Date/Time
Date(s) - Wed 10 July
12:00 - 13:00
Location
M101, Murphy Building, VUW
This presentation explores the growing phenomenon of both expanding kava traditions and an increase of diasporic Indigenous peoples residing outside ancestral homelands.
Faikava (kava drinking gathering) represents the most common and diverse types of kava sessions among Tongans in the Kingdom and in the diaspora. Faikava are practical and creative ways for urban diasporic populations to create and maintain connections to their Indigenous identities by transporting ocean, land, and ancestors to their new locations of residence.
Indigeneity is revealed through performances of identity in kava settings, such as the embodiment of ancestors and the performance of ancestral traditions. It is argued that faikava is a process of mediating mana (potency) and tapu (sacredness) to yield noa (equilibrium), which reveals truths as a liminal spatial and temporal experience. Based primarily in Aotearoa and Utah and among the increasingly expansive multi-ethnic and pan-Oceanic kava groups; this ethnographic research explores what faikava is today, how urban Indigenous identities are performed in diaspora, and how time and space are mediated and collapsed in these events.
For more information contact: Gill Blomgren
gill.blomgren[at]vuw.ac.nz
Speaker Bios
Daniel says his parents are his first teachers and taught him story, reading, and life. He is married with four children and descends from K’iche’, Mam, Tz’utujil, and K’aqchiquel peoples. He is an urban diasporic Maya who grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, (US) where his Tongan and Moana relations began in the Mormon community. Daniel received a B.A. in Anthropology, and a M.Ed. in Education, Culture, and Society at the University of Utah. He is currently completing his PhD at the University of Auckland in Anthropology and Ethnomusicology. His research explores Indigenous identities in diaspora through Kava songs and stories.