Hau'ofa's Hope Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania 2009 Distinguished Lecture (Epeli Hau'ofa‪)‬

The editors of Oceania are pleased to be able to publish this year's ASAO distinguished lecture. It is the first of what will be a yearly occurrence. I am grateful for the invitation to address the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO) as its Distinguished Lecturer--especially since my relation to Pacific scholarship has always been rather unprofessional, or at least spotty. I like to think of myself as an amateur--in a sense that comes through best in the French amateur: one who loves. Someone who cultivates a study or art from taste or attraction rather than professionally. (I pass over another meaning, more prominent in the English language dictionaries: 'a person who does something more or less unskillfully.') So I address you as a non-specialist, amateur of the Pacific--a fellow-traveler perhaps, in that vast space.