AAPS Postgraduate/ECR Seminar Series: Dr. Marco de Jong
The Australian Association for Pacific Studies (AAPS) is excited to announce the launch of a new initiative designed to enhance the engagement, development, and visibility of postgraduate and early career researchers (postgrad/ECRs) within the field of Pacific Studies. This initiative includes a structured program of alternating monthly activities of public seminars and a critical Pacific Studies reading group. We are thrilled to kickstart this series with a seminar featuring Dr. Marco de Jong, winner of the 2024 Tracey Banivanua Mar PhD Prize.
Seminar title: Kotahi te Moana, Only One Ocean: Pacific Environmentalism, 1970–1995
Abstract:
In the context of entwined ecological and political crises, there is power in stories which demonstrate Oceania’s commitment to environmental justice in perpetuity. Dr Marco de Jong will present research from his doctoral work, Kotahi te Moana, Only One Ocean: Pacific Environmentalism, 1970–1995. This showed how a distinctive “Pacific environmentalism” emerged in the mid-twentieth century as a regional ethic connecting Oceania and protecting Pacific peoples’ ways of relating to the natural world. Pacific environmentalism combined an Indigenous body of knowledge about island ecologies shaped over millennia, with decolonial principles, international science, and regional politics. It informed a broader movement, new organisations including the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), and international treaties including the Apia, Noumea, and Waigani conventions. Kotahi te Moana offers an environmental dimension to Pacific histories of regionalism and self-determination, and a regional critique of histories of a universal environmentalism.
But the contribution of Pacific environmental knowledge is greater still. Much of what is thought of as environmentalism, from national parks to the climate change negotiations, has been inspired by, appropriated from, or compelled by Oceania.
Speaker Bio:
Dr Marco de Jong is a Pacific historian and lecturer at the AUT Law School. He was raised in Tāmaki Makaurau with ties to Papa Puleia in Sāmoa. His work details the history of regional politics and environmental governance in the Pacific Islands with a particular focus on Indigenous knowledge, nature conservation, anti-nuclearism, and climate change. Prior to joining AUT, Marco completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and worked in civil society organisations advocating for an independent, nuclear free, and Pacific-led foreign policy for Aotearoa.
Dr. Marco de Jong is also the recipient of the prestigious 2024 Tracy Bainivanua-Mar PhD Prize, recognizing his outstanding contributions to the study and understanding of Pacific environmentalism and regional history.
Registration details:
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Flyer available for the AAPS Marco de Jong Seminar here.