In this book, Hunter H. Fine establishes a fuller understanding about the ways in which our everyday practices can illuminate aspects of power, representation, social advocacy, and truth.

The journeys of ancient seafarers that embarked from mainland Asia roughly 4,000 years ago traversed the space of what is now called Oceania, which initially included maritime Southeast Asia. The result is the initial settling of tens of thousands of islands stretching across roughly a third of the globe. For thousands of years circulatory voyages occurred between these archipelagos establishing the world's farthest-reaching culture defined by a bevy of shared social, cultural, and political customs. Through a framework of learning based on physical and conceptual practices, the descendants of these seafarers, possessing the knowledge of the maritime aspects of a larger cultural network, still engage in and teach these elements today, particularly in Micronesia. The voyages themselves and the many practices that make them possible are considered here as gestural forms of writing – embodied texts.


Through the paradigmatic perspectives of postcolonialism and Indigenous studies in the context of critical theory, cultural studies, and communication, this book examines how Austronesian and Oceanic seafaring and surfing have combined to create contemporary beach culture in the context of Western global expansion. Ultimately, this book theorizes that maritime resistance is a way of conducting structural critiques based partially on two cultures of travel, thought, and communication: the sophists and the Austronesian voyagers.