Category: Polynesia

Russian Encounters and Mutiny in the South Pacific

Posted on by stephchun

Twelve Days at Nuku HivaIn August 1803 two Russian ships set off on a round-the-world voyage to carry out scientific exploration and collect artifacts for Alexander I’s ethnographic museum in St. Petersburg. Russia’s strategic concerns in the north Pacific, however, led the Russian government to include as part of the expedition an embassy to Japan, headed by statesman Nikolai Rezanov, who was given authority over the ships’ commanders without their knowledge. Between them the ships carried an ethnically and socially disparate group of men: Russian educated elite, German naturalists, Siberian merchants, Baltic naval officers, even Japanese passengers. Upon reaching Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas archipelago on May 7, 1804, and for the next twelve days, the naval officers revolted against Rezanov’s command while complex crosscultural encounters between Russians and islanders occurred.

In Twelve Days at Nuku Hiva: Russian Encounters and Mutiny in the South Pacific, Elena Govor recounts the voyage, reconstructing and exploring in depth the tumultuous events of the Russians’ stay in Nuku Hiva; the course of the mutiny, its resolution and aftermath; and the extent and nature of the contact between Nuku Hivans and Russians.

March 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3368-8 / $49.00 (PAPER)

English-Tahitian Tahitian English Dictionary Back in Print

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English-Tahitian Tahitian English DictionaryThe English-Tahitian Tahitian English Dictionary is the most useful and comprehensive dictionary of its kind available. The author, Dr. Sven Wahlroos, who was a devoted student of Tahitian for more than three decades, provides an extensive introduction to the language with detailed notes on grammar, usage, and pronunciation.

This reprint edition has been re-sized to 6 inches x 9.25 inches, making it a convenient and handier alternative to larger-sized dictionaries.

“A labor of love that is also a big, solid reference that will get loads of use.” —Honolulu Star-Bulletin

March 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3473-9 / $64.00 (CLOTH)
Distributed for Eva Wahlroos

The Adventures of Vela Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize

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The Adventures of VelaThe Adventures of Vela, by Albert Wendt and published last fall by UH Press, has been shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Southeast Asia and Pacific Best Book division).

The critically acclaimed Commonwealth Writers’ Prize is in its 24th year and offers an exceptional opportunity for new writers to demonstrate their talent and for authors already on the literary scene to strengthen their reputation. The prize is presented by the Commonwealth Foundation with support from the Macquarie Group Foundation. The final program, starting on April 7, 2010, in Delhi, India, will bring together the finalists from the different regions of the Commonwealth, and the two overall winners will be announced there on April 12.

Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics Now Available in Paperback

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GossipAlthough gossip is disapproved of across the world’s societies, it is a prominent feature of sociality, whose role in the construction of society and culture cannot be overestimated. In particular, gossip is central to the enactment of politics: through it people transform difference into inequality and enact or challenge power structures. Based on the author’s intimate ethnographic knowledge of Nukulaelae Atoll, Tuvalu, Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics, by Niko Besnier, uses an analysis of gossip as political action to develop a holistic understanding of a number of disparate themes, including conflict, power, agency, morality, emotion, locality, belief, and gender. It brings together two methodological traditions—the microscopic analysis of unelicited interaction and the macroscopic interpretation of social practice—that are rarely wedded successfully.

November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3357-2 / $25.00 (PAPER)

UH Press Authors at the Daughters of Hawaii Annual Book Day

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University of Hawai‘i Press authors Gavan Daws, Eleanor Nordyke, Art Whistler, and Bob Dye will be among the writers attending the Daughters of Hawai‘i 4th Annual Book Day, Friday, November 6, 3:00-6:00 pm, at Queen Emma Summer Palace. Purchase books at a discount and get your copies signed in time for the holidays! All proceeds from the event will go to the Daughters of Hawai‘i, in support of their mission to preserve Queen Emma Summer Palace and Hulihe‘e Palace in Kailua-Kona.

Refreshments will be served. There will be a special performance by the Queen Emma Summer Palace Ukulele Club and free tours of the Summer Palace will take place from 3:00-4:00 pm, so be sure to come early!

Hawaiian Birds of the Sea

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Hawaiian Birds of the Sea
More than 300 species of seabirds range across the world’s oceans. In excess of 14 million birds, representing nearly two dozen species, make their home in the Hawaiian islands. These are na manu kai, the birds of the sea.

