Teresia teaiwa biography meaning

  • She was born in Honolulu, but grew-up in Fiji, later becoming a ground-breaking scholar, a feminist activist, and an esteemed poet (Richardson.
  • Teresia Teaiwa is a poet and award-winning teacher at Victoria University, where she lectures in Pacific Studies — a field she's described.
  • For the late, legendary, Black Pacific poet-scholar Teresia Teaiwa (–), I danced a eulogy in Fiji.

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    Teresia Teaiwa was an I-Kiribati and American poet and academic. She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii but grew up in Fiji. During the first part of her academic career, she studied away from home &#; attending Trinity College in Washington D.C, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Following this, she went back to where she was born and received her Masters of Arts from the University of Hawaii. Teaiwa then went on to complete her PhD in History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. After gaining her PhD, she returned to Fiji where she taught history and politics for fem years at the University of South Pacific.

    In , Teaiwa was asked to teach the world&#;s first undergraduate major in Pacific Studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. She migrated to New Zealand and became the programme director for this course until Teaiwa&#;s goal was to encourage young people to think independently and question their preconceptions. By promo

  • teresia teaiwa biography meaning

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    Biography and Background

    “We sweat and cry salt water, so we know that the ocean is really in our blood” Teresia Teaiwa

    Dr Teresia Teaiwa was raised by an I-Kiribati father and an African American mother (Jackson, ). She was born in Honolulu, but grew-up in Fiji, later becoming a ground-breaking scholar, a feminist activist, and an esteemed poet (Richardson, ). Through her work, Teaiwa became an inspiration to Pacific people. Sadly, she passed away following a fight with cancer, but her passion and her teachings paved the way for young Pacific people to man a change.

    Dr Teresia&#;s concern over political issues in Fiji.

    The militarisation and politics of Fiji were a focus for much of Teaiwa’s research and a source of great frustration for her. For instance, she stated ‘The plot has become so thick and the rot so deep that ingenting less than a cataclysm will move Fiji forward’ (Manson, ). We plan to highlight her efforts to resolve these problems and redirect Fiji tow

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    Mother by Teresia Teaiwa

    The sky that
    Makes possible
    A lightening storm

    The earth that
    Makes possible
    A volcano

    The ocean that
    Makes possible
    A tidal wave

    The parent
    Who endures&#;outlives&#;
    The child

    (Searching for Nei Nim&#;anoa)

     

    Poet, academic, and the director of Va&#;aomanu Pasifika at Victoria University in Wellington, Teresia Teaiwa, has died following a short illness.

     

    Some links:

    Victoria Universitypage

    A poem tribute from Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson, contributor at Huffington Post

     

     

    An E-Tangata interview in full  here:

    &#;Teresia Teaiwa is a poet and award-winning teacher at Victoria University, where she lectures in Pacific Studies — a field she’s described as “literally oceanic in proportions”, covering a region with 1, indigenous languages and 20, islands spread over a third of the earth&#;s surface. Here, she talks to Dale, about the complexities of the Pacific, why Pacific Studies matters, and