Project members

Current research project:

"Contemporary patterns of identification, in Tokelau and in the Wellington area of New Zealand "

This project aim at identifying patterns of identification and social differentiation as in contemporary Pacific society. I carry out anthropological fieldwork in the atoll society of Tokelau, and among the Tokelau population in New Zealand, in continuation of my research with this group since 1986. My empirical concern is to document the effects of the relationship between the Tokelau and the New Zealand administration on identity-attachments, e.g. genealogical links to the home atoll to the national level (Hoëm 1999). Secondly I compare these processes that I have followed from 1986 to date with the effects of the population movements to New Zealand commencing in the early 1960s. This I do by continuing the work I started in 1994 with collecting life-stories. These narratives represent material that will be examined for their rich content of indigenous conceptualisations of life trajectories and conceptions of movement. Furthermore, the relationship to place established by the early and later Tokelau migrants to New Zealand will be of particular importance and constitute my main area of empirical exploration during the NZ part of my present fieldwork.

Recent publications:
2004. Theatre and Political Process: Staging Identities in Tokelau and New Zealand. Berghahn, Oxford, New York.
2003. Review of Representing Space in Oceania. Culture in Language and Mind. Ed. G. Bennardo, in Linguistic Anthropology, American Anthropological Association Journal, Ed. J.A.Erickson.
2003 Oceanic Socialities and Cultural Forms, Ethnographies of Experience, Eds. I. Hoem and S. Roalkvam. Berghahn Publishers, Oxford, New York.

See also:
http://www.kon-tiki.no/Research

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