PACIFIC HISTORY ASSOCIATION
NEWSLETTER 46
Photograph on Sydney Island taken by Brett Hilder in 1958 during a BP’s voyage removing IKiribati from the Line Islands to resettle in the Solomons, later used by Hilder to paint in colour
a similar scene, “MV Tulagi at Sydney Island 1959”, Private collection of John Louis Boglio.
Contents
The next conference; Suva, December 2008
Noumea conference proceedings published
Australian Pacific Studies conference 2008
Waigani seminar 2008
Film and History conference report 2008
Vale; Greg Dening and Asesele Ravuvu
Beachcombing
Past and Coming conferences
New Books, www and films
Membership Application
The PHA Newsletter is sent electronically or by post to members of the Association. For membership
contact; Dr Teresia Teaiwa, PHA Secretary-Treasurer, Victoria University of Wellington, New
Zealand, < teresia.teaiwa@vuw.ac.nz > or www.pacifichistoryassociation.com/membership.htm
The PHA Newsletter Editor is Dr Max Quanchi, QUT; contact < m.quanchi@qut.edu.au >
NOTE: MEMBERSHIP FEES ARE DUE FOR THOSE IN ARREARS, NEW OR RENEWING
MEMBERS.
2
18th Pacific History Association
Biannual Conference
Conference planning has been underway
for the past year and the Joint convenors
have assembled a large advisory body of
USP, PTC, institutional and nongovernment committee members. The prePHA conference activities include a visit
to an archaeological dig at Bourewa near
Sigatoka on Dec 7th and the “Pacific
Roots: Heritage and Identities”
symposium on “Challenging the
Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia
Stereotypes” in the Pacific, Dec 1-5,
convened by Serge Tcherkezoff
[serge@pacific-credo.fr] See the PHA
website for further details. A plenary by
former Museum Curator Fergus Clunie
will be held at the Fiji Museum. An
exhibition of Brett Hilder portraits and
landscapes will be held in the USP
Library. The PHA conference will run
from Monday to Friday, Dec 8-12, with
plenary sessions, panels and evening
events at the USP campus, Pacific
Theological College and Fiji Museum.
The following panels and convenors have
been confirmed, but late papers and panels
may still be considered.
The Golden Shrub (Kava) – Aporosa
(Massey) <aporosa@ihug.co.nz> and
Grant McCall (UNSW)
<g.mccall@unsw.edu.au>
Pacific Islanders at War – Louise
Matai’a (NUS) <l.mataia@nus.edu.ws>
and Christine Liava’a
<cliavaa@gmail.com>
Photography, Film and Imaging – Max
Quanchi (QUT) <m.quanchi@qut.edu.au>
Ideas of Institutional Confinement –
Jacqui Leckie (Otago)
<jacqui.leckie@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Minority communities – Grant McCall
(UNSW) <g.mccall@unsw.edu.au>
History of Pacific Religion – Kambati
Uriam (Tangintebu Theological College)
<principal@tangintebu.edu.ki> and
Marama G.Tauira (PTC)
<marama@ptc.ac.fj>
Depopulation Explained, Repopulation
Justified – Judy Bennett (Otago)
<judy.bennett@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
The Pacific Way Revisited – Stephanie
Lawson (Birmingham)
<s.lawson@bham.ac.uk>
Asia in the Pacific: Past, Present and
Future – Paul D’Arcy (ANU) <
paul.darcy@anu.edu.au> and Haruo
Nakagawa (USP)
<nakagawa_h@usp.ac.fj>
History of Anthropology - Helen Gardner
(Deakin)< hbgardne@deakin.edu.au> and
Chris Ballard (ANU)
<chris.ballard@anu.edu.au>
History of Pacific Sports –Robert
Dewey<rdewey@depauw.edu> and Mohit
Prasad<mohit.prasad@usp.ac.fj>
A range of Boards and Organisations will
hold meetings including JPH, ICSPI, PMB
and others. The Biennial General Meeting
of the PHA will be held Friday 12, 8.0010.00am. There will be several book
launches and excursions to historical sites.
The preferred conference accommodation
is the Peninsula Hotel, downtown Suva, a
short walk, bus or taxi to the USP campus.
Peninsula Hotel ;
peninsula@connect.com.fj
Tanoa Plaza; tanoaplaza@connect.com.fj
Holiday Inn;
reservations@holidayinnsuva.com.fj
Suva Motor Inn;
suvamotorinn@connect.com.fj
Lagoon Resort; lagoonres@connect.com.fj
Raffles Tradewinds;
tradewinds.reservation@rafflesgroup.com.
fj
Five Princes Hotel;
fiveprinceshotel@connect.com.fj
There is on-campus housing in student
dorms at USP, or the recently renovated
3
“Married Quarters”; contact Roshni Pratap
[pratap_r@usp.ac.fj] The Pacific
Theological College, a fifteen minutes
walk across from USP offers seaside
accommodation at Meovili convention
centre; contact Marama
Tauira<mtauira@ptc.ac.fj>
Registration is
Members $USD/NZD/AUD150
Mon-Members $ USD/NZD/AUD175
Unwaged and students is
$USD/NZD/AUD50.
For further conference details contact
Matelita Ragogo <ragogo_m@usp.ac.fj>
or Morgan Tuimaleali’ifano at USP on
<tuimalealiifano_m@usp.ac.fj>
PHA CONFERENCES 19 and 20
The location of the 19th and 20th PHA
conferences will be discussed at the AGM
in Suva. Two locations have been
suggested, with David Hanlon offering to
host at UH Manoa, Hawaii and Sam Kari
and Michael Mel offering to host at
Goroka University, PNG. Both will
present a proposal at Suva. Other hosts are
invited to make an ambit claim for future
conferences.
NOUMEA CONFERENCE
The proceedings, in three volumes have
been published. Contact Frederic
Angleveil on f.angleviel@canl.nc
WAIGANI SEMINAR 2008.
After a long break, the esteemed Waigani
Seminars are being revived with a week
long program at UPNG. John Waiko is
convening the academic program on the
theme “'Living History and Evolving
Democracy in Papua New Guinea', a oneweek Seminar from Wednesday to Friday
13th-15th August 2008 (contact;
waiganis@upng.ac.pg). John Evans the
manager at UPNG Press and Bookshop
(jevans@upng.ac.pg) is organizing a preseminar symposium called "Talking about
books @ UPNG" for the Monday and
Tuesday 11-12 August.
PACIFIC HISTORY AND FILM
WORKSHOP, Canberra, 2008
by
Chris Ballard and Vicki Luker
The Film and History Workshop held at
The Australian National University,
Canberra, featured 23 individual
presentations and introduced film
screenings over three days, from
Wednesday 6th till Friday 8th February
2008. The Workshop brought together
academics from the disciplines of history,
film studies and anthropology, filmmakers
and film producers, and representatives
from key institutions such as the National
Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) and the
Australian War Memorial (AWM). The
program (attached) traced a rough
trajectory from early colonial cinema
through to the films directed, produced
and introduced to the workshop by
indigenous filmmakers Katerina Teaiwa,
Loketi Latu and Martin Maden. A lively
concluding roundtable set out an agenda
for a possible Pacific Audio-Visual
Network. The existing list of participants
and others who have expressed an interest
in this workshop serves already as the
basis for a network of scholars,
filmmakers and institutions with a
common interest in Pacific film. The
goals of such a network might include the
dissemination of information (notice of
research results, new films), the
coordination of further events (meetings,
sessions of conferences) or collaborative
grant applications, and the general
promotion of the study, production and
conservation of Pacific film.
Several participants commented on the
overlap between research into and
production of film, photography and audio
resources on the Pacific, and on the
importance of looking beyond the
immediate confines of film. There was
consensus that an inclusive network open
to anyone researching, producing,
conserving or marketing film, photography
or audio materials relating to the Pacific
would be the most useful forum. It is
important that any such network build
upon existing institutions, links and
4
networks, and a preliminary review of
these existing resources in Australia, New
Zealand, Hawaii, Fiji and elsewhere is a
pressing need – the South East Asia
Pacific Audio Visual Archive Association
(SEAPAVAA) is an obvious point of
departure. To the extent that such
resources may already exist elsewhere in
the region, the Australia-based participants
acknowledged that the onus was on them
to marshal Australia-based resources and
contributors. The technical form of the
network will require some thought, but
Joshua Bell’s suggestion of a blog may
offer a suitable medium for discussion.
