Emelihter Kihleng

Emelihter wields poetry, along with critical thinking skills gained in Pacific Studies, to contribute new ideas about Oceania to the global artistic landscape.

At the time that I applied to Va’aomanū Pasifika in 2009 I believe there were very few Pacific Studies programs where you could do a PhD. I chose to apply to Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington because I knew of the late Dr Teresia Teaiwa, a fellow Micronesian and a poet, and I wanted to study with her. The main reason I was able to do a PhD was that I received a Victoria doctoral scholarship. I am so grateful to have received that kind of support towards my studies. I enjoyed the sense of community, especially amongst the Pasifika staff and students. There is a lot of support for Pasifika students, and you are made to feel special and at home even if you are very far away from home, as I was, having come from Guam.

My studies sharpened my critical thinking skills. I took Theory and Methods in Pacific Studies with Teresia and wow, I learned so much! There is a question format based on the course readings called KCQs, Key Concepts and Questions, and you have to condense your thoughts into cohesive answers. Teresia was a tough grader, and I would spend hours answering my KCQs. This really helped my writing. In Pacific Studies we are encouraged to be interdisciplinary and comparative in thinking about Oceania which forces students to think outside the Pacific Island boxes we often create for ourselves or are put into (i.e., Polynesia/Micronesia, Melanesia, etc).

I know that I would not have secured my position as a curatorial research fellow in Hamburg, Germany if I had not completed a PhD. The interdisciplinary nature and academic rigour of Pacific Studies gave me the creative and scholarly base I needed to write my thesis, which was a poetic ethnography that explored the social life of urohs, Pohnpeian skirts that are sewn, worn, gifted, and loved on Pohnpei Island in Micronesia where I am from. I was able to combine my love of poetry and material culture, which has led to museum work as well as other positions I have held. I would advise students interested in Pacific Studies to find what they are truly passionate about in Oceania and follow that.

I am currently a digital resident with fellow poet, singer, and PhD candidate, Hinemoana Baker, at the Übersee-Museum in Bremen, Germany as part of the #NEOCollections program. I recently co-curated Urohs Fever—part of the exhibition Air Canoe that focused on the arts of central Micronesia—for the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT 10) at Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, currently on display in Brisbane, Australia.