From the Colombian Caribbean to the South Pacific: Cultural hybridity and resistance in film, music and art

Abstract

This investigation traces relations between colonial histories and contemporary expressions in the Colombian Caribbean in order to understand cultural transformations on the South Pacific island of Tanna. It identifies gaps in colonial histories to analyse cultural transformations such as hybridity, globalisation, resistance and syncretisation and evidence points of convergence and divergence. The contribution to knowledge is that, from a postcolonial perspective and using comparative analysis it interconnects multiple disciplines (history, linguistics, critical theory, cultural studies, social anthropology) to underline the importance of preserving traditional knowledges and the re-vitalisation of indigenous and diasporic cultures in a globalised world, exploring the role that film and video can play in the process. The comparative analysis between colonial, traditional and contemporary cultural practices based on historical difference offers a contrasted perspective and a critical lens within a postcolonial framework, to explore relations between the colonial historical past and the contemporary globalised, nomadic present that challenges traditional knowledges and cultures. In the age of information, non-place and massive consumption of culture, this thesis underlines the importance of constructing intercultural and intersubjective spaces for creative collaboration, cultural negotiation and exchange facilitated by documentary film.