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

This episode begins with some reflections on my experience and relations to people of place and to being mindful of where one lives, especially if one’s immediate ancestral ties lie elsewhere. I think about responsibilities and possibilities of relating differently and better to where I currently reside by digging deeper beyond the dominant understandings of Indigenous people and issues here in Utah. I highlight a variety of sources by Indigenous folks in order to respect their capacity and listening to what they have already shared by reading what is already available and putting in some work to better understand it. Topics include remembering Soonkahni (Salt Lake Valley), Indigenous identities and cultural politics in this place and remembering a more complex and nuanced reality outside of our current cultural climate crisis. I work through different words and terms and where they derive from along with a range of meanings. This episode concludes by thinking about Farmer’s historical observation of a shift from an aquatic age to a hydraulic one that underpins various issues currently faced right now in this place. An overarching theme is a practice of respecting elder cultures and perspectives in order to more meaningfully relate to place. Terms: Soonkahni (Salt Lake Valley in Newe Taikwa-Shoshoni Language), Piapaa (Big Water, Sea, a name for the Great Salt Lake in Newe Taikwa), Pia Okwai (Big Flow/River, a name for Utah’s Jordan River in Newe Taikwa), Newe (The People), Neme (The People), Nuuchiu (The People), Nuwuvi (The People), Diné (The People), Awahko (Sucker fish in Newe Taikwa), Paa Kateten (One name for Utah Lake in Newe Taikwa). Suggested Reading List: History and culture - Darren Parry’s Bear River Massacre; Forest Cuch’s (Ed) A History of Utah’s American Indians; We shall remain – Utah documentary series; Dora Van et. al’s History of Unita Valley Shoshone Tribe of the Utah Nation. Non-Indigneous writers/producers - Black hawks mission of peace by Philip Gottfredson and The Black Hawk War Utah’s Forgotten Tragedy documentary film; Utah’s Black Hawk War by John Alton Peterson; On Zion’s Mount by Jared Farmer; Place and Personal Names of the Gosiute Indians of Utah by Ralph V. Chamberlin. Linguistic – Drusilla Gould and Christopher Loether’s An Introduction to the Shoshone Language; University of Utah’s Shoshoni Language Project.

Ata and I have just published a paper on Tongan Coloniality which this episode provides a brief introduction to as well as a bit of background behind this research project.  Prior to successfully publishing this paper we were getting blocked within academia when making attempts to discuss Indigenous issues from a Tonga context in relation to global perspectives. Questions of Tongan Indigeneity have regularly been raised due to the dominant idea and definition of Indigeneity based on minoritized people within ancestral homelands, predominantly in settler-colonial nations. Tonga also has a popular narrative of ‘never being colonised’ so this project initially confronted the scholarly audience in Pacific Studies, Pacific Anthropology, and Indigenous Studies in order to be able to eventually do the work we want to and have the conversations we’d like to in that arena. However, this episode is aimed at a broader and more public audience in mind. We explain why we are challenging popular assumptions and ideas directly by drawing from Tongan scholars and scholars of Tonga and the Oceanian region, while making links to ‘Global South Third World’ perspectives. Topics include coercion into British protectorate status, the role of Christianity, capitalism, and nation-state formation. We end with a teaser on Tongan Indigeneity from Ata’s current doctoral research and insights of how critical consciousness is a long-standing tradition in Tonga. Terms: ASAO (Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania), Cognitive Dissonance (a concept from the field of psychology to identify the mental stress of paradox or contradictions, by altering how one processes information to make a contradiction fit within the consistency or belief one is socialised or accustomed to already, despite evidence from new information that is contrary to it), TRA (Tongan Research Association, formerly the Tonga History Association), Bad Faith (Lewis Gordon draws from Sartre’s concept of ‘bad faith’ and applies it to anti-blackness such as the bad faith practiced in the modern fears of Black consciousness; we apply it in this podcast in the principle of avoiding personal torment by ignoring evidence that reveals a reality contrary to a cherished belief; related to cognitive dissonance), Wansolwara (Tok Pisin, Bislama, Pijin for the Salt Water Continent of Oceania), Tåsi (Sea or Ocean in Chamorro, the Indigenous language of Guåhan/Guam), Moana (Big or Deep Ocean, Oceania in eastern Oceanic languages from the ‘Polynesian’ region), ‘Uta (plantation or commonly interpreted as ‘the bush’ in lea faka-Tonga), Kolo (town, city, or dense settlement in lea faka-Tonga), Motu (island, at times in reference to ‘outer island(s)’ in lea faka-Tonga), tu‘a (later in time, periphery, outer/outside/marginal, or else in reference to lower ranking people currently also conflated with 17th century British notions of class and interpreted as ‘commoner’).

This episode takes a sneak peak into one of our whānau hui (family meetings/gatherings) where we reflect on a recent move we have made. The tamariki (children) share some insights and observations of living in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) and now in Soonkahni (Salt Lake), including nationalism in schools, political ideologies, language, and foods. My partner and I reflect on their comments further and share some thoughts about accessing and living in these different places. We conclude with some observations about inequity between these places and differing societal values and culture(s).