Further discussion of the scope for a
Pacific Audio-Visual Network, and the
need for a preliminary survey of resources,
will be flagged for the forthcoming
Australian Association for the
Advancement of Pacific Studies (AAAPS)
conference in Canberra (18-20 April
2008), and results of this conversation will
be reported to the list.
Publication of Papers from the Canberra
Workshop; In order to build on the
momentum generated by the workshop,
and to produce a tangible result around
which further collaborative work,
including grant bids and conference
sessions, might build, an edited volume of
papers from the 2008 Canberra workshop
might be a useful and important step. Jane
Landman and Chris Ballard have taken on
the responsibility of editing this volume
and will be writing shortly to certain
participants to invite them to develop
papers presented at the workshop for
inclusion in a volume on the relationship
between film and history in the Pacific – a
focus that we hope will lend sufficient
coherence for the volume to attract a
publisher. In addition, The Journal of
Pacific History, which now publishes an
annual filmography, is committed to
publishing papers on audio-visual material
and will always welcome scholarly
submissions on film or other visual media
(http://rspas.anu.edu.au/jph/ or email
Executive Editor vicki.luker@anu.edu.au).
The Lemongrass Declaration; An
additional series of recommendations,
generated by participants at the Workshop
over dinner at the Lemongrass Restaurant
was tabled, and is reproduced here:
Taking Action (The Lemongrass
Declaration, Canberra, February 2008)
As a concerned group of scholars in film
studies at the “Film and Pacific History”
workshop, ANU, Canberra, February
2008, we recommend that;
1
ICOM Australia adopts a policy of
providing copies of film held in Australian
repositories to the respective source
communities in the Pacific Islands. This
builds on the existing ICOM Australia
Museums Partnership program between
Australian museums and partner museums
in the Pacific Islands.Contact: Dr
Craddock Morton, Chairperson ICOM
Australia c.morton@nma.gov.au
2
The Australian War Memorial
(AWM) and the National Sound and Film
Archive (NSFA) develop a working
relationship with source communities in
the Pacific Islands to facilitate access to
their institutional film holdings. This
extends the presentations and participation
by the AWM and the NSFA at the “Film
and Pacific History” workshop at ANU,
February 2008. Contact; Stephanie Boyle
(AWM) and Bronwyn Coupe (NSFA)
3
The Australian Association for the
Advancement for Pacific Studies
(AAAPS) facilitate a follow-up
conference/workshop on Pacific Island
Film Studies. This extends the excellence
demonstrated at the “Film and Pacific
History” workshop at ANU convened by
Dr Vicki Luker and Dr Chris Ballard.
Contact; Prof Clive Moore, President
AAAPS c.moore@uq.edu.au
(Proposed at the “Film and Pacific
History” workshop Roundtable, 9th Feb
2008 by Karina Taylor, Grant McCall,
Jane Landman, Michael Goldsmith and
Max Quanchi)
Films Screened at the Canberra Workshop;
In response to numerous requests for
copies of some of the films screened at the
Canberra Workshop, we have the
following contact details:
Crater Mountain Story. Martin Maden
(dir.), 2006. For copies, contact Martin at
5
martinmaden@mac.com. See Martin’s
site at
http://web.mac.com/martinmaden/iWeb/Si
te/Martin%20Maden.html
Papua Bilong Chimbu. Verena Thomas
(dir. and prod.), 2007. For further
information about the film see
www.papabilongchimbu.com. For copies,
contact Verena at
verena.thomas@gmx.com or buy directly
from Ronin Films at
www.roninfilms.com.au.
Tonga and Politics. Loketi Latu (dir.),
2007 – contact Loketi at
lnl@deakin.edu.au
Grant McCall advised that Santi
Hitorangi’s film, Being Rapanui, can be
obtained directly from the filmmaker
himself at <anamaeha@aol.com>
The Centre for Scholarly and Archival
Research (CSAR) of the National Film
and Sound Archive (NFSA) in Canberra is
offering Research Fellowships, available
to Australian and overseas applicants, of
between 1-6 months. During the Canberra
Workshop the possibility was raised of a
fellowship aimed at surveying Pacific
audio-visual resources within the NFSA
and perhaps at other Canberra institutions.
The Fellowships provide rent-free
accommodation, workspace and access to
the collections, but no stipend. For details
see www.nfsa.afc.gov.au
Forthcoming Events noted at the
conference included; “Vivid” National
Photography Festival, Canberra, 11 July –
12 October 2008. Over 50 institutions
presenting exhibitions, conference and
events for photographers, photographic
historians and everyone with an interest in
photography.
www.nla.gov.au/vivid
“Picture Paradise” Exhibition
National Gallery of Australia, 10 July – 9
November 2008. On the history of
photography in Asia-Pacific
http://nga.gov.au/PictureParadise/default.c
fm
“Remapping Cinema, Remaking History”
Conference (Film and History Association
of Australia and New Zealand)
University of Otago, Dunedin, 27-30
November 2008
www.otago.ac.nz/fhaanz2008/
For a global list of film-related
conferences, see the Film Studies
Conferences Worldwide site:
www.conferencealerts.com/film.htm
As an interim measure, Chris Ballard and
Vicki Luker will be happy to fill the role
of network co-ordinators, to receive and
disseminate news and ideas for the
development of the network, and to report
to future meetings of those interested in
the network, as at the forthcoming AAAPS
meeting. If you have any queries or items
of news for the network, please send them
to us.
Chris Ballard chris.ballard@anu.edu.au
Vicki Luker
vicki.luker@anu.edu.au
The Australian Association for the
Advancement of Pacific Studies
By
Max Quanchi (Sec, AAAPS)
AAAPS held its second biannual
conference at ANU in April 2008,
convened by Katerina Teaiwa, Margaret
Jolly and Stewart Firth. This conference
demonstrated the evolution of ideas and
approaches that characterises area
associations and professional organisations
as they mature. This conference, less
expansive but nonetheless encompassing a
wide range of what is loosely called
“Pacific Studies”, followed the inaugural
AAAPS conference in Brisbane in 2006.
AAAPS was founded as a national
organisation after a workshop in 2005
initiated under the auspices of the
International Centre for Excellence in Asia
Pacific Studies, a five year federally
funded program. Its aim is to advance the
status of Pacific Studies teaching and
research in the Humanities and Arts in
Australian universities and institutions. In
2006-2007, an electronic journal Pacific
Currents and a home page were funded
and initial design work begun, several
community, museum and other workshops
6
were run and a project begun to survey
Pacific Studies in Australia, leading to a
national report. Clive Moore (UQ) is the
President. At the Canberra conference
there were 43 papers by Australians and
24 by overseas or invited presenters, a
range of plenary sessions and panels, as
well as social and cultural events. At the
AGM, Melbourne was elected as the host
for the 2010 conference. It was a
wonderful conference, in the style of
previous Pacific Studies conferences in
Hawaii, but lacked a distinctively
Australian teaching and research-based
feel, which probably reflects the failure
AAAPS to achieve its mandate of reaching
out to all those disciplines loosely defined
as the Arts, Social Sciences and
Humanities. The singularly Australian
emphasis of AAAPS was challenged by
Ron Crocombe’s suggestion to change the
association’s name!! For the moment,
AAAPS’s target remains to revive and
expand Pacific Studies specifically within
Australia. AAAPS hopes that a Pacific
Studies national report, to be released later
this year, as well as further workshops and
the Melbourne conference, will activate
government and institutional action in all
states and territories and lead to a national
program of consolidating and expanding
Pacific studies teaching and research in
Australia. The conference also issued a
statement, forwarded to the Australian
Prime Minister, raising several national
issues. Replies from the Office of the
Australian Prime Minister, and the newly
appointed Parliamentary Secretary for
Pacific Affairs, following AAAPS
submissions, suggest that many new
initiatives are being considered to enhance
and deepen Australia’s relationships with
the Pacific.
