In my ideal Pacific ~ Teresia Teaiwa
Epeli Hau’ofa is still
alive and he’s healthy
without anything
afflicting his front
or his rear
His Oceanic imaginary
has expanded beyond
even his own expectations
and he would have invited
Between Wind & Water
to be exhibited at his Centre
and given you all a residency
so that the over one hundred
students enrolled in Jacki Leota’s
UU204 course this summer
could hear you all speak and
be provoked to ask you questions
and ask themselves questions
about what their ideal Pacific
looks like
(This is very important
because the majority of those
students are Indo-Fijian and
will be thinking about themselves
as Pacific for the first time
in their lives
and the majority of them
are studying business and
accounting and will be thinking
about how to make the Pacific
and the world a better place
for everyone
instead of just for themselves)
In my ideal Pacific
this exhibition and residency
would have been held in March
when our VUW students are back
and I could have encouraged
my PASI 101 students to focus
one of their assignments on it
But in my ideal Pacific
my Pacific Studies students
would be more like the
PNG Studies and Business Studies
students and graduates
I met at Divine Word University
In Madang, Papua New Guinea
last year
who get their degrees
not so they can get jobs
in air-conditioned offices
and drive air-conditioned cars
but so that they can walk barefoot
from village to village
finding out what people’s needs are
and helping them find alternatives
to mining, deforestation
and commercial over-fishing
in their region
In my ideal Pacific
Business Studies students
go on to do masters degrees in
Public Health like
the late Darlene Keju
from the Marshall Islands
and realize the crucial importance
of the art in empowering
young Pacific people to
have positive attitudes
towards their bodies
and their sexuality
and their environment
so they would be able to
live off their land
and the sea around them
and could participate in
the wider world’s economics
on their own terms
In my ideal Pacific
my ancestral island of Banaba
or Ocean Island in the central
Pacific would not have been
mined into a moonscape oblivion
by the British Phosphate Company
But if that never happened
New Zealand would not have
become quite such the land
of milk and honey that it did
and we all probably wouldn’t
be sitting here today
because I’d be surprised
if our sitting here today
was ever part of the dreaming
of the tangata whenua
who lived here prior to
the arrival of The Tory in 1839
or the iwi who even
preceded them
In my ideal Pacific
things wouldn’t be
perfect
but everyone would learn
deeply from their mistakes
like the sharks that WWF
has tracked diving to depths
of 1000 metres or more
on their journeys
around the Pacific
This text was included in the Between Wind and Water Summer Residency (2015) publication. It was Teresia Teaiwa’s contribution to the BWAW Futures Forum on Saturday 24 January, 2015.
Posted today, on the day we lost Teresia, because her words are gifts and my heart is heavy.
PIMPI KNOWS 