v3n2

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Contents
Orality and Mā’ohi Culture: An Introduction to Flora Devantine’s ‘Orality: Written Tradition, Oral Tradition, Literature, Fiuriture’
Kareva Mateata-Allain
[Abstract] [Keywords]
Keywords: Mā’ohi literature, Orality, Flora Devatine, French Polynesia

Abstract: For many Mā’ohi people - the Polynesians indigenous to the Oceanic area known as French Polynesia - transitioning from an oral culture to transcribing the fluidity of spoken words and contexts onto the etched landscape of a page is a challenging passage. For Mā’ohi writers, writing often becomes a tool to merge oral and personal histories that are a major component of a local cultural identity that grounds Mā’ohi writing. In a colonised society such as French Polynesia in which people have traditionally remained silent, there is a general understanding that they do so. Consequently, in order for Mā’ohi writers to overcome stumbling blocks with writing, academics and traditional societies must intrinsically recognise the important contributions of Orality to modern discourses and creative production. As Flora Devatine, a Mā’ohi scholar, writer, editor, and purveyor of Mā’ohi culture contends, Orality can be a vehicle to expand one’s consciousness and place in the world. Devatine’s (2002a) article, ‘Orality, Written Tradition, Oral Literature, and Fiuriture’, was originally written in French with reo Mā’ohi insertions. She crafts her essay in a poetic style that mirrors a Mā’ohi ‘orero, a traditional Polynesian oratory. In this extended ode, she stresses how Orality is an ever-expanding, forever innovative concept that shifts and evolves with indigenous consciousness amidst pervasive global change.
Written Literature, Oral Tradition, Oral Literature, Fiuriture
Flora Devantine
[Abstract] [Keywords]
Keywords: Orality, Oral Literature, nana’oture and nene’iture, oral writing, fiuriture and French Polynesian Literature

Abstract: Traditionally, Orality characterises a human society that does not write and that has no recourse for transmitting cultural traditions, or inscribing the reflections, thoughts, and emotions of its members. Further, each of the members of such a society is responsible for perpetuating Orality and its memory. From this point of view, Orality is the restitution of memory transmitted through diverse expressions of voice or words of a culture. Similar to reproduction by language, sounds and images are transported through a particular level of creation and expression. This happens especially with oratory arts, in which Orality, with its other contexts, also touches upon the liberation of memory and the re-creation of culture.
But the Language has Children now: Manx Language revitalisation
Gary Wilson
[Abstract] [Keywords]
Keywords: Reversing Language Shift; language revitalisation; education planning; Bunscoill Ghaelgagh

Abstract: This article examines the revitalisation of Manx Gaelic, the indigenous language of the Isle of Man, through acquisition or through education planning (which is one of a number of planning strategies used to preserve and promote endangered languages). Language scholars argue that the key to ‘Reversing Language Shift’ is to encourage language development in the domestic sphere (in the home and community) rather than (solely) in the education system. In the Isle of Man, however, the specific emphasis on education planning initiatives was a response to the dearth of fluent speakers and a complete absence of native speakers1. This break in intergenerational continuity necessitated the development of a solid cohort of younger speakers before revitalisation could even begin to take place in the domestic sphere. While the creation of a Manx medium primary school in 2001, as well as other educational initiatives at the pre- school, primary, secondary and adult levels have instigated a revival of Manx, providing opportunities for the growing cohort of Manx speakers to use the language outside of school remains contentious and will pose the single biggest challenge for the linguistic revitalisation process in the future.
Jersey and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon
Christian Fleury
[Abstract] [Keywords]
Keywords: Jersey, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, insularity, border, cultural resurgence

Abstract: Despite their obvious differences, comparisons of Jersey and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon are pertinent and informative due to their respective institutional statuses and locations. Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, situated close to the Canadian island of Newfoundland, is fully included within the French Republic but does not belong to the European Union. It thereby has room for manoeuvre beyond the scope of standard regions within the national context. Jersey, a dependency of the British Crown, lies 24 kilometres off the Cotentin Peninsula, part of the French region of Basse-Normandie. Not included within the United Kingdom and, by extension, out of the European Union, it has been able to develop a set of skilled activities, mainly in the financial sector.