VALE: GREG DENING
The Funeral Mass for the repose of the
soul of GREG DENING was held at
Newman College Chapel, Parkville
Victoria on WEDNESDAY March 19,
2008.The Burial followed at Anderson
Creek Cemetery, Blair Street, Warrandyte.
There were no flowers by request. In lieu,
donations were made to Caritas.
VALE: ASESELE RAVUVU
Asesela Ravuvu passed away on Tuesday
11 March 2008. The USP University
community made a traditional presentation
at Professor Ravuvu´s home at Nadera on
Friday 14 March 2008.
BEACHCOMBING
A proposal to establish a funded Resource
Centre within ANU’s Pacific Centre as a
means communicate ANU’s interests in
the Pacific and PNG to government,
NGOs, regional governments and the
media, was discussed recently in Canberra.
The proposal is based on a model used by
DIFD and UK universities. The meeting
was attended by the Hon Mr Bob
McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for
International Development Assistance, his
Chief of Staff and two AusAID staff., and
ANU staff David Hegarty,
Stewart Firth, Nicole Haley, Matthew
Allen, Colin Filer, Chris Ballard, Peter
Larmour, Anthony Regan, Elizabeth Reid,
Kathleen Whimp, Simon Cann-Evans,
Mike Bourke, Bryant Allen and Robin
Jeffrey. Other matters discussed were
PNG’s universities, government and
administration, food security, HIV/AIDS
and the 2010 PNG census.
Pacific Studies teaching at ANU
expanded in 2008 with the offering of
Peter Lamour’s PASI8007 Ideas and
issues in Pacific Politics, and Paul
D’Arcy’s PASI3000 Special Topics in
Pacific Studies. Under Katerina Teaiwa’s
leadership ANU’s new Pacific Studies
program got off to a good start with a new
postgraduate course PASI 8001 The
Contemporary Pacific: Culture, Society,
Politics and Development and good
numbers in Paul D’Arcy’s undergraduate
core course, PASI 2002 Pacific
Encounters: an Introduction to History
and Culture in Oceania.
The 13th in the series of meetings
convened by Jim Burton as part of his
huge project to collect memories from all
Australians who lived and worked in the
Pacific was held in Brisbane’s Carindale
Library on July 11th. Jim invites former
7
Island residents to gather and contribute to
a nostalgic trip down memory lane by
sharing some of their experiences, stories,
photographs, music, and books or written
papers. Morning tea and a long chat
usually followed the round-the-room talks.
For further details of Jim Burton’s project
see, PAMBU 5/24, June 2008, pp9-10.
A long relationship between Sir Peter
Kenilorea and Clive Moore came to
fruition in July with the release of a
beautiful, and big book, Tell It As It Is:
Autobiography of Rt. Hon. Sir Peter
Kenilorea, KBA, PC, Solomon Islands’
First Prime Minister. Published in Taiwan
by the Centre for Asia-Pacific Area
Studies, Academica Sinica, it can be
purchased direct from CAPAS. (Clive
Moore, editor, 2008, xxxvi, 516 pp.)The
price is $NT800 for hard covers (ISBN
978-986-01-4497-0) and NT$NT700 for
the soft cover copies (ISBN 978-986-014498-7). The exchange rate between
Australia and Taiwan is about $A28 for
NT$800, which is a bargain for a large
book with 138 photos, many in colour.
A Memorandum of Understanding has
been signed by ANU and the Divine
Word University in Madang. The MOU
opens up the possibility of a range of cooperation between staff and students of the
two universities, without committing
either institution to any particular action.
In another Memorandum of
Understanding, students from the School
of Maori and Pacific Development at
Waikato University will be able to study
at UH Manoa, and students from the
UH’s Center for Pacific Islands Studies
(School of Pacific and Asian Studies), the
Hawai'inuiakea School of Hawaiian
Knowledge, and the Department of IndoPacific Languages and Literatures will be
able to study at the University of Waikato.
The Pacific Paradise exhibition, a history
of photography that encompasses India
through to the USA West Coast, was
launched at the National Museum of
Australia in July, as part of Canberra’s sixmonth VIVID photography festival.
Curator and author of the exhibition
catalogue, Gael Newton, gave the Pacific
Islands prominence in the exhibition,
despite being overwhelmed by Asian,
Australian, NZ and North American
works. The final life size photograph is
JW Lindt’s famous Motu “Water carrier”.
The work of JW Lindt, Max Dupain and
Pacific postcards were the subject of
papers presented at the associated AsiaPacific “Photographies” conference.
In a follow-up to the successful Film and
Pacific History conference at ANU in
February, Chris Ballard is planning an
Undergraduate course for second and third
years at ANU for Semester 2 2009,
tentatively called “On the Beach: Film and
History in the Pacific”. Chris has also been
busy writing on Papua, including revision
of an essay on Papuan ethnology for a
book on Encounters edited by Margaret
Jolly and Serge Tcherkezoff, from a
conference in 2001.
Helen Lee’s latest book, the second
outcome from the Pacific Diaspora and
transnationalism conferences Helen
convened at Melbourne in 2004 and then
Latrobe in November 2006, has just been
released. Ties to the homeland: second
generation transnationalism (CSP, 2008,
contains an essay on Pacific Islanders in
Brisbane and a long introductory essay by
Helen.
The Tongan Research Association
(formerly the Tongan History Association)
held its twelfth conference in Nuku`alofa,
Tonga, in July 2007. The theme was
"Tonga: its Land, Sea, and People".
Teresia Teaiwa has just joined the The
International Feminist Journal of Politics
as co-editor. Teresia, who was already a
board member, joins Sandra Whitworth
and Catherine Eschle at IFjP for three
years.
(http://www.victoria.ac.nz/pacific/staff/ter
esia-teaiwa.aspx).
The Australia and New Zealand
American Studies Association is putting
together a collection titled, Coast to Coast
and the Islands in Between: Modern
8
maritime crossings between Australia and
the United States and their impact on
Pacific Islands Cultures, 1850-1945. The
essays map the history of 'modernity on
the move' across the Pacific and
investigate the forgotten trade and tourist
connections between the east coast of
Australia and the west coast of the United
States that played a key role in the
development of economic and political ties
between the two nations. Importantly, the
research extends to uncover the impact of
those connections on the cultures and
economies of the Pacific Islands located
between the two nations. Editor Prue
Ahrens noted the focus of Coast to Coast
is firmly on objects from visual culture
from the period of 1850 to 1945 that
reveal trade and tourist relations between
Australia and the United States. Contact
Prue Ahrens; <p.ahrens@uq.edu.au>
Archives New Zealand has launched its
new audio visual film website online at
http://audiovisual.archives.govt.nz>
The site showcases over 100 film clips
sourced from the National Film Unit and is
a big step forward in making Archives
New Zealand's audio visual collection
more accessible and visible to New
Zealand and international viewers. Films
featured on the site include Weekly
Review and Pictorial Parade newsreels as
well as one-off documentaries. Historic
events covered include Queen Elizabeth's
visit to New Zealand in 1953, New
Zealanders leaving for Europe at the
beginning of World War Two and the
opening of the Rimutaka Tunnel. A wiki
feature gives visitors the opportunity to
add descriptive detail and share their
comments about the films with others.
Margaret Rodman, Daniela Kraemer,
Lissant Bolton, and Jean Tarisesei have
released through the University of Hawai'i
Press, House-Girls Remember: Domestic
Workers in Vanuatu. This collaborative
book with contributions from twenty-one
ni-Vanuatu and four expatriate women
gives voice to women who have worked as
maids - known as house-girls - in Vanuatu.
