What is Tate actually researching?

It occurs to me that many of our family and friends may only have a vague idea of what I (Tate) am actually here to study. I just had to write an abstract of my project in "layman's terms, avoiding flowery prose" for the National Science Foundation (which just awarded me a big grant--woohooo!) so i figured I might as well post it here.

It's still a bit dry prose-wise, but if you want a more exciting account, I can describe my project in free-style rap next time I see you in person.

Proposal Title: “Emerging Futures: The Politics of Cultural Production Among Indigenous Kanak Youth”

ABSTRACT

I will undertake research on the emergence of new indigenous identities in cultural production among Kanak youth in New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France located in Melanesia. This research will center primarily on the networks of cultural production that have evolved outside of centralized institutional frameworks for the promotion of indigenous culture, specifically associations de jeunesse (youth associations) and associations du quartier (neighborhood associations) in Nouméa, New Caledonia’s capital city. Focusing in particular on the ways in which young Kanak mobilize different concepts of culture and custom, this research will examine how a new generation of cultural activists is configuring, contesting and sharing what it means be indigenous in the context of intensified political stakes generated by an upcoming referendum on New Caledonia’s independence from France.

The researcher will undertake 12 months of anthropological field research in Nouméa. In order to collect data, she will employ a variety of social science methods, including: participant observation, video and audio recording, collection and analysis of life stories, conversational analysis, social network analysis and archival research.

By analyzing how indigenous identities are formulated and expressed within the unique context of a French settler colony and the particular exigencies of French cultural policy, this research will contribute to understandings of indigeneity, an increasingly important strategy of self-representation and resistance against existing forms of state dominance around the world. Funding this research also supports the training of a social scientist.