The Water to Which We Belong: Aqua nullius and Frames of Wara in a Black Oceania

This thesis interrogates the ontological and epistemological barriers modernity presents to the prospect of a new Oceania. Anchoring itself in the work of Epeli Hau’ofa it blends critical theory from the radical Black, Oceanian, French, and Indigenous traditions together to demonstrate the persistence of two structural logics of modernity – aqua nullius and white supremacy. It argues that these logics structurally inhibit the possibility of a new Oceania. Simultaneously, it examines the material reality of these logics through an account of the state of water and Black existence in Oceania under modernity’s colonial-capitalist world system. Recognising that these logics and their consequences are necessary to the functioning of modernity, it asserts that Hau’ofa’s call to a new Oceania has embedded within it a call to end the world of modernity, of colonial-capitalism, a call to move towards a new world, a truly new Oceania.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Rew, Nathan

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Naepi, Sereana
• Matthewman, Steve
• Watene, Krushil

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/68866

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/68866