At their different levels and temporalities, these island-border territories are institutional and geographical margins that have tended to develop dematerialised activities within extended spatial systems. In addition to addressing this aspect, the article also stresses a second aspect of the islands’ relational pattern that has - in recent years, at least - led them to remember and revive former (and largely forgotten) cultural links with their continental vicinities. The phenomenon of local resurgence is prevalent in Jersey, where it operates in something of a counterbalance to global drifts in the finance industry and in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, with particular regard to the reactivation of its historical links to Acadia.
Islands and Archaeological Research in Western France
Marie-Yvane Daire
[Abstract] [Keywords]
Keywords: Archaeology, islands of Western France, heritage, environments, sea level, vulnerability

Abstract: The Brittany region corresponds to the largest peninsula of France, including hundreds of isles and small islands. Almost all of these contain remains of ancient human occupation dating from Prehistoric times and historical periods: megalithic monuments, Neolithic and Metal Ages settlements, Stone Age tool deposits, pre-Roman salt production workshops, early Christian hermitages and chapels, fish traps built in various periods etc. This article presents a collaborative research project dedicated to island archaeological research in Western France. The geographical, cultural and historical background throws light on the genesis and development of the collaborative research carried out over the past two decades by the AMARAI Association1; the objectives, methods, content and main results of the research projects are summarised, along with a short presentation of the plans and prospects that aim at opening up new perspectives on coastal and island archaeology in Western France.
Mummers on Trial: Mumming, Violence and the Law in Newfoundland
Joy Fraser
[Abstract] [Keywords]
Keywords: mumming, violence, Newfoundland, criminal trials

Abstract: This paper investigates the violence surrounding the custom of Christmas mumming as practised in the urban centres of Conception Bay on Newfoundland’s northeast coast, and in the island’s capital, St. John’s, in the mid-19th Century. Until recently, few contemporary accounts have come to light between the first known description of mumming-related violence in this area in January 1831 and the alleged murder of Isaac Mercer by mummers in the town of Bay Roberts in December 1860. This paper argues that the proceedings of several criminal trials involving mummers recently uncovered at the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador provide significant new evidence of a close relationship between mumming, violence and the law in Conception Bay and St. John’s during this period. The paper also explores the insights that the trial proceedings offer into the practice of mumming itself, the backgrounds of participants and the motivations underlying the violent incidents. In light of this new evidence, I argue for the need to re-examine the links that have been posited between mumming-related violence and the wider social, ethnic, religious and political tensions that affected life in mid-19th Century urban Newfoundland.
Wandering Rocks: Island Politics in the Offshore Locales of James Joyce
John D. McIntyre
[Abstract] [Keywords]
Keywords: Ireland, Aran Islands, Isle of Man, representation, House of Keys

Abstract: This article addresses the representation of islands within the fiction of the 20th Century writer James Joyce. It is argued that Joyce reveals how islands and concepts of islandness can be made to serve varying political, historical, and literary ends. Writing in the immediate aftermath of Irish independence and partition, Joyce used the island settings of the Aran Islands and the Isle of Man in order to comment on the implications of those recent historical developments. While contemporary writers like Yeats and Synge valued the Aran Islands for their inculcation of traditional Irish values, Joyce rejected that vision as parochial and outmoded. Instead, Joyce drew attention to important comparisons and contrasts between Ireland and the Isle of Man. In Ulysses (1922) Joyce contrasted Ireland’s long and bloody struggle for independence with Man, whose legislature, the House of Keys, presented a dramatic counterexample of legitimate Home Rule. For both Joyce and his characters, Man was associated with familiar island stereotypes, including self-sufficiency and wholeness.
Development or Despoilation? The Andaman Islands under colonial and postcolonial regimes
M.V Krishnakumar
[Abstract] [Keywords]
Keywords: Andaman Islands, forestry, development, environmental change, Andaman tribes

Abstract: The last quarter of the 19th Century marked an important watershed in the history of the Andaman Islands. The establishment of a penal settlement and an Imperial forestry service, along with other radical changes in the islands’ traditional economy and society, completely transformed the basic pattern of their forest resource use and entire system of forest management. These colonial policies, directly or indirectly, had a drastic impact on the indigenous population and island ecology. This article analyses the sources of environmental change in the Andaman Islands by examining the general ecological impacts of the state initiated development programmes. It also analyses the ‘civilising missions’ and forestry operations undertaken by British colonial administrators as well as the Indian state’s development initiatives under the ‘Five Year Plans’ that followed Indian independence in 1947.
Naming The Sea: Fishing Ground Place names on Norfolk and Pitcairn islands
Joshua Nash
[Abstract] [Keywords]
Keywords: Norfolk Island, Pitcairn Island, place names, offshore fishing ground names

Abstract: Pitcairn Island and Norfolk Island place names depict a colourful aspect of the history of the islands. This paper presents and develops an undocumented facet of esoteric and unofficial place-naming on both islands namely locating and naming offshore fishing grounds and argues that this taxon is an important component of the place name landscape as well as the cultural history of the islands. A list of 10 Pitcairn fishing ground names and a list of 10 Norfolk fishing ground names are analysed considering (1) the nature of the place name lexicon, (2) the spatial aspect of locating and talking about the fishing grounds, and (3) the similarities between naming and locating of fishing grounds on Pitcairn and Norfolk. Data elicitation techniques are also described. The results suggest that the names of these offshore locations form a type of sea-based cognitive map especially important in the isolated island situation and argues that the implications of this research and field methods to other island environments should not be underestimated.
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