Index - Contents - Previous page - Next page

Oceania Newsletter 50, June 2008

 

NEW BOOKS

 

[These books can not be purchased from the CPAS. Please send your enquiries directly to the publishers.]

 

[Not all the books in this section are strictly new, but those that are not, were not before listed in the Oceania Newsletter.]

 

GENERAL

 

Anderson, Atholl, Kaye Green and Foss Leach (eds). 2007. Vastly Ingenious: The Archaeology of Pacific Material Culture. Dunedin: Otago University Press. 319 pages. ISBN: 978-1-877372-45-2 (hb).

 

"Reflecting in 1769 on the manners and customs of the South Sea islands, Joseph Banks remarked that 'in every expedient for taking fish they are vastly ingenious.' Hence the title of this book on Pacific material culture, past and present, with broad themes of origins, the movement of peoples and the development of their technologies.

 

Bringing together an impressive group of scholars of Pacific archaeology, the editors have designed the book as both a thoroughly up-to-date and wide-ranging survey and as a festschrift for museum archaeologist Janet Davidson, until recently based at The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

 

Contributors: Atholl Anderson, J. Stephen Athens, Helene Martinsson-Wallin and Karen Stothert, Susan Bulmer, David V. Burley and Richard Shutler Jr, Geoffrey Clark and Duncan Wright, Peter Gathercole, Roger C. Green, Geoffrey Irwin, Rod Wallace and Stephanie Green, Kevin L. Jones, Adrienne L Kaeppler, Foss Leach, Helen Leach, Sean Mallon, Nigel Prickett,Paul Rainbird, Yoshiko H. Sinoto, Ian Smith, Jim Specht, Katherine Szabo, and Moira White.

 

Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. Early Maori disc pendants; 3. Gourd artefacts from the Kohika lake village; 4. Cooking with pots - again; 5. Metal Pa Kahawai; 6. A cache of fishhooks from Serendipity Cave; 7. Horticultural site complexes on stony soils of the eastern North Island; 8. Arthur of HMS Adventure and Veryan, Cornwall; 9. Me'a lalanga and the category Koloa; 10. Ancestral Polynesian fishing gear; 11. Reading Pacific pots; 12. The rise of the Saudeleur; 13. A study of gorges from the Gogna-Cove Beach Site, Guam; 14. The role of fishing lure shanks for the past people of Pohnpei; 15. Shell fishhooks of the Lapita cultural complex; 16. The material culture of Makira; 17. Shaft-hole stone implements of New Britain; 18. Pottery styles at Wanelek, Papua New Guinea; 19. Still vastly ingenious? Globalisation and the collecting of Pacific material cultures.

 

Atholl Anderson is a Pacific prehistorian based at Australian National University in Canberra. He has published many scholarly books and articles on New Zealand and Pacific prehistory and ethnohistory. Kaye C. Green was a Pacific field archaeologist from 1958 to 1975, when she joined the New Zealand Department of Conservation as manager of publishing and science communication. She is now retired and lives near Wellington. Foss Leach is a Pacific prehistorian who was based at Otago University until 1987, when he moved to the Museum of New Zealand. He is now retired and lives in the Marlborough Sounds."

 

Baldacchino, Godfrey (ed.). 2007. A World of Islands: An Island Studies Reader. Luqa, Malta and Charlottetown, Canada: Agenda Academic Publishers and Institute of Island Studies, University of Prince Edward Island. 640 pages. ISBN: 978-99932-86-10-3 (pb).

 

"Close to 10% of the world's population - some 600 million people - live on islands today. One fourth of the world's sovereign states consist of islands or archipelagos. The combined land area and exclusive economic zone of the world's islands takes up over one sixth of the Earth's surface. Islands have pioneered the emergence of such disciplines as biogeography and anthropology; they are typical 'hot spots' for both biological diversity and international political tension. Islands offer distinct identities and spaces in an increasingly homogenous and placeless world. A World of Islands provides a global, research-based, comprehensive and pluri-disciplinary overview of the study of islands. The expertise and insights of 42 scholars and contributors offer a uniuqe collection of theoretical principles, ideas, observations and policy proposals from, and for, the study of islands and island life.

 

Contents: Editorial Introduction, by Godfrey Baldacchino; 1. Definitions and Typologies, by Stephen Royle; 2. Locations and Concentrations, by Christian Depraetere and Arthur Dahl; 3. Formations and Environments, by Patrick Nunn; 4. Evolution, by Andrew Berry; 5. Flora, by Diana Percy, Stephen Blackmore and Quentin Cronk; 6. Fauna, by R. J. Sam Berry; 7. Archaeology, by Atholl Anderson; 8. Epidemiology, by Andrew Cliff, Peter Haggett and Matthew Smallman-Raynor; 9. War and Security, by Barry Bartmann; 10. Governance, by Edward Warrington and David Milne; 11. Political Economy, by Geoff Bertram and Bernard Poirine; 12. Tourism, by Stefan Gossling and Geoffrey Wall; 13. Migration, by John Connell; 14. Gentrification and Space Wars, Eric Clark, Karin Johnson, Emma Lundholm and Gunnar Malmberg; 15. Futures and Sustainability, by a panel of nineteen contributors; 16. Island Studies Resources, by Graeme Robertson."

 

Connell, John and Barbara Rugendyke (eds). 2008 (March). Tourism at the Grassroots: Villagers and Visitors in the Asia-Pacific. London and New York: Routledge. 320 pages. ISBN: 978-0-415-40555-3 (hb).

 

"In two regions where tourism is of considerable economic importance, eastern Asia and the Pacific, there have been remarkably few studies of the impacts of tourism in rural areas. Moreover, the shift towards ecotourism, touted as a more environmentally benign form of tourism, has extended the reach of tourism into more remote and fragile environments. This shift has drawn more local people in rural and remote areas into a partly tourism economy, involving them as participants in the tourist industry. Yet little is known about who have been the beneficiaries of these developments.

 

This new collection focuses on both the interactions between tourists and villagers, and the impacts of tourism at the local level, considering economic, social, cultural and environmental changes. It traces changes in structures of vulnerability as tourism becomes more prominent, the role of tourism in community development (or localised tension) and examines issues of governance, the role of tour operators as intermediaries, cultural change and other local impacts. In short, it examines the changing role of tourism in local development (or its absence).

