Paper short abstract:

Together with the Mā‘ohi custodian of a family archive, we aim to enlighten her family story and Mā‘ohi history. Considering the agency given to writing in this context: How can it be shared and translated into a thesis? How is the hierarchy of knowledge experienced and constantly renegotiated?

Paper long abstract:

In Ra‘iātea (French Polynesia, 2024), I found myself involved in my friend Marie-Louise’s investigation into her genealogy. She possesses family archives with lists of names and texts about objects which belonged to one of the ari‘i (chief) families of the island. Several life events led Marie-Louise to these texts she has been attempting to decipher. She asked for me to “write her story” in order to shed light on her past and enlighten Mā‘ohi (Polynesian) history. I accepted at the condition that we would write it together.

Although Marie-Louise insists on wanting her story to be told in a written form, she denies her ability to be a good writer but she certainly is a skilled storyteller. This collaboration thus started with a challenge: how can we make this work collaborative when one of us is not writing per se?

This paper will explore and question the methodological paths Marie-Louise and I are experimenting in working with and on her archives, life and families stories: we read the genealogies and texts together and separately, we recorded ourselves at times, we thought with and through her dreams and experienced the places where she lives. I will provide insights on how we are exploring our roles and positionalities and the ways in which we are building trust with each other. I will also reflect on the complexities of working on such sensitive documents at a time when both genealogical and land claims can provoke conflicts between or within Mā‘ohi families.