Context

“INDIGENOUS DECOLINIZATION OF ACADEMIA: USING THE MARSHALL ISLANDS AS PRECEDENT FOR SOCIAL INJUSTICE”

Desmond Narain Doulatram APS 600: Research and Methodologies November 23, 2016

1 Abstract Social injustice affecting small-island developing states of indigenous design deserves adequate space within the moral conversations of today. Giving adequate spaces in the academy helps on-going decolonization and prevents further colonization. These particular precedents of social injustice paint in all importance the significance in furthering indigenous decolonization of academia. Marshallese rightfully deserve equal spaces within academia to prevent inaccurate publications and to address ongoing humanitarian commitments of self-determination and equal-dignity. This paper seeks to educate the general public on the negative aspects of an imperial academic system that foregoes indigenous knowledge systems despite legal humanitarian commitments. It demonstrates the benefits of decolonizing academia through successful precedents and it further analyses the dangers of foreign academic design and practices that do not take into context indigenous knowledge systems. This paper elaborates for a general audience to remind ourselves of minorities that have been marginalized and stereotyped yet have persevered at the face of unfair representation. It serves as an additional instrument of decolonization meant to further implement the aforementioned indigenous decolonization herewith. Using the medium of research writing as a form of witnessing to showcase cross-cultural sympathy and understanding at the face of globalization, this paper ultimately displays the purpose of addressing ongoing decolonization efforts through moral example.

Key Words: Indigenous, Decolonization, Marshall Islands, Mental Colonization

2 Introduction The saddest part about indigenous communities is that we are often mentally colonized into believing that we are less than what we actually are. This really leads us into a sense of insecurity as if our ways of knowing and being are less than normal or even credible.1 I remember always questioning my own credibility and integrity when I discovered truth in my own research simply because I didn’t hold a scholarly Ph.D. title.

Yet, when it came down to it, I was able to triumph in my quest for justice to ban a certain inaccurate publication from being taught in our public schools in the Marshall Islands against two published re-known scholars with doctoral degrees using indigenous knowledge systems.2 My experience proved to me that indigenous decolonization of academia is a worthy cause capable of restoring lost dignity and therefore is extremely applicable in ensuring human rights of self-determination as rightfully promised in Article 1 of the Human Rights Declaration.

Equal Dignity Ensures Fairness Equal dignity is a crucial element to a great mental health and indigenous islanders are entitled to this sense of self-worth particularly when they are simply existing as they are and are faultless in the process.3 Shiela Wieldman explains this obvious danger stating that “At the extreme obverse of mental health we may lose our capacity for 1 P-Kiven Tunteng, “Political Freedom and Mental Colonization,” Transition, no. 44 (1974): 916.

2 The two scholars I speak of are Dr. Hilda Heine who is the only Marshallese with a doctoral degree and Dr. Julianne Walsh, a University of Hawaii Professor staffed at the East West Center. Dr. Hilda Heine was the former Minister of Education and my former boss. She is now the President of the Marshall Islands. It became an ego war where the first Ph. D. who was then Minister of Education was outsmarted by what Marshallese would view as a child. I speak of myself of course.

3 See Brown versus Board of Education. Justices make the same similar argument in this historic ruling stating the detrimental effects of children who are mentally colonized into believing that they are less. They ruled that “A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn.”

3 identity: our capacity to tell a coherent story of the self, to hold a stable set of values or memories, and with this, to assert political, moral and legal agency in a manner others recognize as legitimate.”4 This presents a dangerous reality to any indigenous islander who clings on to self-preservation of identity stemming from the universal ideal of self worth and a firm belief in equal dignity of all man. When indigenous scholars such as Dr. Smith writes a book to tell everyone that research is a plague in the indigenous vocabulary, she slaps you with truth. 5 Careless researchers have been writing prejudicial indigenous identities for the longest time because of their easy access to such institutions that can publish and spread their material. Islanders according to Dr. Smith are categorically presented by foreign researchers as the Other denoting an outsider to everything normal.

Discrimination in Academia Discrimination against minorities in scholarly publications remains abundant leaving us to entertain how little we’ve grown as human beings. It is as if we forget that we are all but the same people. As renowned critic Nancy Banks-Smith once said, “Anthropology is the science which tells us that people are the same the whole world over – except when they are different.”6 This saying of Nancy Banks-Smith that she trademarked is nothing but common knowledge to indigenous Marshallese who state the same basic thing in their proverbial idiom “Berberjin, Berberjen, Berberjinma wot kwe”

4 Shiela Wildeman. “Agonizing Identity in Mental Health Law and Policy (Part I),” Dalhousie Law Journal, (2015): 625.

5 Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, (New Zealand: University of Otago Press, 1999), 1.

6 James Duplass, Teaching Elementary Social Studies: Strategies, Standards, and Internet Resources, 3rd ed, (Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010), 204.

4 literally translated as “We are the same notwithstanding one stays here and one there.” 7 Here in lays the dilemma of identity for indigenous islanders where even academia and research is hierarchical and degrading given that indigenous people are most often left at the mercy of foreign scholars to dictate their reality on paper, publish them, and spread it by the masses even if such material warrants correction from the real experts. They are thus rendered voiceless and powerless. As Dr. Trask sarcastically puts, “Our daily existence in the modern world is thus best described not as a struggle for civil rights but as a struggle against our planned disappearance.” 8 The most vulnerable of Pacific communities are then left mentally colonized with no hope of bettering themselves beyond what they’ve been confined to believe. However, in light of the discussion on primary sources that progressed with Father Carbonneau’s lecture stating the purpose of research in grounding present realities,9 it made me grasp my situation in relation to the ongoing decolonization efforts in the Marshall Islands where cultural roles are significantly embedded in clan identity and assigned at birth.