 

The book includes chapters on the Sepik of Papua New Guinea (Eric Silverman), Vanuatu (Prue Robinson and John Connell), Fiji (Yoko Kanemasu), Samoa (Regina Scheyvens), and Easter Island (Grant McCall), and others on Tibet, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bali, and Lombok."

 

Cope, Gordon. 2007. So: We Sold Our House and Ran Away to the South Pacific. Calgary: Fifth House Books. 214 pages. ISBN: 1894856996 (hc).

 

"From the author of A Paris Moment comes a tongue-in-cheek tale of one couple's quest for happiness on the other side of the globe. We all dream of escaping the boring routine of getting up, going to work, and paying the bills. Find out what happens when Gordon Cope and his wife, Linda, follow that dream-to the South Pacific. From the remote Cook Islands to the hustle and bustle of Sydney Australia, from the new agey cities of New Zealand to Perry Mason's orchid garden in Fiji, Gordon and his wife Linda search for happiness - and the best sauvignon blanc in the southern hemisphere.

 

Along the way they encounter a host of memorable characters: Sven, the Swedish biker with a body of tattoos; Greg, the James Cagney look-alike, whose dream is to open an espresso bar in one of Sydney's roughest neighbourhoods; Papa Manu, whose Cook Island-style birthday parties give new meaning to the term 'party crashers'; Lovestruck Rarotonga teens Violet and Porkchop, and, of course, the Wizard of New Zealand. From taking part in a Cook Islands racquetball competition to staring down a grassfire in Australia, from chasing crazy cockroaches to ducking kooky kookaburras, Gordon Cope takes you on a rollicking adventure to the world down under.

 

Gordon Cope came to Calgary to work in the oil patch, but his love for writing led him to freelance journalism and a career as a feature writer and business reporter. In 1993, Cope and his wife, Linda, quit their jobs, sold their house, and ran away to the South Pacific. Since then, they have lived in London and Paris and travelled around the world. They currently live in Calgary with their cat China.

 

Visit Gordon's website at http://www.aparismoment.com for more information on the author and his books, including sample chapters, photos and recipes.

 

Listed as recent addition to the University of the South Pacific Library in Suva."

 

Hamilton, Paula and Linda Shopes (eds). 2008. Oral History and Public Memories. Chicago: Temple University Press. 320 pages. ISBN: 978-1-59213-141-9 (pb)

 

"Oral History and Public Memories is the first book to explore the relationship between the well-established practice of oral history and the burgeoning field of memory studies. In the past, oral historians have generally privileged the individual narrator, frequently fetishizing the interview process without fully understanding that interviews are only one form of memory-making. Historians engaged in memory studies, on the other hand, have asked broader questions - about the social and cultural processes at work in remembrance, for example. What distinguishes these essays from much work in oral history is their focus not on the experiences of individual narrators, but on the broader cultural meanings of oral history narratives. What distinguishes them from other work in memory studies is their grounding in real events. Taken together, these contributions explain the processes by which oral histories move beyond interviews with individual people to become articulated memories shared by others.

 

Contributors include: David Neufeld, Kevin Blackburn, Maria Nugent, Isil Cerem Cenker and Lucienne Thys-Senocak, Selma Thomas, Sean Field, Gail Lee Dubrow, Senka Božic-Vrbanic, Horacio N. Roque Ramírez, Robert F. Jerrerson, Riki Van Boeschoten, Daniel Kerr, Siliva Salvatici, Pilar Riaño-Alcalá, and Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes.

 

Paula Hamilton is Associate Professor in History at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. She is co-director of the Australian Centre for Public History, and co-editor of Public History Review. Linda Shopes is a freelance editor and consultant; and formerly a historian at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. She is Past President of the U.S. Oral History Association, and co-editor of the series Studies in Oral History.

 

Submit orders to: Temple University Press c/o Chicago Distribution Center, 11030 S. Langley Ave., Chicago, IL 60628; Call toll-free 1-800-621-2736; Fax 1-800-621-8476; Order online www.temple.edu/tempress; Asia and Pacific Orders contact: Royden Muranaka, eweb@hawaii.edu; Europe/Middle East/Africa Orders contact: Nicholas Esson nickesson@combinedacademic.demon.co.uk"

 

Healy, Chris and Andrea Witcomb (eds). 2006. South Pacific Museums: Experiments in Culture. Melbourne and Sydney: Monash University ePress and Sydney University Press. 240 pages. ISBN: 0-9757475-9-2 (web) and 0-9757475-8-4 (pb).

 

"Over the last 50 years, museums have been regarded by many scholars and cultural critics as archaic institutions far from the cutting edge of cultural innovation. This judgement is being proved wrong across the globe, with innovative museums staking out new territory. Nowhere is this more striking than in the South Pacific where new and redeveloped institutions have included the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Museum of Australia, the Melbourne Museum, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the Museum of Sydney, the Gab Titui Cultural Centre in the Torres Strait, the Auckland Museum, the Centre Culturel Tjibaou and the Vanuatu Cultural Centre.

 

South Pacific Museums make sense of these museums as part of the complex field of heritage, where national economies meet global tourism, cities brand themselves, and indigeneity articulates with colonialism. The effect is one of cultural experimentation. Part 1: New Museums, introduces three different museums in distinctive national contexts Te Papa, the Centre Culturel Tjibaou and the National Museum of Australia. Essays in this part grapple with the role of these museums in the nation at particular historical moments under specific political pressures. Part 2: New Knowledges, documents practices and exhibitions at the point of tension between indigenous and non-indigenous interests in the museum. Part 3: New Experiences, explores the ways in which museums in the South Pacific are producing that ineffable cultural phenomenon - experience.