Text boxes throughout the book are in
Bislama. Methodologically, this
collaborative approach demonstrates the
possibilities for redefining post-colonial
research. The focus is on the experiences
of house-girls working for English,
French, and Chinese speaking employers
prior to independence in 1980.Two final
chapters address concerns of
contemporary house-girls working for
indigenous as well as expatriate
employers.
The winner of the 2006 Journal of Pacific
History International Essay Prize
(postgraduate division) was 'Men behaving
badly: sodomy cases in the colonial courts
of Papua New Guinea', by Christine
Stewart, a PhD student at the ANU. The
2007 prize was won by Frances Steele.
Every year JPH offers two prizes of
$A200 plus a three-year subscription to
The Journal of Pacific History for
academic essays in English or French on
any aspect of the history of the Pacific
Islands. The essays should preferably be
based on original research, and between
5,000 and 8,000 words long. A resident of
any country enrolled for study in an
accredited university (provided that the
author is not a member of academic staff)
can enter. One prize can be awarded to an
undergraduate, and the other to a graduate
student. For details contact Vicki Luker
<vicki.luker@anu.edu.au>
Nancy Pollock sent an item on a Michel
Tuffery exhibition which was displayed
and discussed at Pataka Museum, Porirua.
“Michel is a Samoan artist, whose Corned
Beef steers/Povi has fascinated me for
their messages about transferring ideas
about history through sculptures and
alternative forms of discourse. He has
produced a booklet to accompany this
exhibition which I am hoping several
libraries will access. This particular
exhibition is entitled First Contact and
consists of five life size Corned Beef
steers, as well as paintings, drawings,
prints. Helen Kedgley who has edited the
accompanying text, entitled one section
“Fresh Eyes on Pacific History”, citing
Tuffery’s questioning of the one-sidedness
of the European view of Cook, and
homage to Tupiaia, and Mai, and includes
a description of how the first cattle were
brought by Cook into the Pacific. Other
9
sections are headed Transformation, Trade
and Exchange, with a final comment by
Karen Stevenson”. More information is
available on the Pataka website.
Www.pataka.org.nz.
Helen Gardner’s book on George Brown
was nominated for the prestigious Ernest
Scott Prize, awarded annually to the book
judged to be the most distinguished
contribution to the History of Australia or
New Zealand published in the previous
year. Helen’s citation read; “Gathering for
God: George Brown in Oceania, by Helen
Gardner, is a highly original biography of
a Methodist missionary in the later
nineteenth-century. While the focus is on a
single life, the book moves beyond a
biography into a sophisticated engagement
with the multiple texts produced by the
book’s subject, George Brown, with
sensitivity to the form as well as the
context of these texts. Gardner re-assesses
missionary endeavour in the light of its
acceptance and continued influence within
indigenous communities. In documenting
Brown’s ethnographic collecting, Garnder
uses the notion of ‘gathering’ to consider
the interplay of Christian mission and
social anthropology over time, and the role
of both in the colonisation of the Pacific.
Especially fascinating is the tension
between Christian notions of similitude,
fellowship and individual improvement in
the light of Christian teaching, and
contemporary scientific theories
emphasising racial difference”. (Ed. Of the
three nominated books, Regina Ganter’s
Mixed relations, was the 2007 winner)
Many books published in Europe and
North America, especially Canada, never
get reviewed, or sold in the Pacific – here
is one that probably slipped past most of
us; Barbara Lawson’s Collected Curios:
Missionary Tales from the South Seas,
Montreal (1994) which gives an overview
of colonial collecting in the Pacific,
discusses missionary collecting in
southern Vanuatu, specifically on
Erromango, and also provides some
context regarding collections made in
Southern Vanuatu in the 1920s by
Cambridge anthropologist, C.B.
Humphreys. Barbara, Curator of
Ethnology, Redpath Museum, McGill
University also published “Collecting
Cultures: Canadian Missionaries, Pacific
Islanders, and Museums” in Canadian
Missionaries/ Indigenous Peoples:
Representing Religion at Home and
Abroad, edited by A. Austin and J.S.
Scott, University of Toronto Press, 2005.
The 10th Pacific Islands Political Studies
Association (PIPSA) Conference, on the
theme, Securing governance: Security,
stability and governance in the Pacific,
was held in Port Vila, Vanuatu, in
December 2007.
In addition to the sad news of the passing
of Greg Dening and Asesele Ravuvu, we
note that Dr Dennis Steley also passed
away in 2008. A teacher in the Solomons
and a scholar, Dennis completed an MA
and Phd on the Solomons; Juapa Rane:
the Seventh-day Adventist mission in the
Solomon Islands, 1914-1942, MA thesis,
University of Auckland, 1983; and
Unfinished: the Seventh - day Adventist
Mission in the South Pacific, excluding
Papua New Guinea, 1886-1986, PhD
thesis, University of Auckland, 1989.
Reece Discombe a well known Vanuatu
identity has also passed away. See
PAMBU 5/24, June 2008, for a longer
obituary.
An initiative of Susan Cochrane and
AAAPS, along with the National Museum
of Australia and the Pacific Partners
project (linking Australian and Pacific
museums), a series of Australia–Pacific
Museums workshops were held on the
theme “Pacific Cultural Heritage in
Australian Museums and Galleries: A
regional dialogue”. These were held in
Brisbane and Canberra in November 2007.
The purpose was to enhance cultural
engagement and dialogue between
museums with delegates from both the
Pacific and Australia, together with
representatives of Pacific communities
resident in Australia.
Paul Turnbull is commissioning five or
so articles for publication in 2008-9 in the
Australasia - Pacific Section of History
10
Compass, an online-only journal
publishing original, peer-reviewed articles.
The focus is on articles that are especially
useful in the teaching of history in
undergraduates courses and of interest to
postgraduates as well as essays that survey
recent historiography, address current
research debates or make suggestions for
fresh directions of inquiry.
2007, including several Pacific Historians
who were crossing over into Art History,
Media and Cultural studies.
David Hanlon, who came to the end of his
second, and final, term as director of CPIS
at UH Manoa will be returning to the
Department of History, where he will
resume the research and writing activities,
which had to take second seat to his
administrative duties. Among other jobs
while at CPIS David oversaw the
administration of a four-year milliondollar US Department of Education
National Resource Center Grant,
facilitated CPIS’s landmark conference
"Culture Moves!" in conjunction with Te
Papa Museum and Victoria University of
Wellington, and was a co-convener of the
recent "Micronesian Voices in Hawai'i.
The Center for Pacific Islands Studies at
the University of Hawaii will offer its first
course specifically for undergraduates.
Pacific Worlds: An Introduction to Pacific
Island Studies. PACS 108 is a onesemester course on a range of topics,
including migration, colonization,
governance, regionalism, globalism,
tourism, development, climate change, the
Pacific Diaspora, and contemporary arts
and cultures. The course, taught initially
by Vilsoni Heriniko, will also explore the
intersections between Hawai'i and the rest
of the Pacific and within Pacific Islander
communities in Hawai'i.
Terence Wesley-Smith, Associate
Professor and graduate chair in the Center
for Pacific Islands Studies, is the new
editor of The Contemporary Pacific: A
Journal of Island Affairs. Terence has
been the political reviews editor of the
journal since its inception.
David Chappell has been on sabbatical,
finishing up revisions on his book
manuscript, The Black and the Red:
Radical Nationalism in the 1970s Kanaky
New Caledonia, which examines the
genesis of the 1980s Kanak uprising.
David presented a paper, on Nidoish
Naisseline at the conference, "Pacific
Passages: Connecting East, West, and
Center in the Pacific Basin," at the
Huntington Library in Los Angeles,
California.
Nearly 200 world-wide delegates from 21
countries including PNG and first-time
participants from Tahiti and Taiwan, were
at the Musée du quai Branly for the
Pacific Arts Association IXth
International Symposium in Paris in July
To access the archives of the PNG
Association of Australia, now held in the
Fryer Library at UQ, (collection 387, with
17 boxes and folders), go to go to the
catalogue record,
http://library.uq.edu.au/record=b2112774
Mike Goldsmith visited Canberra and
then Brisbane and gave a talk in UQ’s
Cultural History Project series, on
‘Historicizing Gerd Koch’s ethnographic
films on Tuvalu’.