Context In Pacific indigenous contexts, the culture is the very epitome of life.10 The culture is the knowledge system. However, cultural history is never easy to narrate for it is a complex topic to elaborate on that often leads writers into a biased path. Marshallese 7 Amata Kabua, Customary Titles and Inherent Rights: A General Guideline in Brief, (Majuro: Republic of the Marshall Islands, 1993), 24.

8 Haunani-Kay Trask. From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i.

(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,1999), 26.

9 Robert Carbonneau, “Methodology, Research, Scholarship, Time, Surprise” (lecture, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, September 19, 2016).

10 Rachelle A. Dickie. “Indigenous Traditions Journal of Undergraduate Research VIII, (2005): 1.

5 cultural history is no different. It is often misconstrued by researchers who judge it primarily on their own perspective. If there was ever a mistake by biased anthropologists, it would be to judge the culture on their own professional opinion rather than let the natives speak their own mind as to what their cultural history actually entails. 11 It is never easy nor is it ever fair that it always falls on oppressed indigenous Pacific populations to educate the academy and the general public about what they should already have but it is a task that reflects the injustice of today where humanitarian commitments are blatantly disregarded due to lack of cross cultural sympathy.

Most colonized academic structures, according to Ani Makaere, have been mechanized and conditioned to reject the idea that indigenous people are capable of producing knowledge hence promoting the racist notion that indigenous islanders are an inferior species literally incapable of theorizing knowledge hence thinking for themselves.12

Dr. Trask states that it is because people are colonially programmed to

view certain indigenous peoples as constitutionally inappropriate to be recognized as legitimate human beings.13 Today however, more and more indigenous people in the Pacific Rim are pushing for greater recognition within the international arena by actively involving themselves in the fight for equity to permanently ensure that the academy is

11 Unaisi Nabobo-Baba, “Decolonising Framings in Pacific Research: Indigenous Fijian Vanua Research Framework as an Organic Response,” AlterNative 4, no. 2 (2008): 141.

12 Ani Mikaere, “2013 He Manawa Whenbua Indigenous Research Conference” Keynote Presentation at the Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 30 June-3 July, 2013.

13 Haunani-Kay Trask. From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i, 2526.

6 being culturally appropriate and ethically sound in situating an indigenous perspective that takes the ethics of cultural discernment into consideration.14 Background The Marshall Islands, a United Nations member, has been at the sharp end of criticism given lack of honest space within the academy. 15 Indigenous scholars in Fiji (e.g. Dr. Nabobo-Baba),16 in New Zealand (e.g. Dr. Smith), 17 in Hawaii (Dr. Trask),18 and in the Marshall Islands (e.g. Maria Kabua-Fowler) 19 have attempted to utilize the academy to reverse the trends of mass publication that allows inaccurate inscriptions in text when describing indigenous Pacific populations. Indigenous contextualization permanently challenges the very face of colonial rhetoric that supports justified institutionalized discrimination thus redirecting the conversation around the moral conversations of today where people of all cultural backgrounds are then afforded a fairer share of humane discourses. Such positive actions through accurate publication has 14 Litea Meo-Sewabu, “Cultural discernment as an ethics framework: An Indigenous Fijian approach,” Asia Pacific Viewpoint 55, no. 3 (2014): 345-354.

15 Marshall Islands gained official membership to the United Nations in 1991 after the United States agreed to a Compact of Free Association.

16 When I talked to Dr. Nabobo-Baba during a Kava session in Majuro, she represented to me what appeared to be a passionate indigenous scholar who was frustrated by the colonial academic system.

Her husband was also a former Fijian politician. Having her echo my thoughts and listening to her sympathizing with the Marshallese Indigenous struggle inspired me to continue on the works in academia that are severely needed to decolonize our frames of thought and that conversation starts here.

17 Dr. Tuhiwai-Smith’s book Decolonizing Methodologies is one of the most widely cited sources in this research field. She speaks from the perspective of the Maoris who’ve been mistreated by the crown.

18 Dr. Haunani-Trask encountered racism in the University of Hawaii and she was instrumental in starting a Hawaiian Studies program. She was confronted with this issue in the 1980s when she first became a staff member at the University of Hawaii which was largely run by a Caucasian staff.

19I was fortunate enough to interview Ms. Maria Kabua-Fowler. Her work centers around preserving Marshallese knowledge systems from being lost. She testified at the hearing to ban the textbook stating that it didn’t go through the proper peer review process as stipulated by traditional protocol.

7 retrieved permanent sanctuaries for indigenous cultures in academia due to the nature of their upheld ethical format. Accurate publications conforming to indigenous protocols gives fair space for people of indigenous origins to enjoy equal dignity. Pacific activists continuing this fight have provided a working framework in decolonizing academia through actual revitalization of cultural appreciation even at the face of colonial audacity thereby showcasing elements of modern warfare in indigenous cultural settings.

