2018: Cambridge
The 23rd Pacific History Association Biennial Conference 2018 was held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London and the University of Cambridge, England on 3-5 December 2018. The theme was 'The Gift of the Pacific: Place and Perspective in Pacific history'.
The Pacific ‘is a gift’, said the late Teresia Teaiwa, in a Victoria University of Wellington podcast. If she was primarily evoking the gift and the fragile inheritance of a extraordinary Oceanic environment – a theatre of life, performance and struggle – the Pacific has figured as ‘a gift’ in manifold senses. Above all, for Islanders who have made their lives, and negotiated colonial modernity and globalization across the region. But also for the Europeans who have famously or notoriously ‘imagined’ the Pacific and sought to intervene in it. And for those scholars, and historians in particular, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, for whom the Pacific has offered a realm of comparative inquiry and storytelling.
Pacific history has assumed increasingly diverse identities, ranging from ethnographic, reflective, local and postcolonial styles through those adopting the frames of the longue durée and world history to those animated by art and material culture, exemplified in the Royal Academy’s ‘Oceania’ exhibition, with which this conference coincides. Pacific historians have engaged place and space on many scales, from the beaches and localities of encounter to the vast ocean and its ‘rim’. The Pacific History Association’s 2018 conference will offer a wealth of inquiry and debate, considering how these diverse narratives and perspectives respond to the gift of the Pacific.
The conference coincides with the 'Oceania' exhibition at the Royal Academy, the largest exhibition to date responding to art, history and contemporary identity across the region as a whole. The convenors invite artistic interventions that will contribute to a wider dialogue between academia and contemporary practice, and also cross-disciplinary contributions which may range across anthropology, archaeology, art history, development studies, political studies, geography, history, linguistics, and related fields.
Keynotes: Bronwen Douglas, Anne Perez Hattori, Maia Nuku, Damon Salesa. See for more details.
2016: Guam
The Pacific History Association, in collaboration with the University of Guam and the Guam Preservation Trust, convened the 22nd PHA Conference from May 19-21, 2016, on Guam, Mariana Islands.
The conference theme, "Mo’na: Our Pasts Before Us,” drew on multiple meanings of the Chamorro word, mo'na, meaning “front, to be first, or forward." In addition to its literal spatial definition, mo'na also contains a temporal reference to history as the time before or in front of our present. The fluidity of this term links with other Oceanic notions of fluid and nonlinear histories. This theme thus embraced and invoked Pan-Pacific ways of negotiating the past, present, and future that blur conventional western notions of History as linear, progressive, and finite.
The conference featured four keynote speakers: Dr. Robert A. Underwood, University of Guam; Dr. Katerina Teaiwa, Australian National University; Dr. Greg Dvorak, Hitotsubashi University; and Dr. David Hanlon, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.
An additional 160 presenters shared their research before an audience of more than 250 registrants. These scholars represented leading universities, museums, and archives in the
Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as institutions in Europe, Asia, and North America. The Bank of Guam also sponsored scholarships for 25 Guam school teachers and university students to attend and participate in the gathering.
Coinciding with the opening of the Festival of Pacific Arts, the 22nd PHA Conference included a healthy infusion of papers related to Oceanic music, chant, dance, and the arts. Additionallly, UNESCO's International Council for Traditional Music held their annual research symposium as a conference within our conference.
A beachside dinner banquet beneath a full moon in Ipan, Talofofo, sealed the conference with laughter, music, dance, and fiesta food. As one of the bartenders said to Anne, "It's been three hours and two kegs, and they're still talking about history. You guys really love your work!"
- from PHA President Anne Hattori
2014: Taiwan
The 2014 PHA conference was held in Taiwan in December. The conference commenced in Taipei and before moving to Taitung. Here is the report from the Taiwan Indigenous TV station about the delegates' visit to Taitung. The link was provided by our Vice President Pei-Yi Guo.
Previous PHA Conferences
20 2012 Wellington, New Zealand
19 2010 Goroka, Papua New Guinea
18 2008 Suva, Fiji
17 2006 Dunedin, New Zealand
16 2004 Noumea, New Caledonia
15 2002 Apia, Samoa
14 missed
13 2000 Canberra, Australia
12 1998 Honiara, Solomon Islands
11 1996 Hilo, Hawai`i
10 1994 Tarawa, Kiribati
9 1992 Christchurch, New Zealand
8 1990 Tamuning, Guam
7 1989 Brisbane, Australia
6 1987 Canberra, Australia
5 1985 Suva, Fiji
4 1984 Sorrento, Vic, Australia
3 1981 Katoomba, NSW, Australia
2 1980 Noosa, Qld, Australia
1 1979 Martindale Hall, SA, Australia