ABSTRACT

Migration and mobility are inherent features of the peoples of the South Pacific. From Polynesian migration throughout the islands of the South Pacific (including New Zealand) during the pre-European historical period to the labour migrations in comparatively recent decades, mobility remains a central component of the lives of many Pacific Islanders (Curson 1973; Ahlburg 1996; Bedford 1997). Yet, while islander populations are highly mobile in terms of employment and education, substantial bonds of kinship and relationships to village and land remain. As Hau’ofa (1993: 11) observes, the networks and linkages that characterize diasporic mobilities are integral to the Pacific peoples:

so much of the welfare of ordinary people of Oceania depends on informal movement along ancient routes drawn in bloodlines invisible to the enforcers of the laws of confinement and regulated mobility . . . [Pacific peoples] are once again enlarging their world, establishing new resource bases and expanding networks for circulation.