 

Contents: Acknowledgments, by Chris Healy and Andrea Witcomb; Experiments in culture: An introduction, by Chris Healy and Andrea Witcomb; Part 1: New Museums: Reforming nationhood: The free market and biculturalism at Te Papa, by Paul Williams; Museums of New Caledonia: The old, the new and the balance of the two, by Marianne Tissandier; Contested sites of identity and the cult of the new: The Centre Culturel Tjibaou and the constitution of culture in New Caledonia, by Kylie Message; National Museum of Australia, by Linda Young; Pluralism and exhibition practice at the National Museum of Australia, by Mathew Trinca and Kirsten Wehner; Melbourne Museum, by Ian McShane; Civic laboratories

Museums, cultural objecthood and the governance of the social, by Tony Bennett; Part 2: New Knowledges: Museums as cultural guardians, by Deidre Brown; The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, by Huhana Smith;             There's so much in looking at those barks: Dja Dja Wurrung etchings 2004-05, by Pamie Fung and Sara Wills; Gab Titui Cultural Centre, by Leilani Bin-Juda; The museum as cultural agent: The Vanuatu Cultural Centre extension worker program, by Lissant Bolton; Tuning the museum: The harmonics of official culture, by Ian Wedde; Bunjilaka, by Moira G. Simpson; Very special treatment, by Chris Healy; Part 3: New Experiences: Hiroshima mon amour: Representation and violence in new museums of the Pacific, by Diane Losche; The Auckland War Memorial Museum, Tamaki Paenga Hira, by Elizabeth Rankin; The National Museum of Australia as danse macabre: Baroque allegories of the popular, by John Macarthur and Naomi Stead; The Museum of Sydney, by Kate Gregory; How style came to matter: Do we need to move beyond the politics of representation? by Andrea Witcomb; The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, by Natalia Radywyl; Spirit house, by Ross Gibson.

 

Holzimmer, Kevin C. 2007. General Walter Krueger: Unsung Hero of the Pacific War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 344 pages. ISBN: 978-0-7006-1500-1 (cloth).

 

"Holzimmer first analyzes the experiences of Krueger's prewar career: testing the triangular infantry division in the late 1930s, serving in the War Plans Division, and participating in peacetime maneuvers. This training prepared him for the challenges of command in the Pacific, where he successfully forged and led a large combined-arms effort that effectively integrated infantry, armor, artillery, naval, and air forces. Holzimmer then details Krueger's remarkable leadership in the military campaigns against the Japanese. By placing Krueger's philosophy of command within the context of evolving military doctrine, Holzimmer shows how he produced tough victories against a determined enemy in an enormously difficult war zone.

 

Kevin C. Holzimmer is associate professor of comparative military studies and vice dean for academic affairs at the U.S. Air Command and Staff College.

 

Listed as recent addition to the University of the South Pacific Library in Suva."

 

Murray, John Thomas. 2007. The Minnows of Triton: Policing, Politics and Corruption in the South Pacific Islands. Canberra: J.T. Murray. 313 pages. ISBN: 978-0-646476292. First published in 2006. Revised edition.

 

"This book was shortlisted for the Australian Capital Territory Writing and Publishing Awards in 2006. It is an 'insightful and wide-ranging account of the social, historical and political complexities of sixteen South Pacific island states.' Essential reading for anyone who is interested, personal or professional, in the region.

 

This book recounts the author's experiences in the ten years when he was responsible for the Australian Federal Police's South Pacific Islands desk. The author discusses the issues relating to opportunism by white-collar fraudsters and widespread domestic corruption which is destroying the fiscal and political integrity of Pacific Island countries as well as the natural resources."

 

Sather, Clifford and Timo Kaartinen (eds). 2008 (April). Beyond the Horizon: Essays on Myth, History, Travel and Society: In Honor of Jukka Siikala. Studia Fennica Anthropologica No.2. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. 250 pages. ISBN:  978-951-746-985-2 (pb).

 

"Society is never just a localised aggregate of people but exists by virtue of its members' narrative and conceptual awareness of other times and places. In Jukka Siikala's work, this idea evolves into a broad ethnographic and theoretical interest in worlds beyond the horizon, in the double sense of 'past' and 'abroad'. This book is a tribute to Jukka Siikala's contributions to anthropology by his colleagues and students and marks his 60th birthday in January 2007. By exploring near, distant, inward and outward horizons towards which societies project their reality, the authors aim at developing a new, prodyctive language for addressing culture as a way of experiencing and engaging the world.

 

Contents: Timo Kaartinen and Clifford Sather, Introduction; Part 1. Horizons of Experience: Joel Robbins, The Future is a Foreign Country: Time, Space and Hierarchy among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea; Peter Metcalf, Islands without Horizons: Rivers, Rainforests and Ancient Mariners; Clifford Sather, Mystery and the Mundane: Shifting Perspectives in a Saribas Iban Ritual Narrative; Roy Wagner, Lost Horizons at Karimui; Part 2. Means of Travel and Models of the World: Antony Hooper, Old Men and the Sea; Harri Siikala, The House and the Canoe: Mobility and Rootedness in Polynesia; Frederick H. Damon, On the Ideas of a Boat: From Forest Patches to Cybernetic Structures in the Outrigger Sailing Craft of the Eastern Kula Ring, Papua New Guinea; James J. Fox, Sun, Moon and the Tides: Cosmological Foundations for the Ideas of Order and Perfection among the Rotinese of Eastern Indonesia; Part 3. Mythical and Textual Perspectives on the Past: Judith Huntsman, For What Purpose? An Unusual Tokelau Vernacular Text Written by Peato Tutu Perez; Petra Autio, A Bird is a Woman is a Dancer: Meaning in the Lyrics and Performance of Kiribati Dance; Timo Kaartinen, The Flower and the Ogre: Narrative Horizons and Symbolic Differentiation in the Kei Islands of Eastern Indonesia; Bruce Kapferer, Afterword: Cosmological Journeys; Jukka Siikala's Academic Career; Jukka Siikala's Publications."

 

Sissons, Jeffrey. 2005. First Peoples: Indigenous Cultures and Their Futures. London: Reaktion Books. 176 pages. ISBN: 978-1-86189-241-6 (pb).

 

"First Peoples argues, controversially, that far from disappearing in the face of global capitalism, indigenous cultures today are as diverse as they ever were. Rather than being absorbed into a uniform modernity, indigenous peoples are anticipating alternative futures and appropriating global resources for their own, culturally specific needs. For Sissons, however, the traditional and the modern are not mutually exclusive: indigenous cultures and nation-states are aspects of the same contemporary condition, and their apparently opposing position is an expression of the contradictory nature of modernity in the 21st century.