Clive Moore has been busy recently, with
promotion to Professor, taking over as
Head of School, the publication of Peter
Kenilorea’s autobiography and a series of
lunchtime papers on the Sogavare
government as well as Pacific Archives
and museums. Clive also opened a recent
art exhibition at Baboa Gallery, Brisbane,
on the theme of shared PNG-Australian
experiences.
As well as launching his book
Photographing Papua, Max Quanchi
also launched Hunting the collectors, coedited with Susan Cochrane, and gave
papers at conferences in Vienna, Paris and
Dunedin in 2007, and continued travelling
in 2008 to attend further conferences in
Canberra (twice). The fate of Pacific
Studies at QUT remains undecided but
bleak. A text book on Pacific History with
Grant McCall and Paul D’Arcy makes
11
slow progress despite several intensive
weekend rendezvous.
Sr Alaima Talu has returned from USP to
Kiribati, and is putting the finishing
touches on her MA thesis on Catholic
education and development in Kiribati.
The Macmillan Brown Centre for
Pacific Studies continues to annually
invite applications from researchers and
scholars with active interests in the Pacific
for positions as Research or Visiting
Scholars. Karen Nero reports “The
Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific
Studies was established in 1988 to
promote and advance scholarship and
understanding of the Pacific region,
including Aotearoa New Zealand - its
people, societies and cultures; histories;
arts; politics; environment and resources;
development and the future. Research
must be of interest and relevance to the
peoples, cultures and countries of
Melanesia, Micronesia and/or Polynesia,
including Aotearoa New Zealand”. For
details of the Scholarships and conditions
visit http://www.pacs.canterbury.ac.nz/.
The Pacific Islands Museums
Association (PIMA), established as the
first regional forum where heritage
professionals could exchange their views
and work towards improving the quality
of the services that they provided to the
public, has moved office from Suva to Fiji.
The first PIMA Board was appointed in
1994 and the Association’s Vision,
Mission and Aims were first developed in
1997. During the first years of
PIMA, the Secretariat for the Pacific
Community (SPC) hosted and supported
the Secretariat and in May 1999, PIMA
was incorporated as a non-profit
organisation in Fiji, where the PIMA
secretariat was located until May 2006.
In June 2006, the secretariat relocated to
its current base at the Vanuatu Cultural
Centre in Port Vila. PIMA was officially
accepted as an affiliated organisation of
the International Council of Museums
(ICOM) in 1998. Check the upgraded
Pacific Heritage Network website:
http://www.culturepacific.org/en/index.sht
ml
The new Secretary General of PIMA and
ICOMOS Pasifika is Dr Kim Selling. She
was previously with the Cross Cultural
Task Force of ICOM, Paris, and the
Pacific Asia Observatory for Cultural
Diversity in Human Development
(UNESCO).
Christine Weir has settled in to teaching
History at USP, helping Morgan
Tuimaleali’ifano with the coming PHA
conference, and working to invigorate the
local Fiji History Teachers association.
With her husband Tony Weir, Christine
has also become a benefactor at Davuilevu
Theological College, where Tony’s
grandfather was once Principal.
Andrew Thornley has also been at
Davuilevu conducting thesis preparation
and examination programs with the current
batch of Degree students. Andrew’s third
book in a trilogy on the Methodists in Fiji
was published, and he is now working on
the next in the Methodist pioneer series,
with as he said “many more deserving of a
book”.
Samantha Rose has taken leave from her
doctoral thesis on women’s organisations
in Kiribati, to become research assistant
for the writing of a national report into the
teaching and research in Pacific studies in
Australia.
Christine Liava'a continues to release
new material on her website from the
Pacific Islands Interests group; NZ Society
of Genealogists, especially on Fiji in
World War 1.
http://www.freewebs.com/fiji/
AusAID recently announced a a call for
the submission of applications for the
2008 Funding Round for the Australian
Development Research Awards. The
Awards are a pillar of the recently
launched AusAID Development Research
Strategy which significantly scales up
AusAID's development research program.
Funding of $50,000 to $250,000 per year
for up to three years in 9 priority theme
areas: Development Effectiveness,
Disability, Economics, Education,
12
Environment, Food Security, Gender,
Governance and State Building and
Health. Documentation and an online
submission example is downloadable from
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/research/awards
.cfm
The current round of ranking journals has
some anomalies in the ranking journals,
for example the International History
Review (IHR) which has many Australian
and Pacific contributors, received only a
Research Excellence award of C. The
grade of C is clearly intended to be seen as
a failing grade: no self-respecting scholar
would publish in such a journal!! The IHR
considers itself the equal to the Canadian
Journal of History, Diplomatic History,
and French Historical Studies, to name
only three journals ranked A, and superior
to A+ journals such as the English
Historical Review. Last year a similar
furore erupted over the low ranking, or
complete absence of many key Pacific
History journals in lists that eventually
might determine the award of grants,
promotion, and scholarly output.
Oceania Newsletter 49, March 2008,
from the Centre for Pacific and Asian
Studies at the Radboud University in
Nijmegen, Netherlands includes New
Books and other Recent Publications and
is available as a PDF-file;
http://www.ru.nl/cps/
http://www.ru.nl/cps/49/49con.html
After a long engagement across “the
ditch”, and diligently labouring to promote
trans-Tasman studies, Peter Hempenstall
has left the University of Canterbury and
returned to Australia – in retirement?? –
and among other projects to write a history
of “Churchie” school in Brisbane.
Grant McCall spoke at the ESfO
conference in Verona in July, along with
Margaret Jolly and others, and is now
searching the archives in Santiago and
Rapanui for the next six months. As
President of the International Small
Islands Studies Association (ISISA),
Grant will take a short break in August to
head to Jeju Island, Korea for the ISISA
conference.
The Macleay Museum, University of
Sydney, ran an exhibition on “People,
Power, Politics: the first generation of
anthropologists at the University of
Sydney” from February to July 2008. The
exhibition looked at the period between
1923 and 1947 when Sydney was the only
Department teaching Anthropology in
Australia. In particular the exhibition
focused on anthropologists and their
engagement with fieldwork; including
A.P. Elkin, Ian Hogbin, Ursula McConnel,
William Stanner, Camilla Wedgwood,
Ronald and Catherine Berndt, Raymond
Firth, Charles Hart and Phyllis Kaberry.
In another example of Asian interest in the
Pacific, the Journal of Austronesian
Studies is published by the National
Museum of Prehistory, Taitung, Taiwan.
Published biannually it is devoted to the
study of Austronesian societies from
Archaeological, Anthropological, and
Linguistic perspectives. Published both in
Chinese and English, JAS welcomes
research articles, field research report,
research materials, review article, and
book reviews relating to aspects of society,
history, and culture of the Austronesianspeaking people. JAS is a refereed
journal. Contact; <JAS@nmp.gov.tw>
Ralph Reganvanu gave a brilliant address
at the recent AAAPS conference,
highlighting niVanuatu solutions to
development policy and implementation.
Ralph has made available his sources, For
information about the “Traditional Money
Banks” Project, see (a) "The Strategy to
Recognise and Promote the Traditional
Economy as the Basis for Achieving
National Self Reliance" and the "Vanuatu
National Self Reliance Strategy 2020":
http://www.vanuatuculture.org/projects/05
0628_traditionalmoneybankproject.shtml
(b) for the National Lands Summit see:
http://www.vanuatuculture.org/trm/20060
925_lands-summit.shtml; (c) for the
“Year of the Traditional Economy”,
including the “Year of the Traditional
Economy Matrix” (in Bislama, with a
summary of the policy objectives in
English attached to this message) and my
paper “The Year of the Traditional
Economy – What is it all about? and
13
<http://www.vanuatuculture.org/document
s/CustomEconomyBlurb.doc> " and
http://www.vanuatuculture.org/trm/20070
207_kastom_ekonomi.shtml.
