Pacific Islands Literatures

University of Toronto, St. George

Fall 2024

This course centers Indigenous writing from the Pacific Islands, not as “islands in a far sea” but as Tongan writer Epeli Hau’ofa powerfully reinscribed, a “sea of Islands.” Engaging with a multitude of textual forms, we will be inspired by Banaban scholar/activist/poet Teresia Teaiwa’s notion of the “polygenesis” of Pacific Islands literatures; that is, how Pacific Islands literatures have multiple and intersecting artistic and historic influences. We will read oral histories, navigational charts, paintings, photographs, poetry, fiction, personal narratives, film, carvings, tattoo, and regalia. Discussions will analyze the roles of storytelling practices in historical and contemporary ecological and political relationships, including climate change, demilitarization, sovereignty, the protection of sacred sites, and more.

Introduction To Indigenous Literatures

University of Toronto, St. George

Fall 2024

This course will introduce fiction, poetry, oratory, and more from only a small sampling of the over 1000 Indigenous nations across North America and Oceania. Thematically we will consider a variety of issues that inspire Indigenous story-telling: environmental and social justice; gender and sexuality; land rights and city life; militarization and extractive capitalism; the law and tribal recognition; education and much more. In our readings, we will ask, how do the oral, visual, sonic, cosmological, environmental, or political contexts influence Indigenous authors and their writing? With attention to specific histories and traditions, while also considering shared experiences, we will explore how literature plays a role in expressing contemporary Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination around the world.