Pacific Foundations: From Maritime Societies to Global Cultures

The Pacific, home to a broad range of societies, cultures, languages, and nations, is one of the world’s most diverse and contested geopolitical regions. Foreign explorers and traders have interacted with Pacific Islanders from as early as the 16th century, introducing new ideologies, languages, diseases, products, and people. This interdisciplinary foundation course brings together anthropological, archaeological, historical, and linguistic perspectives to contextualise the long term processes that led to the development of such remarkable diversity that characterises the region today. How and to what extent have people’s ways of life been shaped by their past? How are Pacific Islanders adapting to changing circumstances in the present? What challenges do the people and the region face in the future? PASI8002 is a keystone course in postgraduate Pacific Studies. Students will learn how natural and human systems have interacted over millennia to create the dynamic and often precarious world of Oceania and it is an essential foundation for anyone seeking to work in the Pacific region and/or with Pacific Island communities. It is a mandatory course for the Graduate Certificate of Engaging the Pacific program. It is strongly recommended that all students undertaking a postgraduate degree with a Pacific regional focus complete this course. The learning outcomes will be valuable for students taking other 8000 or 6000 level PASI courses and build substantively on the learning outcomes of 2000 and 3000 level PASI courses.