2025 Nayacakalou Medal Lecture
Date: 25 September
Time: 5 - 7 pm
Location: Lecture Theatre 092, Level 0, Sir Owen G Glenn Building, 12 Grafton Road.
Come join us for the prestigious Nayacakalou Medal Lecture in 2025!
At this event we will award the Nayacakalou Medal and the Sir Hugh Kawharu Annual Writing Prize. This will be followed by a lecture from Nayacakalou Medal reciepient, Meleisea Leasiolagi Professor Malama Meleisea. All are welcome to join us for refreshments following the lecture, in the Level 0 foyer.
Lecture Title: Land History and the Contradictions of Customs: A Tribute to Rusiate Nayacakalou
Abstract: Nayacakalou pointed out that Land Tenure in Pacific Island countries was irrevocably connected to the socio-political system, and if that system changed, the rules about land tenure would therefore also change. Colonial administrators in Samoa, Papua New Guinea and elsewhere in the Pacific proposed registration of "native" land, but such measures were mostly opposed because it was feared that they might allow further alienation of customary land. Today throughout the Pacific, land disputes are a common source of community conflicts, because of disagreements about boundaries and rights, but land registration is still regarded with suspicion, and although, as demonstrated with regard to Samoa, customs are invoked which do not reflect actual practice.
Meleisea Leasiolagi Professor Malama Meleisea is an Emeritus Professor of Samoan Studies at the National University of Samoa. He worked as a teacher prior to attaining University qualifications at the University of Papua New Guinea and the Australian National University. He then obtained a PhD in History from Macquarie University. He is the author of several books on Samoa, including The Making of Modern Samoa (1987) and Change and Adaptations in Western Samoa (1992). He was the Centre Director of Pacific Studies at both Canterbury and Auckland Universities. From 1999 to 2010, he worked for UNESCO in Thailand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh as Country Director where he actively promoted human rights, social transformations and ethics. He was appointed a judge for the Land and Titles Court in Samoa before taking up the position of Director of the Centre for Samoan Studies at the National University of Samoa.
Any queries please contact:
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We look forward to seeing you there!
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