Modern Cultural Wars The cultural history of the Marshall Islands in the written text has never been challenged simply because there are not that many Marshallese scholars. Unfortunately, this is where modern cultural wars are often fought. There are but fewer than ten published legitimate Marshallese authors.20 Given the power of the written text to inscribe memories and the obvious mental colonization of indigenous Marshallese who don’t question the written publications, it becomes a necessity for Marshallese to start and activate the trend of altering the mentally colonized perception of colonial conformity.

Indigenizing foreign scholarly design and catering it towards a Marshallese end reveals the collaborative nature of Marshallese protocols and westernized research in identifying errors and misconceptions due to the ultimate failure of overlooking the necessary that aligns Marshallese traditional protocol with ethical research.21 Indigenous Methodology

20 This is common knowledge in the Marshall Islands and this should pay no surprise as there is but only one Marshallese with a doctoral degree.

21I speak from professional experience as I went through the proper indigenous protocols to properly review the textbook. This indigenous methodology is well known throughout the Marshall Islands.

8 The Marshallese indigenous methodology of utilizing the Bedbed (Basis) criterion through Jitdam Kapeel (Skillful Inquiry) is a proven knowledge system that has been passed down since time immemorial in the Marshall Islands. 22 It involves a system of going through the proper channels and is strikingly similar to Dr. Nabobo-Baba’s operational Fijian Vanua Framework for Research (FVRF) initiative. 23 It is a knowledge system of indigenous transparency where due recognition of the customary heads is required. In other words, it’s a traditional protocol where one has to consult the proper traditional authorities in person to gain the proper insight . The utilization of applicable Pacific knowledge systems “grounds the research and provides it with methodological integrity,” adds Dr. Nabobo-Baba.24 It is the obvious stating that indigenous frames are severely needed to dissect the full natural and supernatural environment of the indigenous Pacific which retains an important philosophical part in academia. 25 Yet, this realization was definitely not the case in 2013 when an American scholar employed at the East West Center at the University of Hawaii in Manoa fell victim to imperialist traditions.26 Social Injustice in the 21st Century

22 These indigenous knowledge systems require a lot of patience however it redirects the users to reconsider his own functions by allowing the person to see his role in Marshallese society through his own role as a member of a clan.

23 Unaisi Nabobo-Baba, “Decolonising Framings in Pacific Research: Indigenous Fijian Vanua Research Framework as an Organic Response,” AlterNative 4, no. 2 (2008): 141.

24 Ibid.

25Ibid.

26 It is important to take into context that the Marshall Islands is an independent nation with a Compact of Free association with the United States. In the Marshallese Constitution and in the language of the Compact which is US Public Law, Human Rights are promised by both parties within its content.

9 In 2013, a certain textbook published entitled Etto Nan Ran Kein by a University of Hawaii professor named Dr. Walsh brought criticism to the ongoing level of disrespect westerners bring.27 This textbook scare drew the national parliament of the Marshall Islands in a state of panic. Even though the resolution suspending the textbook was passed, it had already left a mark on Marshallese society whose members are easily led to believe the written text given its known ability to inscribe memories. This is a result of the painful colonial legacy in the Marshall Islands where cultural imperialism of the West has dominated perception of self and Marshallese relations with the global system. 28 Colonialism has permanently altered the mindset of indigenous Marshallese and because of the prevailing cultural imperialism of the West, indigenous islanders are often too marginalized to resist at times given their fatalistic outlook. 29 Ameil J. Joseph adds that “these particular technologies of violence owe their inheritance to the Orientalizing, discursive practices and disciplinary hegemony developed during colonization that when ignored, reproduce the dehumanizing outcomes upon which they were built.”30 The fact of the matter is that regular Marshallese with no extensive researching skills at the college level have no hope of researching or disproving the context of this 27 Anthropologists in the Marshall Islands have been known to be trouble makers. In every instance, they have sought to alter the traditional land tenure system by inserting themselves as experts.

Jesuit Anthropologist Erdland sought to alter the land tenure system before the German tribunal in the same way Dr. Leonard Mason tried to alter the land tenure system before the Marshallese High Court.

28 For some Marshallese, the packaged nature of books immediately means credibility.

29 Hilda Heine, 2004. “’Tuwaak Bwe Elimaajnono’ Perspectives and Voices: A Multiple Case Study of Successful Marshallese Immigrant High School Students In the United States.” (PhD diss., University of Southern California, 2004). 19.

30 Ameil J. Joesph “A Prescription for Violence: The Legacy of Colonization in Contemporary Forensic Mental Health and the Production of Difference,” Critical Crimonology, no. 22 (2014) 273-292.

10 textbook considering Marshallese have, for the most part, been colonially programmed to believe they are less than the writers who write perfect English. Part of the reason why Marshallese tend to take the written text seriously is because the only main experience Marshallese have with written text is Bible worship. Hence, Marshallese are indirectly and directly conditioned to give the written text the same level of seriousness given the nature of the Bible. Additionally, Marshallese generally lack the basic resources given economic hurdles.31 Twenty percent of their country’s population lives on less than a dollar a day. With a population of only 60,000 and less than ten percent of that population having college degrees or higher,32 it becomes evidently dangerous and thus made even more crucial that Marshallese take a more active stance in decolonizing academia using themselves as the very implementing agents to contest the building of bias communal enterprises that directly and indirectly promotes unethical research practices and descriptions deemed culturally insensitive, inappropriate, and down right offensive.

