Category: Pacific

Tonga: A New Bibliography

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Tonga is a fascinating and subtle combination of a traditional Polynesian kingdom—the only one to survive the impact of colonization in the nineteenth century and remain independent—and a thoroughly Christian country. This comprehensive bibliography is a selective guide to the most significant and accessible English-language books, papers, and articles on every aspect of the kingdom’s history, culture, arts, politics, environment, and economy. It is a much updated and expanded edition of the original version that was published in 1999 as part of the World Bibliographical Series, with the addition of more than 200 new entries. Each of the approximately 600 described and annotated items is organized under broad subject headings, and indexed by author, title, and subject. In addition—and new to this edition—all known Ph.D. theses, although not annotated, are shown within their appropriate subject categories and indexed. Also new is a section on the most important Tonga-related websites. A general introduction describes the Tongan kingdom, its history and society, and its current situation.

“Tonga is unique among bibliographies in its perception and understanding, and in its affection for Tonga and its people. . . . Daly’s work stands on exceptionally sound foundations. . . . His summaries are excellent, indeed, but Daly writes always with the authority of first-hand knowledge, with a keen eye for the essential, and the ability to interpret and clarify obscurities. . . . A trustworthy introduction to Tonga in all its diversity, a splendid point de départ for all, layman or scholar, needing a reliable guide to the essential literature about this remarkable Polynesian kingdom.” —Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

February 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3196-7 / $65.00 (CLOTH)

Roth Receives National Award for Social Justice Work

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UH law professor and UH Press author Randall Roth was awarded the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award from Morehouse College for his pursuit of social justice though nonviolent means. Roth received the award last month on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day at the tenth anniversary of “Victory Over Violence,” an activity of the International Committee of Artists for Peace.

The GKI Award was created by Morehouse College to celebrate the lives and work of three individuals from different cultures and countries whose common path of profound dedication to peace is recognized internationally. The award presentation emphasized Roth’s writings that call for transparency and accountability in government and charities.

One of 2008’s Most Memorable Books

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Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai‘i, Jon Van Dyke’s history of ceded lands following the 1846–1848 Mahele, is one of the “Most Memorable Books of 2008,” according to the Honolulu Advertiser’s Christine Thomas:

“In support of his assertion that ‘Crown Lands should once again be managed by and for the Native Hawaiian People,’ Van Dyke details their intricate history and legal status, laying a remarkably clear and completely captivating path of understanding. He effortlessly navigates such complex intersections as Hawaiian concepts of land tenure and smartly steers past such disputes as the role of ali’i in a new Hawaiian Nation to elucidate and persuasively affirm the Crown Lands’ unique status so they can be more effectively restored to their intended purpose and beneficiaries.”

Poems by Wayne Kaumualii Westlake

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In an all-too-brief life and literary career, Wayne Kaumualii Westlake produced a substantial body of poetry. He broke new ground as a poet, translated Taoist classical literature and Japanese haiku, interwove perspectives from his Hawaiian heritage into his writing and art, and published his work locally, regionally, and internationally. Westlake: Poems by Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947–1984) includes nearly two hundred of Westlake’s poems—most unavailable to the public or never before published.

“The poems run the whole gamut of emotions . . . and do so with immaculate and measured control of language and imagery . . . [T]his one collection, in my reckoning, establishes Westlake as one of Hawai‘i and the Pacific’s major poets.” —Albert Wendt

Talanoa: Contemporary Pacific Literature
January 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3067-0 / $17.95 (PAPER)

A Maritime History of the Pacific Peoples

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Written by Alastair Couper, a senior scholar and master mariner, Sailors and Traders: A Maritime History of the Pacific Peoples is the first comprehensive account of the maritime peoples of the Pacific. It focuses on the sailors who led the exploration and settlement of the islands and New Zealand and their seagoing descendants, providing along the way new material and unique observations on traditional and commercial seagoing against the background of major periods in Pacific history.

December 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3239-1 / $55.00 (CLOTH)

Scheduled Appearances for Milton Murayama

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Maui-born author Milton Murayama will be visiting Hawai‘i to sign copies of his fourth novel, Dying in a Strange Land, which completes the tetralogy of the Oyama family saga that began with his 1975 classic, All I Asking for Is My Body. Murayama followed this with Five Years on a Rock and Plantation Boy in 1994 and 1998, respectively.