Australian interest in PNG received
another boost with a conference in June
held by The Crawford School at ANU, on
the PNG – Australia Partnership,
particularly the PNG economy, labour
mobility, seasonal migration, the impact of
oil prices, food security in PNG, the
Kokoda track and PNG and climate
change. The seminar at the James O
Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra was part of a series on
Papua New Guinea and was supported by
the Australian government's aid agency,
AusAID, and the Pacific Economic
Bulletin.
Jan Rensel and Alan Howard gave an
invited talk, "Choices: Deciding How to
Write History, and for Whom," at the
University of Hawaii’s Center for
Biographical Research on 28 February.
They spoke about their experiences and
decisions in creating their new book,
Island Legacy: A History of the Rotuman
People, which they wrote specifically for
Rotuman audiences.
As well as organizing the Pacific Roots
symposium in Suva (Dec 1-5 2008), Serge
Tcherkezoff from the Centre de recherche
et de documentation sur l'Océanie Maison
Asie Pacifique, Université de Provence,
was in Canberra to give a paper on
“History and Anthropology; can we
discuss early cultural encounters between
Europeans and Pacific peoples?”
The Pacific does not feature often in
Australian media, so a feature on kava
recently stood out in the Sydney Morning
Herald. Hamish McDonald’s article “A
relaxing drop in dire need of a Pacific
solution” (May 24 2008) can be found at
government officer who worked in all
areas of the country between the 1950s
and 1970s, but also because he and his
wife were great bush walkers and walked
long distances where ever they were
posted. James and his wife were at the
very large gathering of ‘Old Solo Hands’
and Solomon Islanders at New Farm Park,
Brisbane, an annual event, also attended
by Solomon Islands High Commissioner
Victor Ngele and his wife. His book,
Solomon Island years - A District
Administrator in the Islands 1952–1974,
(Stuarts Point, NSW: Tautu Studies, 2008,
pp. 304, 40 photographs, maps) is a
fascinating read on the Solomon Islands.
Copies can be obtained by contacting
James Tedder, Pavans Road, Grassy Head,
via STUARTS POINT, NSW, 2441,
Australia, with a cheque or money order.
Frances Steele taught at Otago in 2007
and 2008; ‘Pacific History to c1900,’
‘Pacific History: Bodies, Identities,
Modernities,’ and ‘Oceans of History,’ In
2009 she will be teaching at Wollongong
‘An Ocean of History: An Introduction to
the Pacific World’. She continues with her
research based on the colonial origins of
cruise-ship tourism in the Pacific,
comparing and connecting the operations
of the USSCo, Burns Philp and the Matson
Line between 1880s and 1950s, and
looking at the ways indigenous
communities and individuals variously
engaged with, negotiated or resisted the
growth and expansion of leisure tours. The
cultural and colonial history of the iconic
Grand Pacific Hotel, (now occupied by the
Fiji military) built in Suva by the USSCo
in 1914, is part of her research plan.
www.smh.com.au/interactive/2008/nationa
l/kava-in-tongan-church/index.html
Paul D'Arcy, based at ANU has joined
Judy Bennett ( Uni of Otago) as current
co-editors of the Journal of Pacific
History. Former co-editor, Chris Ballard
has retired but is still on the Board which
now has two new members, Ann Hattori
(Uni of Guam) and Adrian Muckle
(Victoria Uni, Wellington).
Few names from BSIP days are as well
known as James Tedder. “DC Tedder” as
he was known, was famed not only as a
Louise Mataia who is on staff of the
National University of Samoa has recently
returned to lecturing there after
14
successfully completing her Post Graduate
Diploma in History and her Master degree
at the University of Otago where she was
supervised by Judy Bennett and Angela
Wanhalla. Her thesis traced the
involvement of Pacific Islanders in the
Maori Battalion in World War Two.
Louise is one of the Samoans that the
Otago Humanities Division funded (and is
funding) to assist the professional
development of staff at University of
Samoa. This relationship has led to the
granting of a house to accommodate
University of Otago researchers on the
campus of the National University.
Opened recently by the Vice-Chancellor of
the University of Otago, Professor David
Skegg, the house is called Otago House
and already is booked up for researchers.
Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (PMB)
rercently advertised for an Archivist, for a
three year term, as part of a shared post, in
preparation for Ewan Maidment’s
iminent retirement.
The original copy of the Fijian version of
the Fiji Deed of Cession was found in
Levuka in early 2008 by government
officials. The document, handwritten using
a quill pen, in Fijian, was produced in
1874, so Fijian chiefs would know what
they were signing. The Deed of Cession
was signed on October 10, 1874 at Nasova
in Levuka by 13 chiefs of Fiji and Sir
Hercules George Robert Robinson, the
Governor of NSW and the British
Government representative.
A travelling exhibition of tapa, called
Making Tapa will soon tour regional
centres and the capital cities in Australia.
As well as the exhibition there will be
workshops and story telling about their
acquisition and collection.
A two day postgraduate seminar and
workshop “Writing the Pacific” is being
conducted to develop ideas, resources and
writing skills and think through issues of
cross- or inter-disciplinary work in Pacific
Studies. Led by Paul Sharrad and
Stewart Firth, with funding from the Asia
Pacific Futures Research Network,
(APFRN) the workshop will be held at
Wollongong in November 2008. Paul and
Stewart, with Tereseia Teaiwa, Mark
Mosko, Max Quanchi, Kate Hannan and
Helen Lee will work with a group of
postgraduates to generate morale and
synergies among postgraduate in the
Pacific Studies field, to check their
methodologies and insights against work
from different disciplinary bases.
Doug Munro has taken a sabbitical and is
working on the history of suicide in New
Zealand with John Weaver of McMaster
University. Their article on rural suicide
in NZ will be appearing next year in the
Journal of Social History. Doug is also
moonlighting - finishing his book The
Ivory Tower and Beyond: essays on
Pacific historians for Cambridge Scholars
Publishing (CSP). This is part of CSP’s
"Pacific Focus Series" under the editorship
of Susan Cochrane and Max Quanchi.
Doug’s will be the sixth Pacific title in this
series.
Max Shekleton, always on the lookout for
minutiae about New Caledonia, noted a
story arguing that when the British
established the province of British
Columbia in 1858, the name of New
Caledonia, by which the region was then
known, was unacceptable because of the
prior existence of a French colony in the
South Pacific of the same name. See
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/feat
ures/fraser/story.html?id=ad67c99b-de
0c-497e-985531e6f5711e3c&k=66513
&p=1 (on p.3)
Deakin University (Melbourne) recently
offered a postdoctoral fellowship for 18
months in the area of Pacific Island
history, heritage and memory. Twelve
fellowships were offered with one
designated for the Pacific project.
http://www.deakin.edu.au/hr/employment/
academic.php
The University of Queensland’s ACPACS
(Australian Centre for Peace and
Conflict Studies) has been active on a
range of Pacific issues, including a recent
seminar from the Vanuatu Kastom
Governance Research Symposium, called
“An Appreciative Journey” with papers by
15
by Volker Boege, Anne Brown, Peter
Westoby and Harriot Beazley, and a
lunchtime seminar by Ron Crocombe
on: “The changing role of Asia and Asians
in Peace and Conflict in the Pacific
Islands”
Judith A/ Bennett’s new book Natives
and Exotics: World War II and
Environment in the Southern Pacific” is
out soon. (UH Press, Unjacketed cloth
(mostly for libraries) $USD60.00; or
Paper, $USD30.00.) The advance notes
suggest several big themes; “ Ambitious in
its scope and scale, this environmental
history of World War II ranges over rear
bases and operational fronts from Bora
Bora to New Guinea, providing a lucid
analysis of resource exploitation,
entangled wartime politics, and human
perceptions of the vast Oceanic
environment. Although the war’s physical
impact proved significant and oftentimes
enduring, this study shows that the tropical
environment offered its own challenges:
Unfamiliar tides left landing craft
stranded; unseen microbes carrying
endemic diseases disabled thousands of
troops. Weather, terrain, plants, animals—
all played an active role as enemy or ally.
