Pacific Islanders in Australia use the terms “Islander” and “Pacific Islander” in many ways and in different circumstances to define themselves and others. Through invoking discourses including these terms, Pacific Islanders both consciously draw on “panethnicity” and subconsciously strengthen and support their localized identities. In this way, Pacific Islanders blur the ethno-cultural and sociopolitical boundaries that traditionally separate groups with connections across a diverse range of countries. Indeed, diasporic settings give rise to transnationalist sentiment and actions and serve to strengthen panethnic identity. Using insider and auto-anthropology and ethnographic research techniques, I draw on my experiences as an Australian of Pacific Islander descent and use examples drawn from my involvement in formalized community groups, cultural events, and social functions. In doing so, I argue that the expression of Islander and Pacific Islander identity is entwined with ideas about “race,” place, stereotypes, and behavior that highlight the dynamic ethnogenesis of this group.
Peles is a Melanesian concept related to the grounding of a person's Indigenous origin in a particular place. This notion is especially important in Papua New Guinea where, upon first meeting, people are likely to ask, ‘Where are you from?’ Ascertaining someone's peles enables the rapid establishment between previously unknown people of social connections and obligations, kinship, and identity. Despite the increasing influences of westernisation, globalisation, urbanisation, and migration, peles remains steadfast at the centre of Papua New Guinean social identity construction. This article addresses the current and emerging ways in which people of New Guinea Islander descent – both at ‘home’ or in the diaspora – connect to peles, whether physically or otherwise and details the social politics of these assertions.
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