 

Indigenous peoples often define themselves in terms of their struggle against oppressive exterior forces; by contrast, the metropolitan cultures they struggle against often cling precariously to the surfaces of their new land. But indigenous identities have also been forged through alliances between indigenous peoples at international forums and in other settings. The loose alliances throughout the indigenous world constitute an alternative political order to the global organization of states.

 

For Inuit, Eskimo and Saami in the northern hemisphere, for Mayan, Maori and Aboriginal Australians in the southern, and for more than a hundred distinct peoples in between, culture has become more than a heritage: it is a project. The numerous cultural renaissances that occurred thoughout the indigenous world in the second half of the 20th century were more than passing events. Their momentum has continued into the new millennium, while the challenges they pose to states and their bureaucracies have become increasingly urgent. While the economic and political issues addressed by indigenous groups were and are depressingly similar - racism, loss of land and resources, inadequate health and education services - the solutions have been characterized by enormous cultural diversity.

 

Jeffrey Sissons is Professor in Social Anthropology at the School of Global Studies, Massey University, New Zealand."

 

Sullaway, Neva. 2005. Chasing Dreamtime: A Sea-going Hitchhiker's Journey through Memory and Myth. Castleton-on-Hudson: Brookview Press. 336 pages. ISBN: 0-9707649-2-8.

 

"Chasing Dreamtime is the incredible true-life story of a young traveler's journey through memory and myth. In 1975, after college and a brief, disastrous marriage, Neva Sullaway attempts to escape her anguish as well as the post-Vietnam confusion of her generation by sailing alone around the world, but her plans are abruptly scuttled. A string of unlikely events occurs and sends her boat-hopping across the vast South Pacific.

 

While sailing among the exquisitely beautiful Pacific atolls, Sullaway is arrested for a visa violation, hunted by sharks, stricken with tropical fever and held at knifepoint. Even after being entangled in a drug-smuggling scheme and facing death several times, Sullaway continues her journey, taking a brief respite from sailing the seas to pedal a 'pushbike' 2,000 kilometers along Australia's northeastern coastline. There the odyssey takes its sharpest turn as she ventures onto a fishing trawler in the remotest outback regions.

 

While poised at the brink of her physical and emotional limits in the stark Never-Never, Sullaway catches a glimpse of the elusive Aboriginal concept of Dreamtime and her darkest demons unfold into wings of flight. For Sullaway and the reader alike, reality can never be the same again.

 

Listed as recent addition to the University of the South Pacific Library in Suva."

 

AUSTRALIA

 

Attwood, Bain and Andrew Markus. 2007. The 1967 Referendum: Race, Power and the Australian Constitution. 2nd edition. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. 200 pages. ISBN: 978-0-85575-555-3 (pb). First published in 1997.

 

"On 27 May 1967 a remarkable event occurred. An overwhelming majority of electors voted in a national referendum to amend clauses of the Australian Constitution concerning Aboriginal people. Today it is commonly regarded as a turning point in the history of relations between Indigenous and white Australians. This was the historic moment when citizenship rights were granted - including the vote - and the Commonwealth at long last assumed responsibility for Aboriginal affairs. But the referendum did none of these things.

 

The 1967 Referendum explores the legal and political significance of the referendum and the long struggle by black and white Australians for constitutional change. It traces the emergence of a series of powerful narratives about the Australian Constitution and the status of Aborigines, revealing how and why the referendum campaign acquired so much significance, and has since become the subject of highly charged myth in contemporary Australia.

 

Attwood and Markus's text is complemented by personal recollections of the campaign by a range of Indigenous people, historical documents and photographs.

 

Bain Attwood is an Associate Professor of History in the School of Historical Studies at Monash University and Adjunct Professor at the Australian National University's Centre for Cross-Cultural Research. Andrew Markus is Professor of Jewish Civilisation and the Academic Director of the Australian Centre for the Study of Jewish Civilisation. Both have written extensively on Aboriginal history and Australian race relations."

 

Bassini, Paddy, Albert Lakefield and Tom Popp. 2006. Lamalama Country: Our Country, Our Culture-way. Edited by Bruce Rigsby and Noelene Cole. Photograps by Tom Popp. Brisbane: Akito in association with Arts Queensland. 70 pages. ISBN: 978-0646456867.

 

"This book provides the reader with a good insight into Indigenous Australian appreciation and management of country and resources. The perspective is that of two senior men who were grown up in that country. They list and picture a variety of plants and animals and tell the reader a little about their environment and its cultural significance. Their account is set in context by a useful preface and introduction by the editors. It talks of groups removed from their traditional lands, cultural loss, and the enduring desire to return to the old country and old way."

 

Briskman, Linda. 2007. Social Work with Indigenous Communities. Annandale: Federation Press. 288 pages. ISBN: 9781862876439 (pb).

 

"The health and welfare of Australia's Indigenous population is marked by recurring and seemingly intractable issues such as poor access to services, family violence, and high levels of infant mortality. More than 200 years of historical, cultural and political factors have shaped Indigenous lives - and the perceptions of social workers.

 

Linda Briskman, social worker, academic and author of the acclaimed book The Black Grapevine: Aboriginal Activism and the Stolen Generations, throws down the gauntlet to practitioners and students of social work, challenging them to pursue a better, more informed way of meeting the unique needs of this community.

 

She covers the issues that Indigenous communities face, with specific chapters devoted to the areas of children, youth, family violence, health, and criminal justice. Case studies are supported by literature and research to provide practitioners and students with a good understanding of the circumstances they will be presented with when working with Indigenous communities.

 

Good practice is marked by a recognition of the strengths of communities and an understanding of how to acknowledge and facilitate these. This book shows social workers how they can develop their skills in this area and excel in providing services with the best fit for Indigenous communities.

