Neuendorf, Nalisa, Innes, Tahnee, Backhaus, Vincent, and Brooksbank, Lokes (2024) Critical Reflections on Blackness/Blakness and the Whiteness of Coloniality in the Pacific. In: Ravulo, Jioji, Olcoń, Katarzyna, Dune, Tinashe, Workman, Alex, and Liamputtong, Pranee, (eds.) Handbook of Critical Whiteness. Springer, Singapore.

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Abstract

It is in Blackness/Blakness that Whiteness is made real. This is not a unique thought and is certainly situated in broader conversations of critical race theory. This chapter is not a claim to uniqueness but a claim to perspective, one that is not often provided a space to be discussed, analyzed, critiqued, and one which can always be improved. The current perspective emerges from within a story of Black/Blak Pasifika and its entanglements with coloniality, against a Whiteness of coloniality that has been shaped through various experiences. The chapter brings together over 10 years of critical informal discussions between a group of four, female and male, early academic Black/Blak Pasifika researchers. Thesedialogues– from the researchers’ undergraduate to postgraduate experiences to early professional life– are raised to closely demonstrate a collective response to pervasive Whiteness. If “whiteness” in an academic, institutional setting is characterized by objectivity, individualism, competition, and color-blindness, then the authors argue that the creation of “Onetalk– a Black Writers Crew” was, and still is, a specific strategy of subversion against these values: they celebrated achievements collectively, recognized the value of their own subjectivities, downplayed competition, and asserted themselves as researchers of color. Therefore, Onetalk is frequently referred to as a “safe space” since, faced with the option of either distancing themselves from the academy or submitting to it, this was how they were able to retain their sense of Black/Blak identity while participating within the mainstream of Whiteness. The entanglements between being Black/Blak in Papua New Guinea and Black/Blak in Australia have many intersections. The sharing and learnings between experiences provide a basis for shaping the future of Black/Black Pasifika early career academics. The journey speaks not to attainment, but it speaks to moments of becoming over time, with an understanding that “becoming” is a project that is open-ended and, in a sense, unbounded.

Item ID:	82621
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-981-19-1612-0
Copyright Information:	© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024
Date Deposited:	14 May 2024 02:57
FoR Codes:	45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4513 Pacific Peoples culture, language and history > 451305 Pacific Peoples culture @ 50% 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4501 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, language and history > 450104 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture @ 50%
SEO Codes:	21 INDIGENOUS > 2112 Pacific Peoples heritage and culture > 211201 Conserving Pacific Peoples heritage and culture @ 50% 21 INDIGENOUS > 2104 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture > 210499 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture not elsewhere classified @ 50%
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