Department of English

This thesis addresses how the entanglements of colonization and occupation have altered the ability for Queer Pasifika peoples to embody Indigenous expressions of gender and sexuality. By tracing how colonial powers erase Queerness in Oceania, these histories and stories are decolonized and reclaimed as places of refuge for the Queer Pacific. Moreover, by acknowledging how Pasifika Queer ancestors resisted erasure and defended Queer Pasifika futurity, alternative ways of Indigenous being are offered. Firstly, I discuss the Sāmoan Queer and their representations, paying special attention to Fa`afafine and how reclaiming their place in Sāmoan culture, as cultural practitioners and care-takers, is an important recovery of the connections, care, and alofa that composes Tagata Sāmoa. The second section of this thesis discusses the Hawaiian Queer and their representations, from Mahū to Femme Lesbians, arguing that reclaiming sovereignty over Hawaiian stories, bodies, and eroticism directly correlates to reclaiming sovereignty of the land. In closing, I propose an epistemological framework of analyzing how “serving Indragenous realness” reveals how expressions of third genders or sexualities outside the Western binary are materialized in the modern world, addressing how globalization, the effects of past or current colonization, and the LGBTQ+ movement entangles with Queer Indigenous being. The discursive analysis taking place is rooted in and supported by Queer Indigenous Theory and aims to recover and celebrate the place of the Queer in Sāmoa and Hawai`i, and subsequently across Oceania.