At the heart of Natives and Exotics is the
author’s analysis of the changing visions
and perceptions of the environment, not
only among the millions of combatants,
but also among the Islands’ peoples and
their colonial administrations in wartime
and beyond”. The back cover endorsement
notes that “Judith Bennett reveals how
prewar notions of a paradisiacal Pacific set
up millions of Americans, Australians,
New Zealanders, and Japanese for grave
disappointment when they encountered the
reality. She shows that objects usually
considered distinct from environmental
concerns (souvenirs, cemeteries, war
memorials) warrant further examination as
the emotional quintessence of events in a
particular place. Among native people,
wartime experiences and resource
utilization induced a shift in environmental
perceptions just as the postwar colonial
agenda demanded increased diversification
of the resource base. Bennett’s ability to
reappraise such human perceptions and
productions with an environmental lens is
one of the unique qualities of this study.”
COMING CONFERENCES
Imag(in)ing Asia and the Pacific:
Emerging Visualities and Art
Perspectives, Department of the History
of Art and Visual Studies Annual
Graduate Symposium, Cornell University
February 20-21, 2009. Contact Bernida
Webb-Binder and Brinda Kumar
(baw78@cornell.edu and
bk269@cornell.edu).
l’association CORAIL will hold its 2008
Colloquim on OBJET D’ART ET ART
DE L’OBJET (Art objects and objects as
art) in Noumea, New Caledonia 12-14
December 2008. Contact Dominique
Barbe <dominique.barbe@univ-nc.nc>
Stéphane Pannoux <pannoux@univnc.nc> René Zimmer rene.zimmer@uninc.nc Françoise Cayrol-Baudrillart
<francoise.cayrol-baudrillart@gouv.nc> or
MarianneTissandier
<marianne.tissandier@gouv.nc>
Contemporary Myths in the South Pacific
will be held at the University of New
Caledonia in October 2008. For
information, contact Sonia Faessel at
soniafaessel@lagoon.nc.
The National University of Sāmoa will
hold the 4th Measina a Sāmoa
Conference, on December 15–17, 2008.
This international conference will be
convened by the Centre for Sāmoan
Studies of the National University of
Sāmoa and will be held at the National
University of Sāmoa, Le Papaigalagala,
Sāmoa. Measina a Sāmoa is a biennial
university forum which aims to bring
together sons and daughters of Sāmoa
along with scholars and practitioners of
various disciplines to discuss, debate and
reflect on pertinent matters concerning
Sāmoa. Contact; t.lafotanoa@nus.edu.ws.
The Pacific Worlds and the American
West Conference was hosted by the
16
American West Center at the University of
Utah in February 2008 in Salt Lake City,
Utah. More information about the
American West Center’s Transnational
West Program and its Pacific Initiative,
including its plans to construct a Digital
Pacific Archive, can be found at:
www.awc.utah.edu.
Tok Talanoa: Pathways to the
Future for Melanesia and New Zealand
will be held on Monday 29th and Tuesday
30th September, 2008, Mercure Hotel,
Wellington, New Zealand. Organised by
Pacific Cooperation Foundation;
Email. <florence@pcf.org.nz>
Website: www.pcf.org.nz
The University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Department of English, along with the
Center for Pacific Islands Studies, the
Center for South Asian Studies, and the
Indigenous Politics Program in the
Department of Political Science, will
present "Folktales and Fairy Tales:
Translation, Colonialism, and Cinema,"
23-26 September 2008. The symposium
will explore the significance of folk and
fairy tales within the contemporary world,
in a manner that is interdisciplinary and
attentive to the UH Manoa's location in the
Pacific. The symposium seeks to stimulate
conversations among scholars of
contemporary culture by discussing social
practices-translation and colonialism-that
have, in different ways, shaped the history
of both folktales and fairy tales. It will also
focus on the role of cinema-from Disney
to indigenous films-in the production and
reception of magic and wonder today. The
conference organizers are Cristina
Bacchilega, Noenoe Silva, and Vilsoni
Hereniko. Participation and attendance at
the symposium will be free of charge.
Further information at;
http://folkandfairytalesuhm.googlepages.c
om/.
The conference Christian Mission in the
public square, Canberra, 2-5 October
2008, by the Australian Centre for
Christianity and Culture, focuses on the
theme of Christian mission in the public
square. Its purpose is to explore how the
Christian message speaks in public and
civic life in Australia and globally. The
main sessions will focus on the conference
theme, but papers on all aspects of mission
studies are welcome, including global,
inter-cultural, local and contextual
mission, public theology and the history of
mission. The conference aims to facilitate
research, within an ecumenical context,
among those engaged in mission studies
and public theology, particularly in
Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
Inquiries; Katie Chambers
kchambers@csu.edu.au, or Dr Julia
Pitman jpitman@csu.edu.au.
Please send information about any other
Conferences, Workshops, Symposia,
Colloquia, etc, on the Pacific Islands
to: The ICSPI Secretariat c/o: UNESCO
Office for the Pacific, P.O. Box 615, Apia
Samoa. Phone: (685) 24276 extension 29,
Fax: (685) 22253/ 26593 Email:
icspisec@unesco.org.ws
NEW BOOKS
Unheard Voices of the Bush: A report of
the 2007 Kastom Gaden Association
assessment of the food security and
livelihood potential of East Kwaio and
Central Kwara’ae regions of Malaita,
Solomon Islands
http://www.terracircle.org.au/mffn/papers/
unheardvoices_www.pdf
Changes in the Matai System/O Suiga i le
Faamatai, edited by Asofou So'o, is a
collection of articles by leading indigenous
Samoan scholars. It is published by the
Centre for Samoan Studies at the National
University of Samoa (NUS). 2007. ISBN
978-982-900329-4, paper, ST40.00, plus
postage. For more information, contact
Centre for Samoan Studies, NUS, PO Box
1622, Apia, Samoa.
The Centre for Democratric
Institutions, based at ANU, released its
latest newsletter. The June-July 2008 issue
of CDI.News is now available on
@http://www.cdi.anu.edu.au/cdinews/D_P
/200708/2008_05_CDI.News_JUN_JUL.p
df
17
Papa Bilong Chimbu (2007, DVD, 54
minutes), directed by Verena Thomas, tells
the story of her great-uncle, Father John
Nilles, who went to Papua New Guinea as
a young missionary in 1937. He stayed
there for the next 54 years, living with the
people of Chimbu. Verna noted he was
more than a priest; he became an
anthropologist, linguist, politician, and
clan leader. The film, in English and Tok
Pisin, is available from Ronin Films. A
study guide is also available. The DVD is
$AUD49.50.
The People of the Sea: Environment,
Identity, and History in Oceania, by
historian Paul D'Arcy, attempts to fill a
gap in Pacific history research by
combining neglected historical and
scientific material to provide the first
synthetic study of ocean-people interaction
in the region from 1770 to 1870. 2008,
312 pages. ISBN 978-0-8248-3297-1,
paper, $USD25.00; ISBN 978-0-82482959-9, cloth, $USD36.00.
From AidWatch: Tim Anderson, “The
Limits of RAMSI”, (20pp)
http://www.aidwatch.org.au/index.php?cur
rent=24&display=aw01164&display_item
=1
The New Zealand Electronic Text
Centre has recently made available online
another batch of texts.
The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks
1768-1771 [Volumes One & Two] edited
by J. C. Beaglehole (vol 1):
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiBea01Bank.html
(vol 2) :
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiBea02Bank.html
Explorers of the Pacific by Te Rangi
Hiroa URL:
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiBucExpl.html
Discoverers of the Cook Islands and the
Names they Gave by Alphons M.J.
Kloosterman
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiKloDisc.html
Maori and Missionary, by T. A. Pybus
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiPybMiss.html
The Maoris of the South Island by T. A.
Pybus
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiPybMaor.html
The Maori Situation by I. L. G.
