Vā Moana / Pacific Spaces Reading Group 01 2018

“Indigenous futurism seeks to challenge notions of what constitutes advanced technology and consequently advanced civilizations. As settler colonial governments continue to demand more and more from the Earth, indigenous peoples seek the sovereign space and freedom to heal from these apocalyptic processes. Extractive and exploitative endeavors are just one mark of the settler death drive, which indigenous futurism seeks to overcome by imagining different ways of relating to notions of progress and civilization.”

We will be discussing three texts: The Space NDN’s Star Map, He alo a he alo / kanohi ki te kanohi / face to face: Close Encounters of the Curatorial Kind (forthcoming 2018) by Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu, Moana Nepia, Philipp Schorch. In Curatopia: Histories, Theories, Practices. Edited by Philipp Schorch and Conal MacCarthy. Manchester: Manchester University Press, and the Marvel Studios film Black Panther.

The reading group will be held on Thursday May 24, 10am—1pm at ST PAUL St Gallery two, Level 1 WM building. This is open to Māori and Pacific postgraduate students and those in their final year of their undergraduate degrees. Spaces are limited so please RSVP to lana.lopesi@aut.ac.nz.