ANU 26 October, 2007.

An ANU academic argues that even though Pacific Islanders are highly represented in Australian arts and sports fields, there is widespread lack of understanding about the cultures from which they've come.

Dr Katerina Teaiwa from the ANU College of Pacific and Asian Studies will convene a new Pacific Studies program at The Australian National University,the first of its kind in Australia. The major will be available to undergraduate students from 2008 in a bid to address Australia's blind spot for its Pacific neighbours.

Dr Teaiwa said Australia gives hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Pacific nations each year, and Pacific Islanders play a disproportionately large role on sporting teams and in the arts, yet few people in Australia know much about the diverse, vast region to the east of the continent.

While acknowledging that the fictional Tongan student Jonah on ABC television's Summer Heights High was a well known creature of satire, she said the character's seemingly anti-authoritarian love of rap and breakdancing could be seen as expressions of the importance of oral culture and physical movement in the Pacific. She said that prominent Islanders in real life include Wallaby player Lote Tuqiri, actor Jay Laga'aia, and Olympic long jumper Jai Turima, but argues that little is known about their cultures of origin.

"Fijians and Tongans are scoring the Australian tries, Australian museums and galleries are hankering for Pacific art and artefacts, and yet there is a growing gap in understanding the islands in the streets, classrooms,sports-fields, media and halls of government," Dr Teaiwa said. ...“The Pacific,which covers one-third of the surface of the planet, has slipped to the margins in the Australian consciousness."

Dr Teaiwa refers to a 2003 Senate Report that made a passionate call for more education in Australia about Pacific cultures, lest Australia suffer a "dramatic loss" of influence in the region. She said the fact that key recommendations within the report didn't receive any formal recognition from the Federal Government is yet another symptom of Australia's lack of interest in its Pacific neighbours.

The new Pacific Studies major will address this imbalance by introducing students to the histories, politics and cultures of the nations scattered across the world's largest ocean. Dr Teaiwa said the program of study will draw on existing teaching and research strengths in Pacific Studies at ANU,which has one of the greatest repositories of expertise and information about the region in the world. But she said the course will also have a trans-disciplinary focus to allow students to access the rich cultural and artistic legacies of Pacific cultures via video, art, dance, and song. Masters students will also be able to take a new specialisation in Pacific Studies from 2008. - Media Office, The Australian National University