 

Contents: Part 1. Background and Context: Confronting complicity and moving on; Framing the social work response; Past, plight and resilience; Beyond Australia: international erspectives; Spirituality, ideology, values and ethics; Part 2. Practising Social Work: Redeeming social work; The organisational domain; Policies and programs; Advocacy, activism and social action; Research; Community development; Part 3. Locating Social Work: Child welfare; Youth; Family violence; Health; Criminal justice; Part 4. Talking Points: Contested ground and debates; Unfinished social work business; Appendix: IFSW International Policy on Indigenous Peoples (IFSW 2000); Bibliography; Index."

 

Djimarr, Kevin. 2007. Wurrurrumi Kun-Borrk: Songs from Western Arnhem Land. Indigenous Music of Australia CD No. 1. Sydney: Sydney University Press. CD. ISBN: 9781920898618.

 

"Kun-borrk is a genre of individually owned songs accompanied by didjeridu and clapsticks performed in the western Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory. The songs on this CD represent the majority of a repertoire belonging to the song man Kevin Djimarr, a member of the Kurulk clan and the Kuninjku (Eastern Kunwinjku) language group. Djimarr has lived much of his life at Mumeka on the lower Mann River, a tributary of the Liverpool River about 50km south of Maningrida settlement. He is one of a number of celebrated Kun-borrksingers but in addition he is also renowned as a traditional healer or 'clever man' known as na-kordang in Kuninjku.

 

Kun-borrk song series are often named after vegetable foods or plants. The name of Djimarr's series is Wurrurrumi, which is the name of a climbing monsoon forest vine Tinospora smilacina. Some other song series by other singers are named after yams, other climbing vines with tubers, or spirit beings.

 

Unlike the totemic song genres of many other ceremonies in Arnhem Land, kun-borrk songs concentrate more on the episodic minutiae of human emotions, subtle physical movements of the body, conflicts, suspicions, and the gossip of interpersonal relationships. An examination of the song texts on this CD reveals an almost haiku-like poetic beauty. Small isolated incidents without any given context are presented in a few lines of a song. They might involve a wave, a gaze, the turning of the head or attention to a sound, an admonition or a complaint."

 

Genat, Bill (ed.). 2006. Aboriginal Healthworkers: Primary Health Care at the Margins. Claremont: University of Western Australia Press. 240 pages. ISBN: 978-1-920694-765 (pb).

 

"Aboriginal healthworkers are employed by primary health care services to help bridge the gap between the Western medical clinic and their own kin. Much controversy surrounds what they can and should be doing. Here, these healthworkers speak frankly about the state of Aboriginal primary health care in this country. Daily visits to homes of families whose health, in the broadest sense, continues to be eroded by the historical legacy of exclusion, cultural oppression and racism highlight the serious lack of professional recognition and support. These situations are bewildering and heart-rending. This powerful book portrays the unique healing practice offered by Aboriginal healthworkers and urges that practical steps be taken to bolster their holistic approach.

 

Aboriginal Healthworkers is a frank and insightful look at the state of Aboriginal primary healthcare in Australia: what healthworkers do and their views on their work as well as how their activities are perceived by the likes of doctors, nurses and - most importantly of all - their Indigenous clients.

 

Dr Bill Genat brings a lively and informed perspective to this timely study of urban healthworkers and allows their voices to be heard - many for the first time. Aboriginal Healthworkers looks beyond the historical legacies of cultural exclusion, oppression and racism which pervade Indigenous healthcare issues towards charting new responses and practices by which Aboriginal healthworkers can provide healing, holistic services to Indigenous communities."

 

Hughes, Helen. 2007. Lands of Shame: Aboriginal ansd Torres Strait Islander 'Homelands' in Transition. St Leonards: Centre for Independent Studies. 237 pages. ISBN: 978-1-864321-35-7.

 

Reviews: The Medical Journal of Australia, 187(11/12), 2007: 623 / http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/187_11_031207/watson_fm.html (by N. Watson: Shamed by the Lack of a Meaningful Dialogue); Australian Policy Online, Posted 4 September 2007: http://www.sisr.net/apo/rowse.pdf (by T. Rowse: Land of Confusion); The Australian, June 30, 2007: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21971289-5003900,00.html (by N. Rothwell: An Economist Has a Radical Prescription for Aboriginal Ills); Australian Book Review, September, 2007: 10-11 (by J. Altman: 'Hughes' Homelands'); Australian Aboriginal Studies, (2), 2007: 163-167 (by F. Morphy)

 

"Renowned economist Helen Hughes brings her many years of development experience to bear on an analysis of the reasons for the appalling standard of living in Australia's remote Aboriginal communities, and argues passionately for a radical and wide-ranging reform program to improve Aboriginal lives. Her powerful case is augmented by her anger arising from personal experience among the people of these remote communities.

 

Hughes presents the case that the well-intentioned but separatist policies of the last thirty years have failed Australian Aborigines, as they have other Indigenous communities worldwide. In particular, she contends that lack of resources that other Australians take for granted has led to endemic welfare dependency, drug abuse and violence, to the extent that this is destroying, rather than promoting, traditional Aboriginal culture. She maintains that indigenous people have the same needs, and respond to the same economic and social incentives, as all people everywhere, and that separate programs for Aboriginals are not only 'reverse racism' but entrench discriminatory practices.

 

The bulk of the book is an unflinching depiction and analysis of conditions in remote Aboriginal communities, covering: substance abuse, violence and the law; how common land is (badly) administered, land and property rights; joblessness and incomes; education; health; and housing. Hughes also highlights isolated success stories and discusses why these programs are working where others have failed. She concludes with a blueprint for reform that, with political will, she asserts would take the 'Aboriginal problem' out of the 'too-hard basket' and encompass a decent future for all generations of Aboriginals, current and future.

 

Contents: Introduction; Historical background; Demographic trends; Security and the law; Land rights and land councils; Property rights and communal enterprises; Joblessness, welfare dependence and income distribution; Education; Health and life expectancy; Housing; Local government; Hyperbole or reality; A progress report card; Communities helping themselves; Way ahead for the 'homelands'; References; Endnotes; Index."

 

Jones, Ray and Brian J. Shaw. 2007. Geographies of Australian Heritages: Loving a Sunburnt Country? Series: Heritage, Culture and Identity. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. 248 pages. ISBN: 978-0-7546-4858-1 (hb).

