Pacific seafaring, poetry and new music: culture for all

Thursday, 29 March 2018

The culture of the Pacific region, its preservation and place in today’s world, will be the focus of public events at the University of Adelaide next week.

In a free public lecture, Filipono-Pohnpeian scholar Associate Professor Vicente Diaz will present the annual Epeli Hau'ofa Memorial Lecture, with a focus on indigenous Micronesian seafaring and new ways of preventing cultural loss.

Associate Professor Diaz, from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, is a key figure in native Pacific cultural studies and a leader in efforts to build global and comparative indigenous studies. He heads a project called Digitizing Ancient Futures which draws together Micronesian seafaring knowledge and advanced visualisation technology to mitigate against loss of culture.

The free public lecture, Backing into the Future: Indigenous Sea (and River) Faring Between Micronesia and Dakota Homelands, Waters, and Skies, is on Wednesday 4 April, 6 pm in Napier 102 lecture theatre, at the University of Adelaide’s North Terrace campus.

Award-winning pianist Gabriella Smart and New Zealand’s Poet Laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh will combine music and readings for Two Horizons: a cultural evening, supported by the University of Adelaide’s J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice.

Gabriella Smart is Artistic Director of Soundstream, New Music Ensemble in Residence at the University of Adelaide and passionate exponent of new music.

Selina Tusitala Marsh is a critically acclaimed Pasifika poet-scholar who, as Commonwealth Poet in 2016, wrote and performed a poem for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

This unique free cultural event, Two Horizons: a cultural evening, will be held on Thursday 5 April, 5.30 for 6 pm, in the Madley Rehearsal Studio, North Terrace campus, entrance near Kintore Avenue.

The two public events are part of Two Horizons, the biennial conference of the Australian Association for Pacific Studies, being held at the University between Thursday and Saturday, 5–7 April.

Further information and registration details for the conference can be found at http://pacificstudies.org.au

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