Caption: ASCC President Dr. Adele Satele-Galea'i (center) joins the participants of the Archaeology of the Polynesian Homeland Conference. On the far left of the front row is ASCC Archaeology instructor Dr. David Addison

The visiting Archaeologists, all distinguished within the field, shared their latest research results and discussed similarities and differences between the different Polynesian islands they focus on in their work. Participants included Hon. Noble Tu’ivanuavou Albert Vaea, Secretary to the Tongan Traditions Committee;  Ratu Jone Nacabalavu Balenaivalu, Director of the Department of Archaeology, Fiji Museum; Prof. Dave Burley, Director, First Nation Studies Institute, and Chair, Archaeology Department, Simon Fraser University; Lau Dr. Asofou Leapa’i, Deputy Vice Chancellor and former Director of Samoa Studies, National University of Samoa; Prof. Thegn Ladefoged, Chair, Anthropology Department, University of Auckland;  Prof. Lisa Matisoo-Smith, Director, Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, University of Auckland; Dr. Frederique Valentin, Director, Peopling of the Pacific Oceanic Study Lab, CNRS, France; Dr. Fiona Petchy, Deputy Director, Waikato University Radiocarbon Dating Lab; and numerous university professors and graduate students.

Conference sessions covered a multitude of topics, such as  landscapes, chronology and cultural dynamics in the Eastern Lapita Province;  material culture and physical anthropology of the Eastern Lapita Cultural Complex; post-Lapita regional evolutions, (2600-1800 BP); the debate on the Proto-Polynesian culture in archaeological perspective; Archaeology of the “Dark Ages” (AD 400-1200); emergence of the “traditional chiefdoms” in a regional perspective (AD 1000-1500);  production centers, exchange networks and settlement; monumental architecture in regional perspective; the Tongan maritime chiefdom on the regional scene and its socio-cultural influence; the archaeology of contact: rethinking the consequences of the first two centuries of European intrusions in the central Pacific; ancient subsistence: agriculture and marine exploitation; and the archaeology of the Polynesian Homeland in the 21st century.

Dr. Addison said the conference ended with pledges of renewed research in the region and more efforts at collaborative projects between institutions. “The participants also left with a great impression of American Samoa and ASCC, thanks to the efforts and hospitality of the staff at the College’s Land Grant division, where the sessions took place. One participant even told me, ‘I have never been fed so well at any conference.’”

This coming semester, Dr. Addison will begin teaching at ASCC. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and has done field research in Tutuila and Manu’a for the past seven years. His work has also taken him to many locations in Hawaii, the Marquesas Islands, and Palau. “So much of what really happened in the past remains a mystery,” he reflected. “Archaeology lets us discover something new by studying something old, and I look forward to familiarizing the young men and women of American Samoa with the knowledge, techniques and philosophies associated with this field.” 

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