Oceania is vast...
Oceania is us.
-Epeli Hau‘ofa, “Our Sea of Islands”
We sweat and cry salt water,
so we know that the ocean is really in our blood.
-Teresia Teaiwa
The quest should be for a new Oceania.
-Albert Wendt
Welina mai, Halo olketa, Nisa bula vinaka, Ran anim, Talofa lava, Iokwe yuk, Malo e lelei, Kia Orana, Mogethin, Taloha ni, Alii, Ko na mauri, Len wo, Hafa adai, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Kasalehlie…warm Pacific Islands greetings!
The Center for Pacific Islands Studies, in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa School of Pacific and Asian Studies, is a larger home for initiatives that bring together people and resources to promote an understanding of the Pacific Islands and issues of concern to Pacific Islanders. The center partners with the Department of Pacific Islands Studies which offers an innovative instructional program that is regional, comparative, and interdisciplinary in nature. The university’s Pacific Collection, one of the most comprehensive collections of Pacific materials in the world, attracts a worldwide audience, as do the center’s international conferences, its Web-based resources, its Pacific Islands Monograph Series, and its award-winning journal, The Contemporary Pacific. Working with scholars at institutions in the region and elsewhere, faculty at the center are seeking new ways to encompass a deeper understanding of a region whose boundaries are constantly expanding.