Sutherland
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiSutMaor.html
Anthropology and Religion by Peter
Henry Buck
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiBucAnth.html
An Introduction to Polynesian
Anthropology by Te Rangi Hiroa
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiBucIntr.html
A Sketch of the New Zealand War by
Morgan S. Grace
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiGraASke.html
Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast,
N.I., N.Z. by Joseph Angus Mackay
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiMacHist.html
Takitimu by Tiaki Hikawera Mitira
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/teiMitTaki.html
The eHRAF World Cultures is a crosscultural database that contains information
on all aspects of cultural and social life.
Information is multidisciplinary in
orientation and is organized into cultures
and ethnic groups; full-text sources are
subject-indexed at the paragraph level.
eHRAF is produced by the Human
Relations Area Files, Inc. (HRAF) at Yale
University. You can access it via URL:
http://www.library.qut.edu.au/db/4989f
Tonga and the Tongans: heritage and
identity, ed. Elizabeth Wood-Ellem, Tonga
Research Association, 2007, consists of 19
essays (9 by Tongans), 49 illus. Available
in Tonga from the Friendly Islands
Bookshop; in Australia from
fihu28@optusnet.com.au ($AUD40
including postage); in NZ from
christine@gmail.com ($NZ60 including
postage). US residents may order from
Taimi 'o Tonga.
Memories of War: Micronesians in the
Pacific War, by Suzanne Falgout, Lin
Poyer, and Laurence M Carucci, sets out
18
to fill a historical gap in Pacific War
histories by presenting Micronesian
remembrances-the ritual commemorations,
features of the landscape, stories, dances,
and songs that keep their memories of the
conflict alive. UHPress, 2007, 288 pages.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3130-1, paper,
US$25.00.
The Growth and Collapse of Pacific
Island Societies: Archaeological and
Demographic Perspectives, edited by
Patrick V Kirch and Jean-Louis Rallu, is
an interdisciplinary contribution to the
long-standing concern with demographic
levels and change before and following
European contacts with Pacific Island
societies. The book contains case studies
for the Hawaiian Islands, Mo'orea, the
Marquesas, Tonga, Samoa, the Tokelau
Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and
Kosrae. UH Press 2008, 432 pages. ISBN
978-0-8248-3148-6, paper, US$35.00.
Mau Moko: The World of Maori Tattoo,
by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku and Linda
Waimarie Nikora, looks at the moko, from
pre-European times to the present. It
examines the use of tattooing by
traditional and contemporary Maori and
links it to other aspects of Maori culture.
UH Press.
A printed compendium issue of Vol 1-1
and 1-2 of the online journal Shima: The
International Journal of Research into
Island Cultures' is now available via
<www.shimajournal.org> Shima is a peerrefereed research journal facilitated by the
Island Cultures Research Centre (ICRC),
Division of Humanities, Macquarie
University.
Dancing, Dying, Crawling, Crying:
Stories of Continuity and Change in the
Polynesian Community of Tikopia, by
Solomon Islander playwright and teacher
Julian Treadway, compares the Tikopia of
today with the Tikopia of the past.
Through his observations and stories he
considers how traditional society can
benefit from the modern world without
completely losing their distinctive cultures
and identities. IPS, Suva, 2007, 278 pages.
ISBN 978-982-01-0813-4, paper,
US$39.00.
Asia in the Pacific Islands: Replacing the
West, by long time Pacific observer Ron
Crocombe, documents the early
connections between Asia and the Pacific,
details recent and continuing changes, and
poses challenging theories about the
future. IPS, Suva, 2007, 644 pages. ISBN
978-982-02-0388-4, paper, US$49.00.
(The book is also available in cloth for
US$59.00.)
Not Quite Extinct: Melanesian Bark
Cloth (‘tapa’) from western Solomon
Islands. by Rhys Richards and Kenneth
Roga. Paremata Press, Wellington, New
Zealand. 100 pages A4 size; quality paper
and perfect bound card cover; fifty colour
photos and 26 black and white;
commercial sales limited to 250 copies
(with 250 provided free to the Solomon
Islands); a non-profit venture.
ISBN 0-958-2013-2-3. Sales by email
only at mrhys@paradise.net.nz
Manu Moriori; Human and Bird
Carvings on Live Kopi Trees on the
Chatham Islands. Purchase direct from
Paremata Press $NZ 30, Paremata Press,
73 Seaview Rd, Paremata, Wellington
N.Z. 5024, With 100 motifs, 12 colour
photos of living trees, 15 historic photos,
96 pages, 210 mm x 240 mm ( ¾ A4 size).
Rapanui (Easter Island) is famous for
Moai which are stone statues and all are
dead. Rekohu (Chatham Island) has Manu
Moriori which are carved trees and 150
are still alive.
IPS Publications at the University of the
South Pacific is delighted to launch its
overhauled, updated and user-friendly
website. The site gives details of the 350+
titles we have published over the last three
decades - all relating to aspects of the
Pacific region and most written by Pacific
Islanders. Access the treasure trove that is
IPS at <www.ipsbooks.usp.ac.fj>, find
details of all titles and buy online.
The Pacific Profiles: 2006 is a series of
seven reports, based on the results from
the 2006 New Zealand Census. They
19
provide detailed information on Samoans,
Cook Island Maori, Tongans, Niueans,
Fijians, Tokelauans and Tuvaluans who
live in New Zealand. The profiles provide
information on demographics, language,
religion, families and households,
education, the labour force, income,
housing, access to amenities such as the
internet, smoking behaviour and number
of children born to women. View the
Pacific Profiles at;
www.stats.govt.nz/analyticalreports/pacific-profiles-2006/default.htm
Routes and Roots: Navigating Caribbean
and Pacific Island Literatures by
Elizabeth DeLoughrey is the first
comparative study of Caribbean and
Pacific Island literatures and the first work
to bring indigenous and Diaspora literary
studies together in a sustained dialogue.
Taking the "tidalectic" between land and
sea as a dynamic starting point, the book
foregrounds geography and history in an
exploration of how island writers inscribe
the complex relation between routes and
roots. UH Press April 2007, 352 pages, 4
maps, ISBN 978-0-8248-3122-6, cloth,
$USD49.00
Intervention and state-building in the
Pacific; The legitimacy of ‘cooperative
intervention’ Edited by Greg Fry and
Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka, HB 978-07190-7683-1, $158.00, 234x156mm
256pp, Manchester University Press,
available from 1/7a Properity Parade,
Warriewood, NSW, 2102, Australia, ph
02-99973973; fax 02-99973185; email;
sales@footprint.com.au
Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat
You All: A New Zealand Story, by
Christina Thompson, is the story of the
cultural collision between Westerners and
the Maoris of Aotearoa/New Zealand, told
partly as a history of the complex and
bloody period of contact in the late
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and
partly as a love story – of Thompson's
marriage to a Maori man. Bloomsbury
USA. 2008, 256 pages. ISBN 13-978-159691-126-0, cloth, US$24.95.
We Fought the Navy and Won: Guam's
Quest for Democracy, by Doloris Coulter
Cogan, is a "carefully documented yet
impassioned recollection of Guam's
struggle to liberate itself from the
absolutist rule of the U.S. Navy." The
author was PacificIslands assistant in the
US Department of the Interior in the early
1950s. Part of her story centers around
Carlos Taitano, who served in the US
Army and returned home to Guam to
participate in activities that brought about
the Organic Art of Guam in 1950. A
Latitude 20 Book. 2008, 264 pages. ISBN
978-0-8248-3216-2, paper, US$24.00;
ISBN 978-0-8248-3089-2, cloth,
US$45.00.
Tattooing the World: Pacific Designs in
Print and Skin, by Juniper Ellis. This new
book explores traditional Pacific tattoo
patterns and their meanings for Pacific
cultures and locates their origins and the
significance of modern tattoo within a vast
literature. Colombia University Press.
2008, 304 pages. ISBN 978-0-231-143684, cloth, US$79.50.
20
Pacific History Association
http://www.pacifichistoryassociation.com/
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21