Land Rights and Law in American SÄÂmoa

October 18, 11:00am - 12:30pm
West Oʻahu Campus, NÄÂulu Center 51²è¹Ý West OÊ»ahu

Dr. Line-Noue Memea Kruse will be speaking on issues that affect land tenure, culture, and law in American SÄÂmoa. The research for this topic comes from primary sources found in in New Zealand, SÄÂmoa, Germany, HawaiÊ»i, and California since the 1850s to the twentieth century. Dr. Kruse addresses how land tenure in American SÄÂmoa has changed from all native (communally owned) land prior to 1890 to more land being owned by individuals than the entire government of American SÄÂmoa, now. She asserts that the introduction of adverse possession rights by the US Navy has evolved into individual rights of communal lands and the cultural obligation to clans and families are being negatively impacted by these land tenure changes. So much so, Dr. Kruse asserts, that as the citizenship lawsuits filed in federal courts in Washington D.C. may one day address the changed nature of SÄÂmoan culture and lessening of communal obligation within the family clans that there no longer exists the dissimilar culture protecting American SÄÂmoan's communal land rights exclusive to American SÄÂmoans and matai titles in an American territory.

Dr. Memea Kruse currently teaches at the Pacific Islands Studies, Political Science, History, Religion departments at Brigham Young University-HawaiÊ»i. She was also the first person of Samoan descent to be a territorial planner and manager of the Planning division in the American SÄÂmoan Government and thus brings a wealth of experience on knowledge in this field.

Dr. Kruse will also be selling copies of her newly published book, "The Pacific Insular Case of American SÄÂmoa: Land Rights and Law in Unincorporated Territories," which highlights the impacts of U.S. colonialism on land tenure in American SÄÂmoa. [https://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319699707] This free event is open to 51²è¹ÝWO students, faculty, staff and the to the general public. For those who are not able to attend, this event will be livestreamed on our Facebook account.


Ticket Information
Free

Event Sponsor
Humanities/Hawaiian-Pacific Studies/Samoan Classes, West Oʻahu Campus

More Information
Samoan Language Courses, (808) 689-2355, wosamoan@hawaii.edu

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