On the Edge?: Deserts, Oceans, Islands
Top Cited Papers
- 1 September 2001
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Project MUSE in The Contemporary Pacific
- Vol. 13 (2) , 417-466
- https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2001.0055
Abstract
This paper starts with a playful interrogation of being "on the edge" of California from the perspective of a millennial experience "in the center" of Australia—partly to suggest my own location, but also to suggest how imagined geographies of edges and centers, of peripheries and interiors are geopolitical mirages. It then moves to a consideration of how representations of deep time, in being "on the edge" or inhabiting "a sea of islands" relate to the contemporary politics of indigeneity and diaspora in the Pacific. While acknowledging the differences between Islanders of different regions and countries, the co-presence of the values of "roots" and "routes" is stressed. The varied relation of indigeneity and diaspora is explored through visual arts displayed in museums and cultural festivals in Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Australia.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Arts of VanuatuJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1999
- Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century.Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1998
- Voyage of Rediscovery: A Cultural Odyssey Through Polynesia.Published by JSTOR ,1997
- CUSTOM AND THE WAY OF THE LAND: PAST AND PRESENT IN VANUATU AND FIJIOceania, 1992