Wai? Indigenous Words and Ideas

This episode introduces an idea Dr. Hafoka and I have been working through and developing, inspired by and extending out of the undercommons. We reflect on intellectuals that remain connected to home communities or who emerge organically from communities. We also consider the re-framing of study as common knowledge or as a shared and subversive project grounded in the Black Radical Tradition, which is revealed in the multiple embodied identities we traverse. Undercommons/Undercurrents examples include the social networks of knowledge and even (im)material economic support that occur within marginalised communities based in their relationships that strive for liberation. We spend time focused on Hafoka’s personal and academic work with Kakai Tonga (Tongans) in the airline industry, which broadens the view of Moana-Oceanic and Tonga peoples beyond dominant narratives. This unique presence in this industry has also facilitated a space where cultural values are nurtured, enacted, and spread including the perpetual cultivation of a collective relational consciousness. The undercurrents is in one sense a synthesis of the undercommons with Moana-Oceania relational ethics that is introduced in this talanoa (discussion/dialogue/storying).

Additional references that further add context and insights to this episode can be found in the following resources:

The Undercommons – Fugitive Planning and Black Study

https://www.minorcompositions.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/undercommons-web.pdf

From Navigating the Seas to Navigating the Skies:Unloading Tongan Knowledge through the Undercurrents of Airline Employment in the Ano Māsima

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hn2p9kd

Knew World Undercurrents https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365768129_Knew_World_Undercurrents

This episode begins with a reflection on this podcast project reaching its 50th episode. I share some additional background and future plans, including some of the symbolism behind the WAI logo. This episode introduces some ideas from the article, Indigeneity as a Post-Apocalyptic Genealogical Metaphor, which explores the metaphysics of indigeneity - Indigenous metaphysics through a global Indigenous consciousness. In conclusion, a diverse range of Indigenous experiences are presented in the constellation of Indigeneities identified as Elder/Local, Continental/Regional, Diasporic, Creole, Born-Again, Global/Trans-Indigenous, which are described in the artice, A Wīnak Perspective on Cosmovisíon Maya and Eco-Justice Education.

Terms: Yamanik (Green Stone/Jade in K’iche’-Maya), Hoa/Soa (Partner/Companion – Pair in lea faka-Tonga and gagana Sāmoa).

References mentioned or inspirational to this episode:

‘Tongan Hoa: Inseparable yet indispensable pairs/binaries’, by Lear, Māhina-Tuai, Vaka, Ka’ili, & Māhina

Pasifika Webinar Series: Signature Event featuring Dr. Tēvita O. Ka’ili

The Polynesian Iconoclasm by Jeffrey Sissons

Indigenous science (fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral dystopias and fantasies of climate change crises by Kyle P. Whyte

Naming, A Coming Home: Latinidad and Indigeneity in the Settler Colony by Flori Boj Lopez

The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in Seventeenth-Century North America and the Caribbean by Gerald Horne

The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies by Tiffany Lethabo King

The University and the Undercommons: Seven Theses by Fred Moten and Stefano Harney

The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study by Stefano Harney and Fred Moten

The Empty Wagon: Zionism’s journey from identity crisis to identity theft by Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro

The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness by Paul Gilroy

Creole Indigeneity: Between Myth and Nation in the Caribbean by Shona N. Jackson

Sovereign Embodiment: Native Hawaiians and Expressions of Diasporic Kuleana by Kēhaulani Vaughn

Trans-Indigenous: Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies by Chadwick Allen

This episode seeks to share an understanding of coloniality as a global system by engaging with the Matrix film series franchise, focusing on the initial trilogy. The Matrix trilogy is applied as a metaphor to build critical consciousness of coloniality, settler-colonialism, and Indigeneity, while also exploring other social constructions. This compliments an early episode on modernity and Indigeneity and confronts the world as we know it.

References:

Liliana Conlisk Gallegos – Thinking Coloniality of Power Tedx

Jack Forbes – Columbus and Other Cannibals

Sylvia Wynter – Unsettling the Coloniality of Being

Nelson Maldonado-Torres – On the Coloniality of Being; Against War

Anibal Quijano – Coloniality of Power

Maria Lugones – Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System

Ty Tengan – (En)gendering Colonialism

The Red Nation

Afropessimism – Frank Wilderson III

John Trudell - Trudell

David Graeber and David Wengrow – The Dawn of Everything

This episode focuses on ideas about critical thinking in systems of power. Topics include critical pedagogy, critical consciousness, belief, agnotology (study of ignorance), and aesthetics as ethics. Concepts mentioned include the banality of evil and the illusory effect with pop culture references to the films Don’t Look Up and The Lorax as well as the TV Series Barbaren (Barbarians). The reflection shared draws on historical perspectives and contexts to thoughtful questioning and remembering.

References mentioned include:

Agustín Fuentes - Why We Believe, 2019.

Lewis R. Gordon, Fear of Black consciousness, 2022.

Simon Frith, Music and Identity, 1996.

George Gmelch, Baseball Magic, 1971.

Robert N. Proctor and Londa Schiebinger, Agnotology: The making and unmaking of ignorance, 2008.

Adrienne Mayor, Suppression of Indigenous Fossil Knowledge, 2008.

Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism, 2002.

John Trudell, Trudell (2005); DNA:Descendant Now Ancestor (2001).

Ty Kāwika Tengan, (En)gendering Colonialism: Masculinities in Hawai‘i and Aotearoa, 2002.

Paulo Freire, Education for Critical Consciousness, 2005.

Henry Giroux, On Critical Pedagogy, 2011.

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951.

Elizabeth Ellsworth, Why Doesn’t This Feel Empowering? Working Through the Repressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy, 1989.