A Dangerously Bias Communal Enterprise The textbook itself, written by Dr. Walsh, cites and builds on literature that was banned in the Republic of the Marshall Islands due to lack of credibility. 33 It referenced an unpublished research paper entitled Land Right and Title Succession in the Ralik Chain.34 This was a final report on research for a local chieftain in the Marshall Islands 31 Most of the resources I needed to dissect and cross reference the textbook, the average Marshallese has no access to.

32I learned this fact from my friend Kathy-Jetnil Kijiner while she was printing her mom’s national education report. This was when Dr. Hilda Heine was the Minister of Education. She is now the President.

33 Office of the Chief Clerk. High Court Case Folders, “Kabua Kabua versus Kabua Family Defendants” Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands: RMI Court House, 1993.

34 Julianne Walsh, Etto Nan Raan Kein, (Honolulu: Bess Press, 2013), 206.

11 named Kabua Kabua.35 This report was used in the biggest land dispute case in the Marshall Islands. The name of the court case was Kabua Kabua versus Kabua Family Defendants.36 It was a case between relatives shelved, literally not talked about, due to the notorious sensitive nature of its greedy context where money becomes the defining factor in altering what has already been decided, executed, and accepted by those before. The case, just as with this textbook, is a slap in the face to Marshallese identity and customs.

Blatant Disrespect of Customs One of the main issues with the textbook Etto nan Ran Kein was that it blatantly disregarded the Marshallese customs.37 Marshallese traditions are deeply rooted in the customs. Customs are literally what Kabua describes as the unwritten laws of the Marshall Islands.38 They are the main guidance in determining authority and rank in the land in question. The people of the Marshall Islands have abided by an ancient system of land tenure that is matrilineally based.39 Genealogies play a critical role in the land tenure administration so any error to a royal family tree would dismantle the entire land tenure administration. This was not taken into consideration as the aforementioned textbook contained numerous errors on the royal genealogies that construct the current political 35Court case files revealed that Kabua Kabua was senile and was being pushed to pursue the case for political reasons. After interviewing Paramount Chieftain Imata Kabua who was involved in this case, he told me the case was based on the political rivalry between John Heine and Amata Kabua. Kabua Kabua lost the case regardless.

36Marshall Islands Chief Clerk Ingrid Kakku Kabua gave me access to the court archives and I was able to read through this entire court case and was able to interview those directly involved.

37 Most of the people who supported the textbooks ban were leaders important in traditional and political circles.

38 Amata Kabua, Customary Titles and Inherent Rights: A General Guideline in Brief, 24-25.

39 Maria Kabua Fowler, Irene J. Taafaki, and Randolph R. Thaman. Traditional Medicine of the Marshall Islands: The Women, the Plants, the Treatments. (Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, 2006).

12 and cultural landscape.40 The saddest part about this is that it messes up current understandings of ongoing cultural practices in the Marshall Islands that say otherwise. It accuses the present populace of not knowing who is who and what is what and further insinuates that they have been duped to believe otherwise. One of the main concerns also is that Dr. Walsh is a staff at the University of Hawaii. She specializes in Marshallese history and thus already had access to more credible sources within the extensive Pacific collection. Unlike Tobin, who practiced a measure of ethics in his rendition of the Marshallese past where he included a respectful biographical sketch of his informants, 41 Dr. Walsh chose to omit key evidence in her research, some of which were already within her possession in her careless attempt of demonizing certain people.42 Human Rights Violated Various Marshallese families were deeply affected by the slander presented in the inaccurate textbook.43 Many innocent traditional leaders had their names and images demonized and stigmatized allowing little means of recovery in a person’s human right of personal honor as rightfully stated in Article 12 of the Human Rights Declaration. 44 The 40 Page 189 and Page 204 in the textbook are wrong. It builds on inaccurate genealogical publications from Alexander Spoehr and Dr. Leonard Mason. I was fortunate enough to interview some of the family members and was fortunate enough to gain their trust in obtaining a family of their genealogies.

41 Jack A. Tobin. Stories from the Marshall Islands.(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002).

42The situation is even made more sketchy considering that a Traditional Rights Court Judge Grace Leban from the Marshall Islands gave the Chief Clerk Ingrid Kakku Kabua a copy of Tobin’s Geneaology taken from the University of Hawaii Pacific Collection.

43 One of these people was Paramount Chieftain and former Marshallese President Imata Kabua.

Imata Kabua inherited his chiefly title from Jeimata Kabua whose name was slandered in the context of the textbook. I recently learned from my great uncle Imata that Dr. Walsh was building on scholarship that was thrown out of court. I confirmed this truth when I searched through the national high court archives.

44 Resolution 28 also banned the textbook because of inaccuracies pertaining to origins of the founding fathers.

13 reason being is because the book is still in existence and the present social condition does not help the situation. Marshallese with limited resources are doomed to understand and interpret things based on their level of access to resources. This is considering the fact that they are given a minimum wage of $2.50 an hour and that Marshallese are not native English speakers. While privileged Marshallese have the luxury of cross-referencing the sources in the textbook through a wider array of educational resources, the average Marshallese does not have the financial or educational means of reinterpreting the text beyond what he or she is given to work with.45 Instead, the chiefly lineages of the Western and Eastern Chains of the Marshall Islands are left unfairly represented within the textbooks content thus confining various Marshallese to the notion of falling below normalcy and hence not entitled to human rights. Moreover, the chiefly families in both the Western and Eastern Chain are thus mistaken as being the same people because of similarities on names and this was made evident in the case of the Paramount Chieftain Lemari of the Rimwejoor clan stated in the textbook as belonging to a Western royal clan despite being from an Eastern Chain clan.

