiques of ethnocentrism within PACS scholarship, and how both research areas can be brought together to challenge the violence of colonialism, and the colonialism of the institutions and structures within which decolonising researchers are working. Contributions in the book cover Indigenous research in Aotearoa, Australia, The Caribbean, Hawai'i, Israel, Mexico, Nigeria, Palestine, Philippines, Samoa, USA, and West Papua.
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The Pacific Insular Case of American Sāmoa: Land Rights and Law in Unincorporated US Territories

Line-Noue Memea Kruse
This book is a researched study of land issues in American Sāmoa that analyzes the impact of U.S. colonialism and empire building in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Carefully tracing changes in land laws up to the present, this volume also draws on a careful examination of legal traditions, administrative decisions, court cases and rising tensions between indigenous customary land tenure practices in American Sāmoa and Western notions of individual private ownership. It also highlights how unusual the status of American Sāmoa is in its relationship with the U.S., namely as the only “unincorporated” and “unorganized” overseas territory, and aims to expand the U.S. empire-building scholarship to include and recognize American Sāmoa into the vernacular of Americanization projects.
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Marking Indigeneity: The Tongan Art of Sociospatial Relations

Tevita Ka'ili
Tongans, the native people of the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific, are a highly mobile indigenous group. Like their seafaring ancestors, they are constantly on the move across (time) and (space). Carrying their traditions with them, Tongans living in Maui, Hawai‘i, actively mediate those dimensions by extending the time-space structure of certain activities and places in order to practice tauhi vā—the marking of time to sustain harmonious relations and create beautiful sociospatial relations.

In Marking Indigeneity, Tevita O. Ka‘ili examines the conflicts and reconciliation of indigenous time-space within the Tongan community in Maui, as well as within the time-space of capitalism. Using indigenous theory, he provides an ethnography of the social relations of the highly mobile Tongans.

Focusing on tauhi vā, Ka‘ili notes certain examples of this time marking: the faikava gatherings that last from sunset to sunrise, long eating gatherings, long conversations (talanoa), the all-night funeral wakes, and the early arrival to and late departure from meetings and celebrations. Ka‘ili also describes the performing art of tauhi vā, which creates symmetry through the performance of social duties (fatongia). This gives rise to powerful feelings of warmth, elation, and honor among the performers. Marking Indigeneity offers an ethnography of the extension of time-space that is rooted in ancient Moana oral traditions, thoughtfully illustrating the continuation of these traditions.
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Battlefields to Temple Grounds: Latter-Day Saints in Guam and Micronesia

Rosalind Meno Ram
This is the first comprehensive history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Guam and Micronesia. Just as currents mingle while they make their way across the Pacific, powerful waves of colonial and Christian culture have intermingled with indigenous culture in Micronesia. European, Asian, and American nations have variously claimed or colonized the islands of Micronesia, exerting influence in politics, education, and the economy, treating the islands as strategic bases or resources. The indigenous people have reacted to each wave of colonial influence and adapted, intermingling cultures. After Japan’s bombings of Hawai‘i, Guam, and Wake Island, Latter-day Saint military personnel arrived in Micronesia. Waves of missionaries began teaching the military personnel and islanders, leading to creation of the Micronesia Guam Mission and the Marshall Islands Majuro Mission, which includes Kiribati. Some of these Pacific battlefields have become peaceful temple grounds.
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