COUV ACTES - Psychologie communautaire

Community Psychology: Common Values, Diverse PracticesThe university campus as community resource: ownership andeducational expectations in a small Pacific communityby Heather Hamerton 1New ZealandThe tropical South Pacific is a vast ocean sprinkled with tiny islands with a total population of 1.3 million. Nationalpopulations vary from Tokelau with 1,600 people to Fiji with more than 800,000. Western colonisers haveemphasised the disadvantages these countries face because of their size and remoteness (Hau’ofa, 2008) butPacific peoples had advanced navigational skills and formed an exchange community across huge distances(Teasdale, 2005). Rather than separating them, the sea bound them together as a “sea of islands”. In thePacific, many are seeking ways to help and support one another, rather than depending on their largerneighbours on the Pacific rim (Luteru, 1991).Education can be a powerful tool for emancipation; in order to be transformative it must reflect the aspirations ofthe people (Freire, 1970). Within Oceania, education follows colonial models emphasising Western theories ofknowledge. In this paper I describe the role of education in colonisation, reflecting on my experience as Directorof the Tokelau Campus of the University of the South Pacific (USP) and my efforts to ensure that tertiaryeducation in Tokelau met community aspirations.ColonisationThe history of Oceania is one of colonisation by Western nations (Crocombe, 2001; Teasdale, 2005). Colonisers’values and cultures were imposed on indigenous peoples, creating upheaval to their traditional ways of life. Thecolonisers assumed the peoples of Oceania were disadvantaged by isolation and remoteness and in need of“civilising” (Denoon, Mein-Smith & Wyndham, 2000). The major tools for this so-called “civilising” of Pacificpeoples were Christianity and education (Crocombe, 2001).Pacific writers have challenged a hegemonic and Eurocentric view of the small island states of Oceania as toosmall, too poorly endowed with resources and too isolated from centres of economic growth for their inhabitantsto rise above their present dependence on Western nations. Instead they are making visible the complex andrich philosophies, theologies and epistemologies characteristic of Oceania’s indigenous cultures (Hau’ofa, 2008;Huffer & Qalo, 2004). Many nations have regained independence from colonial rule, although the colonial legacylingers on, particularly in education (Crocombe, 2001).1Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, New Zealand301