Local ecological knowledge in Mortlockese narrative
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Emerson Lopez Odango
Abstract
Members of speech communities in Oceania maintain close connections to their natural environment, connections that are often realized through narrative. Such narratives serve as means to co-construct and transmit local ecological knowledge (LEK) in a contextualized manner. I discuss how identities of being a “knower” of LEK emerge through narrative in the medium of Mortlockese. In taking an Interactional Sociolinguistics approach to Narrative Analysis, I analyze moment-by-moment identity work via the tool of epistemic stancetaking. The identity of someone being a possessor of certain kinds of LEK emerges at a local discursive level, which then serves as a foundation for the construction of macro-level cultural roles of being an expert in a certain set of knowledge and being a narrator/storyteller, both of which often overlap.
Abstract
Members of speech communities in Oceania maintain close connections to their natural environment, connections that are often realized through narrative. Such narratives serve as means to co-construct and transmit local ecological knowledge (LEK) in a contextualized manner. I discuss how identities of being a “knower” of LEK emerge through narrative in the medium of Mortlockese. In taking an Interactional Sociolinguistics approach to Narrative Analysis, I analyze moment-by-moment identity work via the tool of epistemic stancetaking. The identity of someone being a possessor of certain kinds of LEK emerges at a local discursive level, which then serves as a foundation for the construction of macro-level cultural roles of being an expert in a certain set of knowledge and being a narrator/storyteller, both of which often overlap.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editor’s note vii
- Glossing abbreviations ix
- About the authors xi
- Introduction 1
-
Inside the storyworld
- Moving through space and (not?) time 15
- We’ve never seen a cyclone like this 37
-
Telling narratives, constructing identities
- Local ecological knowledge in Mortlockese narrative 61
- Small stories and associated identities in Neverver 81
- ‘Sometime is lies’ 101
-
Narrative memories, cultures and identities
- Constructing Kanaka Maoli identity through narrative 119
- ‘Stories of long ago’ and the forces of modernity in South Pentecost 135
- Australian South Sea Islanders’ narratives of belonging 155
- Avatars of Fiji’s Girmit narrative 177
- Samoan narratives 193
- “[P]ulling tomorrow’s sky from [the] kete” 209
- Beyond exile 225
- Embodied silent narratives of masculinities 243
- Index 259
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editor’s note vii
- Glossing abbreviations ix
- About the authors xi
- Introduction 1
-
Inside the storyworld
- Moving through space and (not?) time 15
- We’ve never seen a cyclone like this 37
-
Telling narratives, constructing identities
- Local ecological knowledge in Mortlockese narrative 61
- Small stories and associated identities in Neverver 81
- ‘Sometime is lies’ 101
-
Narrative memories, cultures and identities
- Constructing Kanaka Maoli identity through narrative 119
- ‘Stories of long ago’ and the forces of modernity in South Pentecost 135
- Australian South Sea Islanders’ narratives of belonging 155
- Avatars of Fiji’s Girmit narrative 177
- Samoan narratives 193
- “[P]ulling tomorrow’s sky from [the] kete” 209
- Beyond exile 225
- Embodied silent narratives of masculinities 243
- Index 259
