“To Hell With Drowning” 2023
Registration is now closed & the conference is sold out.
“We need stories. And not just stories about the stakes, which we know are high, but stories about the places we call home. Stories about our own small corners of the Earth as we know them. As we love them.”
– Julian Aguon, To Hell With Drowning, 2021
The 2023 AAPS conference theme “To Hell With Drowning” emphasises the need to resist and reframe fatalist and narrow representations of Oceania. From the highlands to the islands, the conference aims to advance multiscopic understandings of Oceanic people’s relationships and relationality of places through storytelling rooted in a trans-disciplinary, critical and creative Pacific Studies. Endorsing Indigenous human rights lawyer and writer Julian Aguon’s call for “stories about the places we call home”, we seek stories and conversations that illuminate fierce attachments to place and the immense beauty, magic and abundance of Oceania.
The Pacific Studies community recognises both ancestral and contemporary kinships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, South Sea Islanders, Māori and Pacific Islanders. The 2023 conference will take place at the Australian National University, an institution that is located on the unceded lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people and central to the Australian coloniality that continues to impinge upon the sovereignties of First Nations of this Country and beyond in Oceania. It is also an institution central to the decolonial possibilities envisaged by Pacific Studies. This conference understands this place as a site for meaningful solidarities and approaches to Pacific Studies that are both place-based and multi-sited in scope.
The Quick Timetable (as of 4 April 2023), is now available.
The AAPS 2023 Conference Program is also available.
Epeli Hau’ofa Memorial Lecture and postgraduate/ECR workshop:
The annual Epeli Hau’ofa public lecture and postgraduate/ECR workshop will take place on Tuesday 11 April 2023. We encourage postgraduates and ECRs to join us in the afternoon from 1pm for the workshop with lunch provided. Registrations are essential and there is only limited tickets available. This will be followed by a Welcome to Country and the Epeli Hau’ofa memorial lecture, followed by a reception for all registered participants of the conference.
Full list of speakers, accepted sessions and convenors, click here.
Should you have any questions regarding the conference or announced sessions, please do not hesitate to contact tohellwithdrowning2023@gmail.com
Accommodation Options
We advise that you stay somewhere within walking distance of the HC Coombs Building on ANU Campus where the majority of activities are based.
We recommend Peppers Gallery Hotel, Ovolo, QT, Novotel and Quest nearby. Budget options include The Village & Canberra accommodation centre. Another option is the holiday park called Alivio tourist park.
For further information about getting to Canberra goto Visit Canberra.
Family Friendly Options
The HC Coombs Building has family and breastfeeding rooms available on most floors. Children’s tickets (up to 12 years) are available for the conference dinner via Humanitix. If you are bringing infants or children to the conference, please get in touch with the team via tohellwithdrowning2023@gmail.com
Food and Drink in Canberra
For recommendations for Food and Drink in Canberra check out our page here.
Convenors, organisers and sponsors
This conference is organised and convened by Katerina Teaiwa, Talei Mangioni, Rebecca Monson and Lisa Hilli.
It is supported by the Australian Association for Pacific Studies, the ANU School of Culture, History and Language, and the Asia Pacific Innovation Program, College of Asia and the Pacific, the ANU College of Law, the ANU Pacific Institute and the Gender Institute.
Keynote Plenaries
- Epeli Hau’ofa Memorial Lecture 2023: Intergenerational Wisdom of the Blue Pacific with Dame Meg Taylor, Tuiloma Neroni Slade, President Anote Tong, Jope Tarai, Itinterunga Rae Bainteiti, Moemoana Schwenke and Prof. Katerina Teaiwa.
- The Decolonial Possibilities of Pacific Studies with Julian Aguon, Prof. Em. Terence Wesley-Smith, Prof. Alice Te Punga Somerville, Prof. Katerina Teaiwa, Dr. April K. Henderson, Assoc. Prof. Tarcisius Kabutaulaka and Prof. Rebecca Monson.
- Pacific Regionalism in an Era of Climate Change with President Anote Tong, Ambassador Kaliopate Tavola, Prof. Mahendra Kumar and Dr Ian Fry.
- Trans-Indigenous Reflections on Sovereignty and Self-Determination with Dr. Melinda Mann, Joy Lehuanani Enomoto, Ronny Kareni, Maureen Penjueli and Dr. Virginia Marshall.
- Narrating Our Bodies in Research-Creation with Kim Kruger, Aunty Sana Balai, Yuki Kihara, Lisa Hilli and Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi.
Photo Gallery
Check out some of the highlights of our successful 2023 AAPS Conference with photos from Joy Lehuanani Enomoto.
