[Linganth] talanoa at the bonn climate change conference

[Matt Tomlinson]

Hi Deborah,


There is a lot of writing on talanoa, and I am working on a summary myself--I will be glad to send you a draft if you like! But more immediately, a few key resources besides Don Brenneis' valuable work are:


-Andrew Arno (The World of Talk on a Fijian Island) on Indigenous Fijian talanoa;

-Writings by the Halapua brothers, Winston (a theologian) and Sitiveni (a conflict moderator who worked at the East-West Center in Honolulu and held conflict-resolution sessions in many Pacific states in the 1990s/2000s which he called Talanoa sessions)

-Pacific theologians have written extensively about talanoa, including most prominently Jione Havea, who also runs a series of academic workshops called Talanoa Oceania; see https://sites.google.com/a/nomoa.com/talanoa/


As the links you included suggest, "talanoa" is used kind of like "dialogue" in much political English--it has an optimistic sense of shared difference reaching agreement. The main difference between "talanoa" and "dialogue" is that in some contexts "talanoa" is characterized as unimportant talk--just casual conversation--and it is often promoted as a uniquely Indigenous Oceanian method, a way of talking collaboratively that defines Pacific cultures.


Best regards,

Matt


Matt Tomlinson
Associate Professor of Anthropology
College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University

Links: ANU Anthropology<http://anuanthropology.weblogs.anu.edu.au/>  My research<https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/tomlinson-ma> MAPS Program<http://programsandcourses.anu.edu.au/program/MANPS> ANU Press Monographs in Anthropology<http://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/monographs-anthropology> New Mana<https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/monographs-anthropology/new-mana> Monologue<https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-monologic-imagination-9780190652814?cc=au&lang=en&>
________________________________
From: Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Alexander King <aking at koryaks.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2017 1:35:13 AM
To: LINGANTH at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: [Linganth] talanoa at the bonn climate change conference

A quick google found this site: http://talanoa.com.au, where all the stories and gossip are about climate change. The site is consciously trans-pacific and makes me think that that the use in Bonn comes out of South Pacific political discourse aimed at Anglophone audiences. The site's owner/editor seems to have been trained in marketing but shifted to political activism.

Such a use certainly parallels other indigenous political discourses that foreground traditional modes of storytelling as political testimony to a Euro(American) political elite, e.g. Cruikshank’s _Do Glaciers Listen_, but also lots of stuff from Alaska and the Amazon.

Alex

________________________________
Alexander D. King, Ph.D
Research, Writing, Editing
http://www.koryaks.net
@ememqut01


On Nov 17, 2017, at 4:14 AM, Deborah Jones <jdeborah at umich.edu<mailto:jdeborah at umich.edu>> wrote:

My partner who works in renewable energy just asked me if I knew what talanoa was, and how it was being used at the Bonn Climate Change Conference.

https://www.cop23.de/en/delegates/events/program-talanoa-space/
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=421935
https://twitter.com/hashtag/talanoa

I was of course reminded of Brenneis's classic work on gossip and grog, and wondered if they had any spirits available.

In all seriousness, however, has anyone written about this recent adoption/promotion of talanoa (or something vaguely talanoa-like) in international and/or diplomatic settings? I'd love to read an article on such a topic.

Perhaps colleagues in Pacific Studies might have some ideas?

Many thanks,

Deborah Jones
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