 

"In any settler and/or postcolonial society, heritage is a complex and contested topic that involves indigenous, imperial and other migrant components. In Australia, this situation is compounded by the unique characteristics of the country's natural environment, the considerable diversity of its migrant intake and the demographic and technological imbalances between its indigenous and settler populations.

 

This volume brings together internationally recognized academics and emerging scholars, whose expertise extends through the areas of tourism, planning, heritage management, environmental studies and state and local government. Through a representative set of case studies from across the country's states and capital cities, the contributors demonstrate the range and diversity of heritage issues currently confronting Australia, and consider possible ways of resolving these.

 

Contents: Introduction: geographies of Australian heritages, by Roy Jones and Brian J. Shaw; Heritage protection in Australia: the legislative and bureaucratic framework, by Graeme Aplin; Australia and world heritage, by Graeme Aplin; The changing geographies of Australia's wilderness heritage, by C. Michael Hall; Aborigines, bureaucrats and cyclones: the ABC of running an innovative heritage tourism operation, by Marion Hercock; Waltzing the heritage icons: 'swagmen', 'squatters' and 'troopers' at North West Cape, by Roy Jones, Colin Ingram and Andrew Kingham; Fixed traditions and locked-up heritages: misrepresenting indigeneity, by Wendy Shaw; A work in progress: aboriginal people and pastoral cultural heritage in Australia, byn Nicholas Gill and Alistair Paterson; Lobethal the Valley of Praise: inventing tradition for the purposes of place making in rural South Australia, by Matthew W. Rofe and Hilary P.M. Winchester; Perth's Commonwealth Games heritage, whose value at what price? by Catherine Kennewell and Brian J. Shaw; Port, sport and heritage: Fremantle's unholy trinity? by Roy Jones; Places worth keeping, by Rosemary Rosario; Reshaping the 'sunburnt country': heritage and cultural politics in contemporary Australia, by William S. Logan; Index."

 

Kelly, Suzanne and Angus Wallam. 2004. Corroboree. Illustrations by Norma MacDonald. Crawley: University of Western Australia Press. 32 pages. ISBN: 978-1-920694-142 (hb). Children's book. 1999 Marrwarning Award for Published and Unpublished Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders (Joint Winner). Review: Australian Aboriginal Studies, (2), 2007: 188-189 (by A.-J. Taylor).

 

"Corroboree is the childhood story of Aboriginal Elder Angus Wallam - as told to authors Suzanne Kelly and Angus Wallam. It's springtime - Wirrin's favourite time of the year. As he sets about enjoying hunting with his father, collecting ochre with his grandfather, digging for sweet potato with his mother and gathering wattle seed with his grandmother, people are coming from far and wide for the big corroboree at which Wirrin will see all his cousins and dance the night away."

 

Le Griffin, Heather. 2006. Campfires at the Cross: An Account of the Bunting Dale Aboriginal Mission 1839-1851. North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing. 321 pages. ISBN:1740971124.

 

"When the Bunting Dale Mission at Birregurra in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales (State of Victoria in Australia was known as the Port Phillip District of New South Wales prior to separation on 1 July 1851) was threatened with closure, its Aboriginal inhabitants displayed admirable self-determination, and local settlers rallied around them until political circumstances changed. The Wesleyan missionaries had demonstrated their bravery, compassion, faith and fortitude in attempting to save the Gulidjan people from virtual extermination, and their humanity illuminated an otherwise somber era. This account of the Mission, and of the life and work of its founder, Francis Tuckfield, is an important contribution to our understanding of colonial history."

 

Maynard, John. 2007. Fight for Liberty and Freedom: The Origins of Australian Aboriginal Activism. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. 208 pages. ISBN: 978-0-85575-550-8 (pb).

 

"The Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA), begun in 1924, is little heard of today, but today's Aboriginal political movement is drawn from these roots. In this passionate exploration of the life of founder, Fred Maynard, John Maynard reveals the commitment and sacrifices made by these Aboriginal heroes.

 

Decades earlier than is commonly understood, Aboriginal people organised street rallies and held well-publicised regional and metropolitan meetings. The AAPA showed incredible aptitude in using newspaper coverage, letter writing and petitions, and collaborated with the international black movement through Maynard's connections with Marcus Garvey, first president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

 

The AAPA's demands resonate today: Aboriginal rights to land, preventing Aboriginal children being taken from their families, and defending a distinct Aboriginal cultural identity.

 

Contents: Foreword; Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction; 2. Fred Maynard's Early Years; 3. Inspiration and Influences; 4. Political Mobilisation; 5. The Rise and Impact of the 'Freedom Club'; 6. A Year of Consolidation; 7. 1927: The Struggle for Liberty; 8. The Final Curtain; 9. Conclusion; Bibliography; Notes; Index.

 

Professor John Maynard is Professor of Aboriginal Studies, Newcastle University. His previous publications include Aboriginal Stars of the Turf. He was also a contributor to the Uncommon Ground."

 

McNiven, Ian and Lynette Russell. 2005. Appropriating Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and Colonial Culture of Archaeology. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. 328 pages. ISBN: 978-0-7591-0906-3 (cloth) and 978-0-7591-0907-0 (paper).

 

"Archaeology has been complicit in the appropriation of indigenous peoples' pasts worldwide. While tales of blatant archaeological colonialism abound from the era of empire, the process also took more subtle and insidious forms. Ian McNiven and Lynette Russell outline archaeology's 'colonial culture' and how it has shaped archaeological practice over the past century. Using examples from their native Australia - and comparative material from North America, Africa, and elsewhere - the authors show how colonized peoples were objectified by research, had their needs subordinated to those of science, were disassociated from their accomplishments by theories of diffusion, watched their histories reshaped by western concepts of social evolution, and had their cultures appropriated toward nationalist ends. The authors conclude by offering a decolonized archaeological practice through collaborative partnership with native peoples in understanding their past.

 

Ian J. McNiven is Senior Lecturer and co-director of the Programme for Australian Indigenous Archaeology within the School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University. Lynette Russell holds the Chair in Australian Indigenous Studies at Monash University."

 

Memmott, Paul. 2007. Gunyah, Goondie and Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press. 440 pages. ISBN: 978-0702232459 (hc).

