Art/Story of the Niuklia Fri Pasifik: On Doing Creative Pacific Histories

Abstract

ABSTRACT The transgressive spirit, critical flair, and cultural power of Pacific grassroots movements are too often ignored or relegated to the footnotes within the discipline of Pacific history. Through a montage of creative and pedagogical campaigns, this article considers the Against Testing On Moruroa (ATOM) Committee in Fiji, and the regional Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement, as a nascent form of applied grassroots Pacific Studies. It then suggests that scholars ought to engage with the creative chronicle of social movements to make creative Pacific histories. Inspired by Fijian-Tongan poet and scholar Tagi Qolouvaki’s invocation of ‘activist art/story’, this article then describes the author’s creative practice-led research using audio documentary to recast the intellectual genealogy of critical Pacific Studies, discussing this movement as a foundational grassroots counter network.