Book Signings
Saturday, November 8, 2:00-3:00 pm: Barnes & Noble Lahaina
Sunday, November 9, 3:00-4:00 pm: Borders-Kahului
Tuesday, November 11, 2:00-3:00 pm: Barnes & Noble Ala Moana
Saturday, November 15, 2:00-3:00 pm: Borders-Pearlridge Center
Sunday, November 16, 2:00-3:00 pm: Borders-Ward Centre

“Revisiting Milton Murayama: From Plantation to Diaspora”
The public is also invited to attend a special event scheduled for Wednesday, November 12, from 6:30-8:30 pm at the UH-Manoa Art Auditorium. The program will feature the premiere showing of a video interview with Murayama by Gary Pak and remarks by Marie Hara and other noted Hawai‘i writers. A short reading and talk by Murayama and an autograph session will follow. Light refreshments will be served. This event is sponsored by University of Hawai‘i Press with the UH Manoa English Department, Bamboo Ridge Press, and the University of Hawai‘i Diversity and Equity Initiative, and in partnership with the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities, with additional support from the “We, The People” initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Carlos Andrade Book Launch at Native Books

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Carlos Andrade will read from and discuss his recently published book, Ha‘ena: Through the Eyes of the Ancestors, on Thursday, October 30, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Native Books/Na Mea Hawai‘i, Ward Warehouse. A book signing and light refreshments will follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Andrade is associate professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawai‘i and director of the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. Ha‘ena reveals the complex history of a rich and fertile ahupua‘a in north Kaua‘i, blending folklore, geography, history, and ethnography.

Geography, Performance, Design

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We do not see empty figures and outlines; we do not move in straight lines. Everywhere we are surrounded by dapple; the geometry of our embodied lives is curviform, meandering, bi-pedal. Our personal worlds are timed, inter-positional, and contingent. But nowhere in the language of cartography and design do these ordinary experiences appear. This, Dark Writing argues, is a serious omission because they are designs on the world: architects and colonizers use their lines to construct the places where we will live. But the rectilinear streets, squares, and public spaces produced in this way leave out people and the entire environmental history of their coming together. How, author Paul Carter asks, can we explain the omission of bodies from maps and plans? And how can we redraw the lines maps and plans use so that the qualitative world of shadows, footprints, comings and goings, and occasions—all essential qualities of places that incubate sociality—can be registered?

Writing Past Colonialism
Published in association with the Institute of Postcolonial Studies, University of Melbourne
October 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3312-1 / $28.00 (PAPER)

Kokota Grammar

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Kokota Grammar, by Bill Palmer, describes the grammar of Kokota, a highly endangered Oceanic language of the Solomon Islands, spoken by about nine hundred people on the island of Santa Isabel. After several long periods among the Kokota, Dr. Palmer has written an unusually detailed and comprehensive description of the language. Kokota has never before been described, so this work makes an important contribution to our knowledge of the Oceanic languages of island Melanesia.

Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication, No. 35
October 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3251-3 / $35.00 (PAPER)

The Ethnographic Frontier in German New Guinea

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Anthropologists and world historians make strange bedfellows. Although the latter frequently employ anthropological methods in their descriptions of cross-cultural exchanges, the former have raised substantial reservations about global approaches to history. Fearing loss of specificity, anthropologists object to the effacing qualities of techniques employed by world historians—this despite the fact that anthropology itself was a global, comparative enterprise in the nineteenth century. Anthropology’s Global Histories: The Ethnographic Frontier in German New Guinea, 1870–1935, by Rainer F. Buschmann, seeks to recover some of anthropology’s global flavor by viewing its history in Oceania through the notion of the ethnographic frontier—the furthermost limits of the anthropologically known regions of the Pacific. The colony of German New Guinea (1884–1914) presents an ideal example of just such a contact zone.

October 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3184-4 / $55.00 (CLOTH)

Vanished Islands and Hidden Continents

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Islands—as well as entire continents—are reputed to have disappeared in many parts of the world. Yet there is little information on this subject concerning its largest ocean, the Pacific. Over the years, geologists have amassed data that point to the undeniable fact of islands having disappeared in the Pacific, a phenomenon that the oral traditions of many groups of Pacific Islanders also highlight. There are even a few instances where fragments of Pacific continents have disappeared, becoming hidden from view rather than being submerged. In Vanished Islands and Hidden Continents of the Pacific, a scientifically rigorous yet readily comprehensible account of a fascinating subject, Patrick D. Nunn ranges far and wide, from explanations of the region’s ancient history to the meanings of island myths. Using both original and up-to-date information, he shows that there is real value in bringing together myths and the geological understanding of land movements.

October 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3219-3 / $50.00 (CLOTH)

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