Ecocriticism, Indigenous Epistemology, and the Eco-Poetics of Oceania

This paper examines the work of Tongan and Fijian writer and anthropologist Epeli Hau‘ofa as eco-poetics in response to the U.S. nuclear program in Oceania. Drawing from diverse critical discourses from Walter Mignolo’s concept of decolonization to David Harvey’s theory on uneven geographical development as well as from Rob Wilson’s notion of critical regionalism to Elizabeth DeLoughrey’s sense of ecosystem ecology, the author argues that Hau‘offa has developed a new eco-poetics of Oceania, which not only cultivates an indigenous epistemology in resistance to Western domination but also re-envisions Oceania as a source of inspiration and imagination for the lives and places of the Pacific Islanders.