In the modern context, this is literally identity theft and it happened in the Marshall Islands simply because of people in academic institutions abusing power.

There were four main royal clans that had their genealogies rewritten, identities stolen, reputations slandered, and credibility left for permanent questioning. These four clans were the Rimwejoor, Ijjidrik, Errepra, and Raano who historically conquered both Chains of the Marshall Islands.46 One of the characters that was severely altered was the

 45 Most of the material required to cross-reference the cited sources can only be found overseas outside the Marshall Islands.

46 Amata Kabua, Customary Titles and Inherent Rights: A General Guideline in Brief, 7.

14 Paramount Chieftain Lemari who was a native of Arno whom Otto Von Kotzebue met personally.47 The textbook cites and builds on previous works particularly that of Kramer and Nevermann who cited Otto Von Kotzebue’s voyage.48 Kramer and Nevermann mistook the Lemari that Otto Von Kotzebue encountered to be the same Lemari in the Western Chain whom Kramer was introduced to through a genealogy given orally from a Western Chain Chief named Kabua the Great as stipulated in his earlier publication. 49 Dr. Walsh’s textbook differed greatly in transparency compared to Jack Tobin’s work in which he provided a list of all his informants with a complete biographical sketch allowing a measure of transparency in ethical researching. In contrast, Dr. Walsh practiced a level of erasure leaving little means of transparency just as Erdland did.

Conflict of Interests It became rather interesting that the bias communal enterprise that the textbook author Dr. Walsh promoted was the same scholarship and cultural position that was supported by anti-royalist. The textbook builds on the scholarship of Dr. Leonard Mason who was one of the people instrumental in creating the Pacific Center in Hawaii and like Dr. Walsh was also an East West Center scholar. He was the one that was instrumental in dividing loyalties amongst the people of Bikini atoll and their Marshallese chiefs. 50 Dr. 47 Otto von Kotzebue. A Voyage of Discovery in the South Sea and the Beering’s Straits. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1967), 151.

48 I was able to get a translation of Augustin Kramer and Han’s Neverman’s work Ralik Ratak through my friend Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner whose mother is Dr. Hilda Heine. Ms. Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner was mentored by Dr. Julie Walsh.

49 I was given a copy of this by my friend Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner who was then a student at the University of Hawaii. Her mother Dr. Hilda Heine is also the first female president in the Pacific.

50It was only in the early 90s that this was finally settled when Jeimata Kabua was officially recognized by the National Parliament. High Court Archives also reveal that Dr. Leonard Mason was responsible for advising the Americans to send the Bikinians to Rongdrik atoll against Jeimata’s wishes. As a result, the Bikinians on Rongdrik nearly died of starvation and malnourishment.

15 Leonard Mason was known to get political and was a cultural advisor to the United States government during the Trust Territory period particularly during the relocations of the Bikinians in the 1940s and 50s. It is ironic that indigenous Hawaiian scholars such as Dr. Trask had similar encounters of discrimination amongst University of Hawaii Staff. 51 Dr. Trask reveals the same dangerous reality stating that the East West Center serves American bureaucrats more than it does the indigenous Pacific community.52 Political Conflicts The conflict of interest is also made apparent when we take into consideration that Dr. Walsh was adopted by Senators Daisy Alik-Momotaro and Dennis Rimwejoor Momotaro who were aligned with anti-royalists also.53 Furthermore, Dr. Heine and Dr. Walsh, who were aligned with anti-royalists, were caught foregoing the proper peer review process during the public hearing. Despite numerous appeals to follow a fair peer review process that conformed to traditional protocols, Dr. Heine and Dr. Walsh were set on pushing the book forth to be taught in school.54 Ongoing Decolonization Efforts: Resolution 28

51 The University of Hawaii staff attempted to use reverse racism against Dr. Trask insinuating that she was a racist despite her proven record of being an indigenous activist for Hawaiian Natives. She is an avid supporter of the United Nations Indigenous Rights Declaration.

52 Haunani-Kay Trask. From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’I, 152153.

53 Senator Daisy Alik-Momotaro testified at the Public hearing to ban the textbook stating that it needed corrections and she apologized that her adoptive daughter failed to follow the proper traditional protocols.

54I was fortunate enough to interview a staff member from the finance division. He states that the books cost the Marshall Islands between 100-200 thousand dollars and despite an appeal to delay the book from being mass produced, then Minister Dr. Heine wanted to purchase 100-200 thousand dollars worth of defective textbooks.

16 Fortunately, the Marshallese Parliament acted in accordance with ethical standards and prevented its further disbursement and utilization until all errors concerning tradition, culture, and origins of the founding fathers were addressed and rectified to full satisfaction of the Parliament and its people. Resolution 28 was introduced on March 11, 2013 by Marshallese Senator Tony Muller and was passed that same year.55 It called on the “Ministry of Education, through the Cabinet, to suspend the use of the new textbook, Etto Nan Raan Kein: A Marshall Islands History as part of the education curriculum until errors or omissions concerns with customs, culture, tradition and origins of the founding fathers of the Republic are corrected.”56 Resolution 28 is a resolution with purpose that addresses and limits the aforementioned textbooks’ reach by seeking to suspend its usage. This resolution represents the ongoing battle of indigenous leaders pushing for greater and fairer representation in their academic descriptions. It represents an attempt of gaining a welljustified identity in the intellectual content displayed in a textbook that carried the government seal.57 It is the Marshallese who ultimately shaped and breathed life to their own orally communicated epistemology. Thus, Marshallese have every right in attaining a measure of control and self-respect within their own chosen descriptions if they ever hope to safe-guard what’s left of them.58 55 When I talked with Senator Tony Muller, he expressed his concern about intellectual property.

