This chapter iis published in M. Johansen (ed.), Social Equity in the Asia-Pacific Region,

The current paper is a contribution to an ongoing discussion that stemmed from a seminal paper titled "Our Sea of Islands", by the late Epeli Hau'ofa, Professor of Pacific Studies at the University of the South Pacific. The paper aims to further the objectives of "Our Sea of Islands" by reframing its arguments using the vocabulary of a school of thought that can be traced from Immanuel Kant to Theodor Adorno, via Hegel. The aim is to see if we, as people of Oceania, can arrive at a more appropriate articulation of ourselves using the grammar embedded within Western philosophical discourse. Ultimately the paper aims at reanimating a renaissance of Oceanic thinking, given "Our Sea of Islands". This paper stems from a long-held desire to revisit one of the most enduring literary vistas of my undergraduate days, which helped shape an emerging consciousness to critically engage with some of the most important issues of the time in the undeveloped or underdeveloped world 1. These were issues of poverty, powerlessness, belittlement, exploitation, and patterns of regressive development: matters that are still as pertinent now as they were then. It became almost a truism, as if following an immutable law, to predict your fortunes collectively as a people by looking at the geographical space you occupy on the globe. An indelible memory from those formative years is how this new vista, based on a re-examination of our region and its people, saved me from the usual dose of melancholy that pervades the corridors of higher learning in Oceania. I am referring of course to the late Epeli Hau'ofa's seminal article, popularly known as "Our Sea of Islands" (Hau'ofa, 1993). 2 The current paper is a contribution to an ongoing discussion that had been taking place until discourse on Oceania was reconceptualised by Professor Hau'ofa nearly twenty years ago 3. His work had the effect of loosening the ties of this scholarship from its colonial moorings and, in turn, clearing a space for an alternative discourse that could be more faithful to our ways of knowing and being. Since then the dialogue has been a consistent part of discourse 1 These categorical definitions are tossed about depending on one's particular position on the ideological divide at the time. Today the term 'Developing World' is used to cover those countries that were formerly grouped under those categories. 2 The gist of Hau'ofa's argument can be traced back to Edward Said's 'Orientalism'. 3 This is not to ignore the works of people such as Albert Wendt, but to make the point that these works are exceptions to the rule and far in between.