Marshallese Women and Oral Traditions: Navigating a Future for Pacific History

Abstract

First published just over three decades ago, Teresia Teaiwa’s “Microwomen: US Colonialism and Micronesian Women Activists” calls attention to the absence of Micronesian women in academic histories. The paper came out of a Pacific History Association conference panel aimed at amplifying the voices of women in histories of Micronesia, which, Teaiwa argued, remained “deafeningly silent on women” (1992, 126). While progress has been made in the thirty years since, Micronesian women remain underrepresented in academic histories. Using Marshallese oral traditions as a guide, this article argues that re-centering women in histories of Micronesia remains essential to the decolonization of Pacific Islands history, not only for the sake of representation but also as a necessary step in the ongoing development of historical methods more reflective of Indigenous historicities.