PACIFIC 211

Polynesian Warriors: Sport and Pacific Cultures

Please note: this is archived course information from 2024 for PACIFIC 211.

Description

Sport has profoundly impacted Pacific peoples and cultures, playing critical roles in everything from colonialism and education in the past, to migration and commercialisation in the present. Sport has changed and has been changed by Pacific people.

The course begins with a discussion of histories of sport in the Pacific, including traditional games and the impact of colonisation on sporting activities and pathways. We then examine contemporary youth sports, including the kinds of values and behaviours sports are thought to teach and the role of sport in developing male and female gender identities among young people. We continue with discussion of how sports has become a site for articulating different kinds of cultural, racial, ethnic and gender identities across New Zealand and the Pacific.

In the last segments of the course we analyse media representations of Pacific people in sport, including the use of Polynesian cultural practices like haka, initiatives that use sport for development in the Pacific region, and sports injuries and mental health and wellbeing.

For full course information see the Digital Course Outline.

Digital Course Outlines are refreshed in November for the following year. Digital Course Outlines for courses to be offered for the first time may be published slightly later.

Availability 2024

Not taught in 2024

Lecturer(s)

TBA

Points

PACIFIC 211: 15 points

Prerequisites

30 points passed

Corequisites

Restrictions

PACIFIC 311