Disappearing Paradise
“I saw in it the future for Oceania, our sea of islands. The future lies in the hands of our own people.” Epeli Hau’ofa is a critical Pacific Islander thinker, writer, and anthropologist who reconceptualized Pacific Islanders as connected rather than separated by the sea. Often Pacific Island communities are deemed unimportant and miniscule due to misperconceptions of smallness and low impact at an international scale: a vast ocean with tiny, isolated communities hopelessly confined by colonial powers. Hau’ofa provides an alternative viewpoint through the concept of a sea of islands, re-envisioning the Pacific as a large community connected by the ocean, confined by colonial powers yet still utilizing Pacific Indigenous knowledge to live. In a world that has mostly forgotten about them, Pacific Island communities continue to survive and thrive. Therefore, Hau’ofa argues that the first step to addressing Pacific concerns is by changing existing conceptions about the Pacific, including those held by Pacific Islanders. “Oceania is us. We are the sea of islands, we are the ocean, we must wake up to this ancient truth and together use it to overturn all hegemonic views that aim ultimately to confine us.”
The concept of a disappearing paradise is a product of colonialism that utilized ideas of inferiority to justify colonization. Cultural Evolution is an anthropological theory that employed Darwin’s Theory of Evolution to describe cultural change. This theory proposes that all cultures develop progressively over time from simple to complex forms. Indigenous cultures around the world were considered simple “primitive” cultures due to their religious beliefs, lack of metal technology, and lack of written word. Therefore, under Cultural Evolution this “primitive” culture disappears with the introduction of the “civilized” Western world. This viewpoint informs Paul Jacoulet’s approach to his depictions of Micronesia. During the 20th-century Micronesia archipelagos changed guardianship from Germany to Japan. Jacoulet’s work documented and envisioned Micronesia as “a world that was not ‘floating’ in the widely accepted sense of transitory pleasure, but actually dying world of rather sad, imperfect people, observed with merciless clarity” from Japanese colonization and war (Miles 12). His focus on quasi-nude subjects that had a sense of sadness and innocence invoked ideas of “primitiveness” that would disappear in the civilized world.
The concept of a disappearing paradise continues today as these communities confront colonial rule and climate change. Micronesian and Melanesian islands are some of the first communities to deal with the effects of global warming as the waters rise and their islands sink. They are considered the first climate refugees as it seems the islands are literally disappearing. However, adopting the frameworks of Epeli Hau’ofa, other Pacific Island thinkers, and the work of other contemporary Pacific Islander artists it becomes apparent that these communities have and will continue to fight to survive and thrive. This fight for visibility is especially seen by Marshallese activist and poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner’s speech at the UN Climate Summit in 2014.
Palau, 20th century
Wood cradle with plant fiber netting and woven mat
Gift of Professor Melford Spiro
1995.59.7AB
A baby cradle made of wood and netting that has suspension ropes for easy rocking and access to the baby