He was appalled at how foreign anthropologists were getting rich off of the intellectual property of the Marshall Islands at the expense of erasure.

56 Office of the Nitijela. 34th Constitutional Regular Sessions PART I, “Nitijela Resolution no. 28” Majuro, Republic of the Marshall Islands: Nitijela of the Marshall Islands, 2013.

57 Some traditional leaders were ready to sue the national government for endorsing the book through usage of the seal. Most parliamentarians were unaware the seal was used at all.

58 After the resolution was passed, I contacted the publishing company to suspend it from their outlets until all edits were made.

17 Representation and Reflections of Resolution 28 Resolution 28 is what Franz Fanon would refer to as symbolic resistance against imperial hegemony.59 This resolution in its literal sense is taken to mean that it represents the ongoing battle of resistance against western indoctrination stemming from obvious bias and neglect. It is a resolution which represents and addresses the ongoing battle of Western colonial thought on a distinct population of people known as Marshallese. It represents the reality of mass publication of incorrect descriptions within an entire country’s very Americanized educational system. 60 It reflects how western, negligent, and foreign academic scholars in credible academic circles fail the deepest human concern of respecting other human beings when depicting them on paper by the masses and pushing it on to children within their educational reach. Reflexively speaking though, the unspoken hero of this resolution was former President and Senator Kessai Note. He is the first commoner president and is one of the very few remaining Marshallese who has been in office since the country’s constitution came to force on May 1, 1979.61 Ramifications Senator Kessai Note chose to bring the honor of the nation into a process of moral cleansing by expressing his decision to help repeal the distribution of the textbook from 59 Franz Fanon, “Algeria Unveiled,” in Decolonization: Rewriting Histories 2004, ed. Prasenjit Duara (New York: Routledge, 2004), 45.

60It is ironic that Dr. Hilda Heine who was then Minister of Education was adamant on caving in to suspend the textbook despite her promoting Marshallese indigenization of the current educational structure. She did apologize to all appropriate traditional leaders and has been then extremely supportive of indigenization.

61 While attending the Nitijela (Parliament) session, I found Senator Kessai Note to be a formidable statesman. He cunningly embarrassed the ill-informed politicians being a senior veteran in the political arena. He delivered the most powerful statement during the debate as to whether Resolution 28 should be executed by Cabinet or not.

18 further instruction for the sake of the Marshallese children given its many historical inaccuracies, some of which he could confirm personally having been there himself. 62 This is even made crucial to undertake because the Marshall Islands ratified the United Nations Convention on Rights of Children (UNCRC) which asserts that the Ministry of Education must also comply in keeping the goals of the UNCRC in tact in mode of its functions.63 It is crucial to note that the educational content in the textbook must comply

by Article 19 of the convention which states that parties must "take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of mental violence.� This was an actual concern raised by former Marshallese President and current Senator Kessai Note who actively demonstrated his frustrations over the historical inaccuracies painting light to the apparent mental damage a child would have to undergo having to unlearn wrong history. 64 The issue is even made more critical when considering that the Marshall Islands is a population of a group of people composed entirely of children with a population of a whopping 46 percent under the age of 16 who are always equally entitled to Human Rights. 65 These Marshallese children are indigenous Marshallese and are legitimate members of the international community.

Ongoing Decolonization Efforts in the International Scene

62I gave a copy of the textbook to Senator Tony Muller who then gave it to Senator Kessai Note.

Senator Note thus used the textbook I gave Senator Muller to publically call out the Cabinet on what he called a corrupt practice. He reaffirmed the moral weight of the right of Children by reaffirming the moral commitment of the UNCRC. 63 It seems America is the only country that has yet to ratify the UNCRC very unlike the Marshall Islands who ratified it.

64 During the actual Nitijela (Parliament) session, Senator Kessai Note publicly embarrassed former Minister Tony Debrum for supporting a textbook that promoted himself despite Note being able to confirm otherwise.

65 This was taken by the lastest Marshallese Census.

19 The indigenous people of the world, about 300 million of them told, have been waging a war of resistance seeking to remedy past injustices of cultural eradication that integrated a global system that puts them at the bottom of the social hierarchy. 66The recent endorsement of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations and the most powerful nation in the world being America have pushed international commitment to a realm of greater recognition. By endorsing the Human Rights Declaration of Indigenous Resistance, Chief Executive Obama has finally laid to rest the long path of ignorance replacing it instead with a deeper sense of commitment towards realizing equal dignity for all peoples.67 The State Department of America reports that this approach was largely due to the realized commitment of endorsing America’s moral and political force. The reason why Obama reversed his position was because the Federal Government recognized that giving more rights to indigenous peoples in America was in everyone’s best interest. In many ways, the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples gives moral and political force to enact commitment where it is warranted particularly amongst indigenous groups where their associated settings merit such an approach.