 

"When Europeans first reached Australian shores, a long-held and expedient perception developed that Australian Aboriginal people did not have houses or settlements, that they occupied temporary camps, sheltering in makeshift huts or lean-tos of grass and bark.

 

This book redresses that notion, exploring the range and complexity of Aboriginal-designed structures, spaces and territorial behaviour, from minimalist shelters to permanent houses and villages. Gunyah, Goondie and Wurley encompasses Australian Aboriginal architecture from the time of European contact to the work of the first Aboriginal graduates of university-based courses in architecture, bringing together in one place a wealth of images and research.

 

Paul Memmott is the director of the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre in the School of Geography, Planning, and Architecture at the University of Queensland. He is the former area editor for Australia in The Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World."

 

Minyimak, David. 2005. Jurtbirrk Love Songs from North Western Arnhem Land. Winnellie, NT: Skinnyfish (http://www.skinnyfishmusic.com.au). Distributed for Batchelor Press. CD.

 

"Jurtbirrk, known in English as 'love songs', refers to a song genre composed in the Iwaidja language and performed mainly on Croker Island and the Cobourg Peninsula, in the north-western part of Arnhem Land in Australia's Northern Territory. Jurtbirrk songs are performed by one or two men, who accompany themselves on clapsticks (arrilil in Iwaidja) while another man plays didjeridu (ardawirr).

 

The songs are created by a known composer and inspired by actual events, usually concerning love affairs or personal relationships, yet no mention is made of the names of the people involved, and their gender may also be left ambiguous. A full understanding of the song texts is heavily dependent on contextual knowledge. Only the composer, those who witnessed the events portrayed in the songs, and people who have been told the story, will know exactly who the songs are referring to.

 

Jurtbirrk is performed informally for entertainment and can be accompanied by dancing. As far as we know, this is the first time that Jurtbirrk songs have been recorded and published.

 

The album contains 40 Jurtbirrk recordings and is accompanied by a 48-page booklet by Linda Barwick and Bruce Birch (edited by Bruce Birch and Sabine Hoeng), which gives an insight to the historical and social background of the Jurtbirrk makers (the Iwaidja people of North-western Arnhem Land) and their songs.

 

It also contains a musical and a linguistic analysis of the songs, a short biography of the composers and performers, a full transcription of all 32 Iwaidja song texts, and musical transcriptions of all the melodies."

 

Moreton-Robinson, Aileen. 2007. Sovereign Subjects: Indigenous Sovereignty Matters. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin. 256 pages. ISBN: 9781741147247 (pb).

 

"Indigenous rights in Australia are at a crossroads. Over the past decade, neo-liberal governments have reasserted their claim to land in Australia, and refuse to either negotiate with the Indigenous owners or to make amends for the damage done by dispossession. Many Indigenous communities are in a parlous state, under threat both physically and culturally.

 

In Sovereign Subjects some of Indigenous Australia's emerging and well-known critical thinkers examine the implications for Indigenous people of continuing to live in a state founded on invasion. They show how for Indigenous people, self-determination, welfare dependency, representation, cultural maintenance, history writing, reconciliation, land ownership and justice are all inextricably linked to the original act of dispossession by white settlers and the ongoing loss of sovereignty.

 

Contents: Introduction, by Aileen Moreton-Robinson; Part I: Law matters: 1. Settled and unsettled spaces: are we free to roam? by Irene Watson; 2. Misconstruing indigenous sovereignty: maintaining the fabric of Australian law, by Philip Falk and Gary Martin; 3. Indigenous sovereignty rights: international law and the protection of traditional ecological knowledge, by Henrietta Marrie; Part II: Writing matters: 4. Dancing with shadows: erasing aboriginal self and sovereignty, by Philip Morrissey; 5. The sovereign Aboriginal woman, by Tracey Bunda; 5. Writing off indigenous sovereignty: the discourse of security and patriarchal white sovereignty, by Aileen Moreton-Robinson; Part III: History matters: 7. 'The invisible fire': indigenous sovereignty, history and responsibility, by Tony Birch; 8. The Australian Labor Party and the Native Title Act, by Gary Foley; 9. That sovereign being: history matters, by Wendy Brady; Part IV: Policy matters; 10. Indigenous sovereignty and the Australian state: relations in a globalising era, by Maggie Walter; 11. Locating indigenous sovereignty: race and research in indigenous health policy-making, by Steve Larkin; 12. Welfare dependancy and mutual obligation: negating indigenous sovereignty, by Darryl Cronin.

 

Aileen Moreton-Robinson is a Geonpul scholar and Professor of Indigenous Studies at Queensland University of Technology. She is author of Talkin' Up to the White Woman and editor of Whitening Race."

 

Nicholson, John. 2007. Songlines and Stone Axes: Transport, Trade and Travel in Australia. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin. 32 pages. ISBN: 9781741750027 (hc). Children's non-fiction. Winner of the Young People's History Prize, 2007 NSW Premier's History Awards. Review: Australian Aboriginal Studies, (2), 2007: 186-187 (by M. Hill)

 

"A groundbreaking book for children about the fascinating networks of trade and ceremonial exchange in pre-European Australia. John Nicholson's lively curiosity, clear text and detailed illustrations and maps make this complex subject accessible to any age group.

 

Magical pearl-shell pendants, greenstone axe-heads, belts made of human hair, outriggers for canoes, songs and dances, body paint, feathers, extra strong glue, cloaks made of 80 possum skins sewn with kangaroo sinew. These and hundreds of other items were traded around Australia before white settlement. Some were carried on foot over huge distances, through many lands and languages. When food was plentiful, several groups might gather for ceremonies and to swap goods at large markets. All this happened without money - until the Macassans and then the Europeans arrived.

 

In this groundbreaking book, the first of a series, award-winning author John Nicholson describes the fascinating networks of trade and ceremonial exchange in pre-European Australia.

 

John Nicholson is an award-winning author with a passion for the built and natural environment and its impact on human society and history. He originally trained as an architect and has built his own environment-friendly home in the Australian bush. He is renowned for his attractive and accurate illustration of the world around us. Many of John Nicholson's books have been shortlisted in the CBC Book of the Year Awards, and four of them, A Home among the Gum Trees, The First Fleet, Fishing for Islands and Animal Architects, have won the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books."