Alison Jones, The Limits of Cross-Cultural Dialogue: Pedagogy, Desire, and Absolution in the Classroom, 1999.

Lana Lopesi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon interested in Indigenous and Women of Colour Feminisms, Contemporary Art, and Global Indigeneities. We begin this episode by reflecting on both of our recent shifts in social and political context moving from Aotearoa-New Zealand to the continental United States. This episode covers terms and the differences of scale across societies, feminisms including Sāmoan perspectives, and an analysis of various systems of power from the macro level to the internal. We conclude with a reflection on ideas, community impact, as well as consider cultural values and their entanglements within an assumed system of morality, which is gendered in particular ways.

Bloody Woman by Lana Lopesi.

Terms: Karanga (a formal or ceremonial call); karakia (ritual chant, say grace), Nafanua (Guardian/Patron/Goddess of War), Salamasina (15th century paramount who held all four district titles as Tafa‘ifa), Vā Moana, Kaukalaikiiki/Tautalaitiiti (‘to speak above one’s age’, impudent, cheeky).

Indigenous Tongan scholars Dr. Ka‘ili and Dr. Hafoka join this episode of remembering the 2017 Rugby League World Cup and the impact of Mate Ma‘a Tonga. We reflect on the background to doing research at that time and thinking about the geopolitics of sport alongside an exploration of Tongan Indigeneity. One of the iconic moments we recall is the roll of diaspora and descendant populations having the opportunity to play for Tonga with an international rule change allowing overseas players to represent a heritage country. We discuss several topics including identity across borders, the philosophy behind faiva or performance in sport, and how nationalist boundaries of identity were transcended through Indigenous depths of fonua (land, country, heritage). We conclude by sharing some thoughts on deeper relationships to ancient Tongan sport such as kasivaki (an Indigenous Tongan underwater ‘rugby-like’ game), the unifying force of global sport that transcended common ideas about identity, and a symbolic meaning of Mate Ma‘a Tonga.

This podcast is intended to be complimentary to the article ‘Indigenous Performances of Tongan Identity in Global Sporting Events’, written by ‘Inoke Hafoka, Arcia Tecun, Tēvita Ō. Ka‘ili, and S. Ata Siu‘ulua.

Terms and Basic Interpretations: Kasivaki (underwater Indigenous Tongan game played with stones and coral posts), Tauhi Vā (performance art of social-spatial relations), Faiva (performance, to relate spatially), Mālie (bravo, exclamation of a beautiful performance), Māfana (warmth, exhilaration, spiritual phenomenon), Fonua (placenta, land, country, heritage), Sipi Tau (Tongan posture or ‘war’ dance/challenge), Hikifonua (Tongan concept for ‘diaspora’ meaning to lift and transport land represented by people), Punga Tea/Punga Kapa (coral stone posts used in Kasivaki), Tautai (sea warriors/seafarers), Ukuloloto (sea diving), Mate Ma’a Tonga (give your all for Tonga, literally ‘die for Tonga’).

Kehaulani Folau is a Madau-Moana (Oceanian) scholar and doctoral student of education, and Tino is a critical educator and activist. We discuss ‘diversity’ in the context of dominant schooling institutions, including its impact and limitations. Our talanoa/platica is inspired by recent legal acts to ban diversity initiatives, and Tino’s online commentary “DEI can’t save us, so why do we try so hard to save it?”. We critically reflect on the institutional limits of diversity initiatives, imagine a more robust political project of liberation, but also end with examples of how such initiatives despite their shortcomings have been beneficial.

This episode features Moana Iose who is an artist and Indigenous art policy consultant, as well as the founder of Salt Lake City’s Pasifika First Fridays and the Lost Eden Gallery. We begin with a look back to our global crossing of paths and our shared connections at Auckland Uni. Moana was involved in the ‘I too am Auckland’ project while she studied at Waipapa Taumata Rau (formerly Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau, a.k.a. University of Auckland), where she drew inspiration from Black student organising at Harvard to help catalyse discussions of race for Māori and Pacific students in New Zealand’s universities. We reflect on being from, living outside of, and then returning to Salt Lake City, and the complicated love we have for this place and the simultaneous frustration we have with this society. Moana shares her views and work with Indigenous art and responding to community and place, while challenging the dominant narratives that have been imposed on folks of colour. She also shares some of the story behind the fiercely local and yet internationally reaching Lost Eden gallery and the young Indigenous artists who are currently based there. We conclude with reflections on being critically conscious in our current moment, developing a sense of stewardship and connection to where we live, and valuing the significance of art in our world.

Building on an earlier episode about Critical Tongan Studies, Ata and I revisit this idea and discuss the various waves that make up a rich intellectual tradition based in the regions associated with Tonga. Acknowledging the social and national construction at a particular point in time we seek to localise and unpack the context where different philosophical traditions emerged by imagining both a pre- and post- Kingdom of Tonga context. We don’t cover everything, but we spend some time on the foundational shifts in thinking and questioning based in the era when Queen Sālote Tupou III reigned. This includes commissioning research of early Tongan scholars and scholars of Tonga who would be crucial in capturing a memory of Indigenous cultural practices and arts as well as further developing a critical intellectual tradition that asked important yet challenging questions. This includes scholars like Epeli Hau’ofa, Elizabeth Bott, I. Futa Helu and more, up through to the contemporary Early Tongan Scholars and Global Tongan Scholars’ networks of today.

References Mentioned:

Women of Power Part 2

Tongan Society: Discussions with Her Majesty Queen Sālote Tupou

Tales of the Tikongs

Songs and Poems of Queen Sālote

Queen Sālote of Tonga