Art and Identity in a Post-Colonial Pacific

In 1962, Western Samoa became the first Pacific Island nation to gain independence. In an increasingly globalized world, the country turned to artistic expressions that spoke to indigenous traditions while communicating a new identity as a modern nation-state. The Samoan experience was not unique; numerous Pacific cultures have grappled with balancing heritage and their new status in an increasingly capitalist world.

Thomas defines creativity in the context of contact as reactive objectification, “a fundamental cultural process that proceeded in pre-colonial indigenous societies, facilitating mutual differentiation, but was transformed after those societies’ contact with Europeans and underwent further development as the character of colonial encounters changed” (1992:214). These processes continued in the post-colonial environment. Papers for this session will address how individuals, families, communities, or governments in the indigenous Pacific utilize art and architecture to express identity in today’s world. Questions to be considered might include: What are the choices being made and their motivations? What is the role of hybridity? What are the interactions between the various stakeholders? How have contemporary Pacific artists responded to the challenges of personal and cultural identity in the islands or in the diaspora? How have communities at home and abroad asserted both heritage and contemporary distinctiveness? What roles have governments played on the national and international stages? How have indigenous artists residing in traditional homelands in which they are now a minority responded to the post-colonial environment?

Thomas, Nicholas, 1992. The Inversion of Tradition. American Ethnologist, vol. 10. no. 2: 213 – 232