 

Rowse, Tim (ed.). 2005. Contesting Assimilation. Perth: Australian Public Intellectual (API) Network. 352 pages. ISBN: 1920845151 (pb).

 

"Assimilation was one of the most hopeful social ideals of post-second world war Australia, a rallying cry for those who wanted a fair go for Indigenous peoples. By the 1970s, assimilation had slipped into disrepute and was a dirty word among people of progressive opinion. By the early twenty first century, such odium was countered by a more conservative nostalgia for a golden Australian past. Throughout the course of its many usages, assimilation has been a contested term whose importance today, like reconciliation, is evidenced by the lack of agreement about what it actually means.

 

In Contesting Assimilation, fifteen historians illuminate moments in twentieth century Australia when the policy of assimilation was being planned, implemented, abandoned and debated. The essays collected here are about non-Indigenous Australians, their social ideals, their racial theories, their policies and programs. Readers will encounter influential officials such as A O Neville, S G Middleton, J H Davey and Cecil Cook, the influential federal minister, Paul Hasluck, and humanitarian critics and supporters such as Mary Bennett, Gerald Peel and A P Elkin. Several contributions focus on Indigenous anticipations of and responses to assimilation including what Fred Maynard learned from African-American wharfies, what some urban Aboriginal people understood by respectability, and why residents of Bulgandramine lost the place they called home."

 

Sanders, W. (2008). Equality and Difference Arguments in Australian Indigenous Affairs: Examples from Income Support and Housing. Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, ANU. Working Paper No. 38. Retrieved February 4, 2008, from the World Wide Web: http://www.anu.edu.au/caepr/Publications/WP/CAEPRWP38.pdf.

 

"Abstract: This paper explores the complex and never-ending dialectic between equality and difference in Australian Indigenous affairs. It begins with examples from debates over the inclusion of Aboriginal people in the income security system in the 1960s and 1970s, and then explores Noel Pearson's contributions on this topic in the early 2000s, with his advocacy of a less 'passive' and responsibility-based welfare system. It notes ultimately how Pearson's contributions revisit difference arguments developed in the 1970s, arguments which led to the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) Scheme as an alternative to unemployment payments.

 

The paper then moves on to Aboriginal housing policy debates, first in the 1970s, then the 1990s and early 2000s. It argues that Aboriginal housing policy is dominated by an equality-based 'needs' agenda, but that in the 1970s and 1980s an alternative, appropriate housing agenda for remote areas based on difference arguments did gain some attention. The paper uses recent work on the measurement of Aboriginal housing need and a field-based study of Aboriginal camping in a small Northern Territory town to demonstrate how difference-based arguments have been losing ground to equality arguments in Aboriginal housing debates in recent years.

 

The paper laments the rather simplistic recent ascendancy of equality arguments in Aboriginal income support and housing debates, and suggests that Indigenous affairs in Australia would currently be improved by somewhat greater consideration of difference arguments.

 

Keywords: Equality, difference, appropriateness, justice, arguments, dialectic, Indigenous Affairs 1950-present, income support, housing, town camps. "

 

Stephenson, Peta. 2007. The Outsiders Within: Telling Australia's Indigenous-Asian Story. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. 256 pages. ISBN: 9780868408361 (pb).

 

"An engaging account of the ways in which over hundreds of years Indigenous and Southeast Asian people across Australia have traded, intermarried and built hybrid communities. It is also a disturbing exposé of the persistent - sometimes paranoid - efforts of successive national governments to police, marginalise and outlaw these encounters.

 

Contents: Introduction; 1. Trading places; 2. Makassan meetings; 3. Dangerous liaisons; 4. Colonial encounters; 5. Paranoid nation; 6. Invasion narratives; 7. Where are you from? 8. Detoxifying Australia; 9. Old roots, new routes; Bibliography; Interviews; Index."

 

Ulm, Sean. 2007. Coastal Themes: An Archaeology of the Southern Curtis Coast, Queensland. Terra Australis No. 24. Canberra: ANU E Press. 314 pages. ISBN: 1-920942-93-9 and 1-920942-96-3 (online). Retrieved 17 March, 2008, from the World Wide Web: http://epress.anu.edu.au/terra_australis/ta24/pdf/ta24-whole.pdf.

 

"Coastal archaeology in Australia differs in many respects from that of other areas, with the potential to examine relatively fine-scale variation. Nevertheless, there has been a general tendency in Australian archaeology to play down the variability and to subsume the evidence into broader homogenising models of Aboriginal cultural change. This case study clearly and self-consciously addresses the need to focus on local and regional patterns before moving on to more general levels of explanation.

 

Coastal Themes builds a detailed chronology of Aboriginal occupation for the southern Curtis Coast in Queensland. Innovative analyses refine radiocarbon dates and explore discard behaviours and post-depositional processes affecting the integrity of coastal archaeological sites. The resulting insights highlight major changes in Aboriginal use of this region over the last 5,000 years and disjunctions between the course of occupation in this and adjacent regions.

 

Contents: Preliminary Pages; Foreword; Acknowledgements; Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; 1. Introduction: Investigating the archaeology of the southern Curtis Coast; 2. The study region: The southern Curtis Coast; 3. Methods of investigation; Marine and estuarine reservoir effects in central Queensland: Determination of DR values; 4. Bivalve conjoin analyses: Assessing site integrity; 5. Seven Mile Creek Mound; 6. Mort Creek Site Complex; 7. Pancake Creek Site Complex; 8. Ironbark Site Complex; 9. Eurimbula Creek 1; 10. Eurimbula Creek 2; 11. Eurimbula Site 1; 12. Tom's Creek Site Complex; 13. Synthesis of results: Towards an archaeology of the southern Curtis Coast; 14. Wider implications and conclusions; References; Appendix 1. Radiocarbon dates: technical data; Appendix 2. Recorded archaeological sites on the southern Curtis Coast; Appendix 3. Site name synonyms for recorded sites on the southern Curtis Coast; Appendix 4. Excavation data; Appendix 5. Shellfish reference collection."

 

Vallee, Peter. 2006. God, