The Arrival of Oceania: Ecology and Politics in Contemporary Pacific Island Performances

Abstract

In a time when the idea of “Oceania” may conjure doomsday visions of climate refugees and the dystopian state of George Orwell’s 1984, Oceanian artists, activists and educators are emerging as leaders of movements that enact alternative visions and values, rooted in Pacific Island histories and environments. In this paper, I will show how representational and performative actions by dancers, choreographers, film makers, writers and spoken word artists work together to render the conditions of life in Pacific Island societies visible and to counter the threat of disappearance posed by both global warming and a global economy. Acting in concert and insisting on the indivisibility of people and the land, such actions, I will argue, realize what Isabelle Stengers in Cosmopolitics calls an “ecology of practices”, committed to the composition of a common world perceived as a space of continual appearance that has long been central to Pacific Island cultures. Examples discussed will include the role of poetry and performance in resistance to the military build-up on Guam as well as dance and spoken word performances calling for global climate action.