The Reality of Today In assessing the document in regards to the actuality of today, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples represent progress in granting a fairer

66 Sheryl Lightfoot. Global Indigenous Politics: A Subtle Revolution. (New York: Routledge, 2016), 37.

67 It is said by the State Department that Obama reversed his position after pressure from Indigenous leaders. See http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/184099.pdf

20 share of representation.68 The indigenous people of the world are recognized as legitimate occupants of the globe in this declaration indicating the reality that the world has progressively adhered to a more ethically bound resolution. 69It reflects the unique circumstances of indigenous peoples and expresses the political commitment within the international community to protect people of indigenous origins. It stipulates the unique circumstance of indigenous peoples in their right of attaining a measure of selfdetermination within their own countries and states and it requires endorsing members to adhere to its content.70 This resolution represents progress in international leadership in granting a level of human dignity to marginalized indigenous peoples who have suffered a great deal under the legacy of colonialism.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples represents a milestone in indigenous acceptance and is existing proof of international humanitarian commitment. However, it is but a piece of paper if people still continue to disregard properly implementing it.71 It seems Dr. Walsh published her textbook in 2013 though the Bess Press Company located in the state of Hawaii despite the textbooks content going against the moral commitment of the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples endorsed earlier by America in 2010, despite the Marshall Islands’

68 The textbook clearly violated the entire intent of this declaration hence why the Marshallese Parliament took action after a public outcry.

69 The Bush administration didn’t support the document at first. It was President Obama who reversed the position of the Bush administration.

70 Despite America endorsing it through President Obama, the textbook incident clearly overruled the moral commitment of the documents intent and clearly demonstrates why academic decolonization is severely needed to combat academic abuse of power.

71 The State Department has indicated that this endorsement has moral and political force.

21 ratification of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child, and despite both countries being United Nations members and adherers to Human Rights.

Issue The issue here is simple. Minorities of indigenous descent, particularly those from the Pacific, have been suffering a great deal of mental harm.72 “After years of colonization, many Marshallese see themselves as they are seen by Westerners - as, lazy, impoverished and undisciplined.”73 Marshall Islands is a population comprising mostly of children under the age of sixteen totaling at 46 percent. How would any human being feel if their children were incorrectly indoctrinated and misled? How would anyone feel if they weren’t fairly represented? Is it ever fair to describe people on paper forcing them and others to believe what is written despite it warranting correction from the researched?

Are indigenous islanders, particularly those from the Marshall Islands, not worthy of their own equal dignity and their own self-determination? Marshall Islands represents a nation in Micronesia where resistance is key in humanizing descriptions against powerful scholarly authority figures. Their experience with social injustice of this nature and their attempt to rectify it in 2013 through the suspension of an inaccurate textbook reflect their commitment to indigenous rights of self-determination at a time when overall moral commitment within academic circles fail in enacting its basic need. Acts of rectification within Pacific indigenous societies connects their conversation to the future of academic circles and on a greater scale it addresses international humanitarian commitments. The 72 Haunani-Kay Trask. From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i, 16.

73Hilda Heine, “’Tuwaak Bwe Elimaajnono’ Perspectives and Voices: A Multiple Case Study of Successful Marshallese Immigrant High School Students In the United States,” (PhD diss., University of Southern California, 2004), 19.

22 Marshallese Resolution 28 is but one way in taking greater control through legislative action. This is why proposing an indigenous methodology for an indigenous setting such as the Marshall Islands retains significance.

Academia Today It is important to remember that academia is not just an institution. It also represents the process of information changing and knowledge exchanging that comes from these institutions. When these institutions fail at realistically capturing humans in an ethical format that conforms to a moral code, inaccuracies become abundant, stereotypes are promoted, and people are left with their integrity questioned and credibility violated.

The role of identity plays an important role in deciphering truth particularly in traditionally rooted societies where roles are assigned at birth. 74 While foreigners have the luxury of anonymity, Marshallese are binded by societal roles where communal welfare trumps individual concerns in decision making. This is the exact opposite of academia today where personal discretion is at the writer’s disposal giving little thought to the communities affected. It is important to know that indigenous decolonization is an ongoing effort and it starts with a conversation through actual person to person contact and experience.

Indigenizing is Humanizing Humanizing descriptions of minorities, particularly those of indigenous Pacific descent, allows a space for indigenous peoples to enjoy equal dignity. This allows the unseen to be seen and thus gives adequate space leading to the notion of equality.

However, barriers stemming from misunderstandings exist. It is extremely disappointing that despite American and international commitment to uphold the moral and political 74 I had to figure this out after extensive field research in the Marshall Islands.

23 force of the United Nations Indigenous Rights Declaration, authorities within academic circles carelessly use research to push their own prejudices knowing well that they have authoritative weight.