This episode features post graduate student Dorothy Savieti who has been interested in and researching fahu (chiefly sister, aunt, relative, etc.) within Tongan culture and society. She shares an introduction to thinking about this significant identity and role within family clans that are commonly known for their ceremonial position and function in life events. We discuss how there are a variety of perspectives and understandings throughout time, as well as ongoing changes occurring, while highlighting some of the debates over defining fahu in our contemporary context. Fahu remain significant despite various views and Dorothy’s early stages of research reveals complexity and additional considerations to continue to explore. She concludes with some summarising thoughts and reflections on different sources to consider when researching culture. Terms: Mehekitanga (fathers sister – paternal auntie); ‘Ilamutu (brother’s term for his sisters children who are genealogically superior in chiefly rank as nieces/nephews); Fakafotu (we didn’t use this term in the podcast, but it is the sisters term for her brothers children who are genealogically inferior in chiefly rank as nieces/nephews); Fahuloa/Lohuloa (paternal grandfather's sister, one’s father's mehekitanga, paternal great auntie); Koloa (treasures made by women like tapa – fine mats); ‘Eiki (Chief/ly, high ranking person); ‘Eikiness (Tongan English vernacular for chiefliness/chief/chiefly, high ranking); Tu‘a (Peripheral or lower ranking, associated with being younger in rank, contemporarily often interpreted through classed conflations with rank with terms like ‘commoner’); Liongi (lower ranking relation in a particular context); Ta'ovala (waist mat of which there are different kinds that have different meanings). Note: In Tonga(n) cultural phenomena someone may be in a chiefly or higher ranking position where they receive gifts, tributes, and are served in one context - while in a different context may find themselves in a non or less chiefly role that makes offerings, tributes, and is in service to other chiefs or higher ranking positions. Chiefly rank is important, but its manifestation is often dependent upon contextually specific relationships in particular moments.

Yucatec Maya Anthropologist Genner Llanes-Ortiz joins this episode from his current position as research chair of digital Indigeneities at the Bishop’s university in Canada. He shares some of his background in anthropology, Indigenous rights, and linguistics throughout the world. We discuss Dr. Llanes-Ortiz article Cos-Maya-Politan Futures where he coins this term to identify cultural and historical heritage that is contemporarily mobilised in the Maya region and transcends modern national borders through (re)connections. While a sense of ‘cosmopolitanism’ for Maya is not something novel with a long history of being open and connected to larger worlds, this is a response to the 21st century moment, and the digital circulation of music and film that contemplates what it means to be Maya today. This leads into a discussion on Yucatec-Maya representation in the film Wakanda Forever. There are some spoilers, but we reflect on this film within a larger context of some previous Maya representation in pop culture, the opportunities that have emerged at this time, as well as some ongoing structural limitations that leave us wanting for more. The significance of the representations in this film in multiple contexts are considered along with hopes that it will inspire more questions. Terms: Maya T’an (Yucatec-Maya spoken language); Cos-Maya-Politanism (term coined by Dr. Llanes-Ortiz referring to a Mayan based perspective that is open to a bigger world); Milpa (derived from Nahuatl meaning cultivated field or corn field); Cenotes (deep hole that results from collapsed limestone bedrock that  exposes ground water at the bottom); Chaj Chay or Pok ta’ pok (Mesoamerican ball game); Mexica (Aztec/Nahuatl); Nantat (ancestors in Highland Maya languages such as K’iche’); Palenque/Maroon (autonomous communities throughout Central America and the Caribbean of primarily formerly enslaved Indigenous Africans who freed themselves, who at times lived with or in relation with local Indigenous Amerindian peoples).

David Fa‘avae joins this episode bringing with him his experience as a Tongan/Sāmoan with ties to Niue, and as a founder of the early Tongan scholars network, a Senior Research Fellow at Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland), and Senior Lecturer at Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato (University of Waikato). Ata and I discuss with Dave some of his intellectual background that seeks to respond to community needs, as well as some of his research interests with intergenerationality, education, and developing critical depth in the terms and concepts we use. Dave shares the positive and important aspects of intergenerational relationships that can alleviate tensions and provide worthwhile wisdom and practices that provide grounded pathways for future generations. We discuss challenges in dominant institutions of schooling as well as their legacies, and the significance of education. We consider Epeli Hau‘ofa’s scholarship and the importance of engaging with messy intellectual terrains, facing a greater complexity that requires multiple lenses, while also upholding Indigenous relational ethics, which are also critically confronting external and internal power dynamics.   Terms: Hohoko 'a e To'utangata (inter-generationality, intergenerational and genealogical consciousness); Loto Tonga (in Tonga, the center of Tonga, term that refers to Tongans positioned in the Kingdom of Tonga); Tu’a Tonga (outside of Tonga, the periphery of Tonga, term that refers to Tongans positioned outside of the Kingdom of Tonga in NZ, AUS, US, etc.); Mokopuna (grandchild); Tauhi Vā/Tauhi Vaha‘a (Mediating relationships, upholding kinship/clan and socio-spatial points of relation); Mamahi‘i Me‘a (passion and devotion – both Tauhi Vā and Mamahi‘i Me‘a are among the Faa‘i kaveikoula ‘a e Tonga or Four golden pillars of Tongan culture and society as emphasized by HRH Queen Sālote Tupou III); ‘Eiki Mokopuna (chiefly grandchild or chiefly grandchildren, a unique intergenerational relationship); Tapu (protections, restrictions, commonly considered as ‘sacred-ness’); Ha‘a (lineage, clan); Vā (relation, point between/of relation/connection); Mānava (to breathe, give life); Manava (womb); Mana (potency, honour, prestige); Whakapapa (platformed layers of connection, origin, genealogy); Si‘ota‘aki (harmful criticism, harmfully taking apart another’s views or stories); Si‘o (to see or perspective); Ta‘aki (to unpack or take apart); Si‘o-Ta‘aki (reconceptualized as “to deconstruct perspectives, reveal underlying causes, and change understandings”); Post-humanism (a field of studies that looks beyond the human or anthropocentrism/humancentrism, may also confront the assumed universals or presumed hierarchy of humanity and/or the concept of the human); Hoa (partner/companion in both lea faka-Tonga and te reo Māori), Hoa-Haere (close friend, partner, or comrade in te reo Māori), Hoariri (enemy/antagonist in te reo Māori, comprised of partner/companion and anger, sometimes interpreted as angry friend).

