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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 ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ 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 ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ 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 ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ 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 ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide’s J.M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice.

Gabriella Smart is Artistic Director of Soundstream, New Music Ensemble in Residence at the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ 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 ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥n Association for Pacific Studies, being held at the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ between Thursday and Saturday, 5–7 April.

Further information and registration details for the conference can be found at

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