Through the migration of Perez and his family to California in 1995, Perez used his poems to express many important themes that are not only essential to the Pacific but also to himself personally. One that was not as black and white as the others was migration. Migration is basically the foundation on which Perez’s poems are built on because of the move he and his family made to America. Epeli Hau’ofa states, “Who I am and my relationship to everyone else depends on my whakapapa, on my lineage and on those from whom I am descended. One needs one’s ancestors to define one’s presence.” Perez’s work is a reflection on this piece as he includes metaphors in his poems that can be interpreted as history in order to create identity. An example of this is through Perez’s poem ‘Family Trees’.

“Before we enter the jungle, my dad

asks permission of the spirits who dwell

within. He walks slowly, with care,

to teach me, like his father taught him,

how to show respect. Then he stops

and closes his eyes to teach me

how to listen.”

Through the teachings and history of Perez’s ancestors, he is able to learn generations of indigenous knowledge that he too some day will be able to pass onto his children and so on. In “The Poetics of Mapping Diaspora, Navigating culture and being from” Perez talks about how through his migration from Guam to the United States, he was able to understand these concepts as if he was living it into existence.

” While my body lives here, my heart still lives in my homeland.”

Craig Santos Perez, 2011.

Today Perez teaches Pacific literature and creative writing at the university of Hawaii in Manoa. His contribution to Pacific Studies allows him to influence the idea of migration, mapping and politics onto students so that they too will know the importance of literature and indigenous knowledge throughout the Pacific.

Concepts such as politics, migration, culture and community are what drives Perez in his work. Perez begins by declaring that his poetry was a result of feeling homesick after emigrating to the states. He used his poetry as a way to feel connected to home. Through study of his home he came across history and from what he has learnt through history enables him to understand the importance and relevance of politics. Perez states that ‘maps’ are things that exploit the Pacific Islands, in saying this he uses his poetry as a platform to create counter mapping and challenge their maps. Perez’s poetry strongly focuses on the stories of his ancestors and in doing so, it allows his family stories to demonstrate human geography of the Pacific rather than using maps to define the Pacific. Just like many other Pacific Islands, family stories and experiences are used as a podium to educate and communicate years of history to future generations, this creates the idea of indigenous knowledge. This is relevant because it demonstrates the importance of history within the Pacific and how in order to feel even the slightest connection to our homelands, indigenous knowledge as a form of ‘mapping’ allows us to gain a deeper understanding and connectedness to family and indigenous land.

Indigenous research methods are important because it takes into account the indigenous protocols, philosophies and principles. These frameworks are examples of how Indigenous people execute their method of research using knowledge passed on from generations before. An example of a research method particularly for those interested in the Tongan way of thinking would be the Kakala Methodology. It is sourced from Tongan valued contexts of thinking and focuses purely and mainly on the teaching and learning that is culturally inclusive for Pacific teachers and students. The Kakala Methodology was founded by Konai Helu Thaman and has six key concepts used to assist in the research process. Unaisi Nabobo-Baba, a professor at The University of Guam talks about how indigenous people today are beginning to articulate their own ways of gathering knowledge and their own research methodologies that are suitable and obtain their culture and interests at the core. Nabobo-Baba is the founder of the Vanua Framework which is based on the Fijian concept of thinking. It includes research through the elderly, women and children, and is used when researching indigenous Fijian histories, arts, knowledges lifestyles and values etc. It includes culture and language in order to study Fijian Indigenous knowledge. This is relevant to Perez’s work because he writes about the mapping and history of his home. Indigenous knowledge is all about mapping, migration and history. Just like Perez writes in his books and poems, in order for him to feel connected to his homeland, he needed to study the history of Guam, and that he did.