Returning guests: Philosopher, writer, and PhD student Anisha Sankar and soon to be Assistant Professor of Pacific Island Studies at the University of Oregon and author of Bloody Woman Lana Lopesi. Contents: This episode gives some background to the anthology project Towards a Grammar of Race in Aotearoa New Zealand to be published by Bridget Williams Books in Sept/Oct 2022. We reflect back on the beginning of a reading group that culminated into this project, drawing from Jodi Byrd’s The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism,  Frank B. Wilderson III’s Afropessimism, Lisa A. Lowe’s The Intimacies of Four Continents, Otherwise Worlds: Against Settler Colonialism and Anti-Blackness, and more. Reading and thinking with challenging theoretical perspectives, through different points of views and disciplines, offered productive tensions that better spoke to the messy and complex realities of our modern world. This background assisted us in finding language to navigate the local and global discourse and experience of race and power, such as debates between ethnicity vs. race in a New Zealand context. This project sought to bring together different authors, understandings, ideas, and experiences of race together. We confront a lack of societal consensus or shared language to even discuss race by putting these diverse positions together in what we call, ‘towards a grammar of race’. Grammar is both linguistic and philosophical, as the rules that give structure to language and to society. Ani and Lana also share a bit about their chapters in the book and we end with a critical reflection on ‘accessibility’. Terms: Incommensurability is a term borrowed from mathematics that refers to having no common measure, and is used in reference to Afropessimism, which uses the term to confront the inadequacies to theorise Black suffering and Anti-Blackness in other theoretical camps, positions, or traditions; Paranoid and reparative reading are references to Eve Sedgwick’s book Touching Feeling – Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity and particularly the chapter ‘Paranoid reading and reparative reading, or you’re so paranoid, you probably think this essay is about you.’; Colonial imaginary refers to the intellectual, aesthetic, and historical production of a modern euro-imperial consciousness and reality.

This episode features educator and city councilperson Jacob Fitisemanu along with community leader and educator 'Inoke Hafoka. They discuss some of the background to a recent community tatau/tātatau event that took place in Utah. We learn some of the background to the history of Ocean peoples in Utah and move into the beginning of this group’s tatau journeys with tufuga Li'aifaiva before the pandemic took off, which finished two years later once travel restrictions eased. We discuss ideas and concepts of identity and mobility through the desire for continued relevance of tatau/tātatau in a US diaspora context. We confront some common perceptions and the role of going ‘nerd mode’ to learn more and challenge prevailing ideas with more complex and pluralistic understandings. We also engage with the importance of context and the significance of having access in one’s place of residence where community building can occur through collective participation in ancestral ritual events. Terms: Apisā ('sacred home/house', set apart sleeping quarters or ritual setting), Tapua'i (to set apart, protect, make 'sacred'), Au/Hau (Tattooing chisel comb in Sāmoan/Tongan), Tatau/Tātatau (Sāmoan/Tongan language for tattoo, etymological origin of the word tattoo in English).

Grant training specialist for ANA (Administration for Native Americans) and Diné (Navajo) educator Rich White joins this episode to share some stories and wisdom on a variety of topics including facing challenges in education, seeking balance in life, and relational knowledge in protocol. We challenge dominant ideas of fixed trajectories, the importance of being flexible and mobile in grey areas, and moving in and out of multiple worlds. In addition, we also reflect on other themes such as land acknowledgements, Boba Fett, research, sacrifice, community, place, and being a critically conscious observer. Terms: Diné (The People), Hózhó (balance principle, to walk in beauty), Utz Kaslemal (K’iche’/Kaqchikel for live well, good living, buen vivir), matrilineal (kinship based on mother or female lines), matrilocal (societies based or focused on one’s wife’s or mother’s community), ECS (Education, Culture, and Society program at the University of Utah).