What does it mean to be a Pacific Islander?

 

Much has changed since the first time I reflected on what it meant exactly to be a Pacific Islander or even an Oceanian. At first, I was under the impression that to be a Pacific Islander, one must be fully aware of the cultural practices and traditions present within this beautiful nation. Unfortunately, I did not share in this luxury. Growing up in a mixed cultural background I had always dreaded filling in the “Others” section in a questionnaire while indicating my ethnicity, and when I confronted my parents about which group I had belonged to, each would bicker about their own culture being my rightful heir. To a 10-year-old boy, this was too much to bear all at once.

Alas, I came across a fellow friend at the University of the South Pacific who had a similar background to mine. The only difference was that he was not in the least confused about his ethnicity. It occurred to him that if he had all the different cultural intricacies present within his bloodline then why must he succumb to just one? Why not embrace them all? Why not be the bridge between different cultures and break the barriers? Needless to say, this had proven to be extremely inspiring and thus I adopted the same mindset. Instead of feeling stuck on one ethnicity, I would accept them all as a part of my very own nature. It is a part of who I am and what makes me, me.

Read more: Views of the Land, in the Vanua: Towards a Fijian Theology of Place

 

However, I have not given up my previous idea of what it truly means to be either a Pacific Islander or an Oceanian, for I am convinced that there is a distinction. I had hoped not to be referenced as an Outlander according to Jolly, where she looked at representations of Oceania and the changing histories of Pacific peoples, she referred to 'Outlanders' as a Foreigner (Jolly, 2007). According to Tuwere, the “Fijian social unit to which every member belongs are hierarchical” (Tuwere, 2002) and to be a part of the I-taukei ethnic group, one had to be aware of where they stood in the dominance hierarchy. It would help to reside in a village to understand more accurately my role in this community, but I live in the middle of the city so this was not a possibility for me at the time.

Read more: Imagining Oceania: Indigenous and Foreign Representations of a Sea of Islands

Moving forward into the future, I have chosen to be identified as an Oceanian instead of a Pacific Islander, should the need arise. The reason for this is that neither I nor my family had participated in the “Great Migration” in which the original settlers of the land had had the privilege of being a part of.  But I do have the honor of considering myself an Oceanian for I was born into this culture and I do have some semblance of what it means to be a part of the native heritage. It has proven to be rather useful to know the different cultures as it allowed for the possibility to understand different ethnicities better than the average person.