More than 135 color photographs illustrate Hawaiian Birds of the Sea: Na Manu Kai, by Robert J. Shallenberger. This beautiful book showcases the seabirds of Hawai‘i—from the far eastern tip of the Big Island to the recently created Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

A Latitude 20 Book
November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3403-6 / $21.99 (PAPER)

A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hawaii

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Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hawai‘i
Hawai‘i is home to some of the most beautiful and sought after birds in the world. From the offshore waters, where graceful seabirds glide on the cool, refreshing trade winds, to the lush ancient forests of the mountains, where colorful endemic honeycreepers reside, Hawai‘i’s birds are wonderfully diverse. Introduced species and long-distance migrants contribute to the splendid assortment. Some island bird species are extremely abundant and instantly familiar since we encounter them daily in our outdoor activities. Others are so rare they are glimpsed only once in a lifetime. In these magnificent islands there is something for birders of every sort. Superbly illustrated in color by author Jim Denny and Jack Jeffrey, two of Hawai‘i’s best nature photographers, A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hawai‘i includes nearly every species of bird on land and at sea in the main Hawaiian Islands.

A Latitude 20 Book
November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3383-1 / $19.99 (PAPER)

Jim Denny is also the author of The Birds of Kauai.

Book Launch for New Hawaii Chinese History Center Book

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Join the Hawaii Chinese History Center, the Associated Chinese University Women, and United Chinese Society of Hawaii in celebrating the publication of Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai.

Sunday, November 8, 1:00-3:00 pm, Kilauea Recreation Center, 4109 Kilauea Avenue, Honolulu: Co-editor Ken Yee and several of the oral history participants will be on hand to sign books. Festivities will include a lion dance, Hawaiian music of Maui and Molokai place-name songs, and simple refreshments.

Please RSVP by email (ginny96825@yahoo.com) by October 30.

Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai is distributed by University of Hawai‘i Press.

Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai

Posted on by stephchun

Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai
During the last half of the 1800s through the early 1900s Chinese migrated from their villages in the Pearl River Delta in Kwangtung Province (Guangdong) and many found their way to the neighbor islands in Hawaii. Chinese Pioneer Families of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, edited by Ken Yee and Nancy Wong Yee, is a fascinating collection of oral histories filled with the voices of their children and grandchildren. They tell stories that are both universal and particular about the lives of the early immigrants and their families and how they adapted to their new home in the Hawaiian islands, even as they held fast to their ties to China. These colorful, multigenerational stories paint a larger picture of the cultural traditions and social life of that time and illustrate how these immigrants became part of the fabric of Hawaii. Reference materials and maps provide useful resources for those wishing to trace their own roots.

Chinese Historic Sites and Pioneer Families Series
October 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3449-4 / $25.00 (PAPER)
Distributed for the Hawaii Chinese History Center

Lucky Come Hawaii Author Jon Shirota Comes Home

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Lucky Come HawaiiNationally acclaimed author Jon Shirota, whose Lucky Come Hawaii was the first novel by an Asian American Hawai‘i author to become a bestseller, will be back in the Islands for several public appearances sponsored by the Manoa Foundation. Lucky Come Hawaii will be released in a new, revised edition in late November by Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing and University of Hawai‘i Press.

Thursday, November 5, 3:00-4:30 pm: University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Kuykendall Hall, Room 410. Shirota will talk on the Okinawan sense of place in his writings, including those in the latest Manoa journal, Voices from Okinawa.

Thursday, November 5–Sunday, December 6, various times: Kumu Kahua Theatre, 46 Merchant Street, Downtown Honolulu. Performances of Shirota’s play, Voices from Okinawa.

Monday, November 9, 5:00-6:00 pm: UH-West O‘ahu, Kuhialoko Lanai (E-Building). Shirota’s talk, “Akisamiyo! From a Pig Farmer to a Writer” will follow a reception at 4:00. This event is part of the Chancellor’s Lecture Series and is co-sponsored by the UHM Center for Okinawan Studies.

Friday, November 13, 7:00 pm: Kapi‘olani Community College, Ohi‘a Building. “A Conversation with Jon Shirota” will be hosted by Chancellor Leon Richards; part of KCC’s International Week celebration. Entertainment by Okinawan dance and sanshin performers.

Visit Voices from Okinawa Online for more information on Jon Shirota and his work.

New from Albert Wendt: The Adventures of Vela

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The Adventures of Vela
“We are the remembered cord that stretches across the abyss of all that we’ve forgotten,” sang Vela.

Journey through the many stories and worlds of the immortal Vela, the Samoan song maker, poet, and storyteller—Vela, who was so red and ugly at birth they called him the Cooked; Vela the lonely admirer of pigs and the connoisseur of feet; Vela the lover of song maker Mulialofa. Follow Vela down through centuries as he encounters the single-minded society of the Tagata-Nei and the Smellocracy of Olfact and recounts the stories of Lady Nafanua, the fearless warrior queen, before whom travelling chroniclers still bow down today.

The Adventures of Vela, by Albert Wendt, is a Pacific epic.

“The Adventures of Vela is a tour de force that drives you to reconsider not only relations between the divine and the earthly, the dominated and the domiant, and the teller and the told, but also how narrative can sing its heart out.” —The Listener

October 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3420-3 / $26.00 (PAPER)

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