Indirectly Colonizing Decolonizing is a two-way street. It is a process that involves decolonizing the colonized and the colonizer. In many ways, we are programmed to think that mental colonization happens only directly. Our ignorance is precisely why decolonization efforts have minimal impact. Even within the most globalized and humanitarian friendly campuses, the art of colonization is indirectly promoted unknowingly. The University of San Francisco is one such enterprise that indirectly contributes to the ongoing colonization of indigenous peoples without even knowing not because the staff chose to be ignorant but because they are totally made unaware due to social conditioning of the settler’s mentality.75 Masters in Asia Pacific Studies Program (MAPS) The Masters in Asia Pacific Studies Program has been criticized by reviewers for severely lacking an essential Pacific Rim component despite its program being once labeled as such being previously called the center of the Pacific Rim. Although professors within the program such as Dr. Leung 76 and Dr. Woodhouse77 have practiced more inclusive academic strategies that would give Pacific Islanders particularly Marshallese a 75 Eve Tuck and K.Wayne Yang. “Decolonization Decolonization:Indigeneity, Education & Society, no. 1 (2012):1-40.

is

not

a

metaphor,�

76 It was the mentorship and patronage of Dr. Leung that decolonized my frame of thought leading me to believe in the power of decolonization pushing me to actively involve myself in the conversation without shame in my heritage as an Asian Pacific American of indigenous origins.

77 Dr. Woodhouse has been extremely supportive of Marshallese research and perspectives through her incorporations of a more global humane perspective.

24 voice in academic design and discussion, the structure of the program severely lacks in providing a fair share for indigenous islanders of Pacific descent to retain a sense of moral and equal-dignity in their own quest for self-preservation dealing exclusively with identity. It is never easy nor is it ever fair that it always falls on us indigenous Pacific Islanders to educate the academy and the general public about what we deserve and why it is so important to us in regards to self-preservation. However, decolonization is an ongoing process and the responsive nature of Brian Dempster in the decolonization process and the supportive mentorship of Dr. Leung gives the notion that the staff at the University of San Francisco MAPS program are committed to the act of decolonization.

Setting the Precedent It is our journey that sets the precedent confirming the reality that indigenizing is humanizing because indigenous people are then given equal footing in academic discussion, worth, and value thereby concluding the notion that we are equally human and equally worthy of acceptance. However, even if professors are morally committed to cater to indigenous Pacific students, the structure of the program itself fails in granting basic human equity and is in fact a result of the painful colonial legacy that sought to annihilate indigenous existence in the first place placing it as backwards, uncivil, and unworthy of being equally dignified.

Failure to Humanize due to lack of Acknowledging The MAPS includes a language component for the Masters in Asia Pacific Studies Program as a general requirement for the Humanities degrees. Despite the MAPS handbook preaching a globalized perspective within the nature’s program promoting humanizing descriptions, the MAPS program severely neglects the value of the

25 indigenous Pacific communities who by the very nature represent the term Pacific. If Asians constitute the continent of Asia then Pacific Islanders rightfully constitute the Pacific. Yet, the program refrains from honoring or acknowledging Pacific Island languages as legitimate languages worthy of being integrated into the Pacific Rim design of the MAPS program itself. If one third of the world encompasses the Pacific and the MAPS program is a Masters in that region, then one must ask why indigenous Pacific languages are not equally recognized despite these indigenous Pacific islanders being equally human and being equally contributing members to society and to the modern definitions and interpretations of everything Pacific.

Irony The irony of the situation is that latest intelligence by scholars pin-point Oceania and the indigenous Pacific Islanders as being of Asian extraction related to the Austronesian family of Taiwan.78 Yet, our actions tell us that being exclusive rather than inclusive in the decision is how the academy is turning. If Marshallese are categorized as being Austronesian yet do not enjoy the full benefits of being categorized Asian, then it is clear that the academy, even within today’s context of international moral commitments, still fails in granting basic equality for indigenous peoples of Pacific decent. The fact of the matter is, Pacific Islanders are still not given equal space in academia because of the existing academic hierarchy that places their knowledge systems as inferior despite the fact that it is sustainable and has an existing precedent of success.

The So What Conclusion

78 Per Hage and Frank Harary. Island Networks: Communication, Kinship, and Classification Structures in Oceania. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

26 Indoctrination in the 21st century, at a time where Moral commitment has reached its peak, presents a dangerous reality for any Pacific islander clinging on to selfpreservation as rightfully deserved under the Human Rights Declaration of Indigenous Peoples. The unique case of the Marshall Islands offers a unique perspective as to how the academy is still severely lacking in granting fairness of representation even within a more inclusive academy. The textbook incident of 2013 in the Marshall Islands reflects this daunting reality where Marshallese and other indigenous people have no choice but to be the very educating vehicles. Marshallese within the 21 st century, present a unique case for the Marshall Islands. They offer a unique precedent of upholding moral commitments within their own society at a time when international humanitarian commitments are blatantly disregarded in favor of bias discretion.

This is why Davis states that it is important to care first and this paper in itself reflects that reality. Caring first creates a learning environment conducive to retaining the research’s level of purity hence accuracy. It is an attempt at safeguarding indigenous description in an ethical format that conforms to traditional frames. It is an absolute necessity to accurately reflect identity. As Davis perfectly states “The purpose…therefore is not to suggest that we have been doing everything wrong, but rather not to leave unexamined or undertheorized those core principles that ground the humanistic contributions.”79 By making my paper about Marshallese, citing the Marshall Islands and me as an example, I’m formally introducing everyone to an issue that minorities and indigenous communities continue to struggle with that deserves to be addressed. I’ve explained the benefits of decolonization from the perspectives of an indigenous 79 Donald R. Davis. “Three Principles for an Asian Humanities: Care First…Learn from…

Connect Histories,” The Journal of Asian Studies, no. 74 (2015): 43.

27 community. The reflections presented in this paper serves as an indigenous instrument of implementation meant to expand our conscience. Decolonization is inextricably linked to the act of decolonizing the mind. We all must play our part in being a moral force.

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