This lecture presents the views of someone anthropologists call a participant-observer, and Māori characterise as a Pākehā, a manuhiri (guest, visitor), or a tangata kē (stranger); the latter two terms contrast with the permanence of the indigenous people, the tangata whenua (people of the land). All of us in this auditorium affiliate to one of...

Imagine the following scene: Rarotonga International Airport, the date 26 April 1988. A young Pacific historian is standing in front of a weighing machine at the domestic check in. About to place his bags on the tray, he is told that the counter staff must first weigh him. Has he heard right? But they insist...

This seminar is about a place in the Cook Islands. To be more precise, it concerns a research project that explores the cultural meanings of the land comprising the district of Kei`ā, one of six wedge-shaped puna (districts) constituting the largest land units in the island of Mangaia. During my research over some 15 or...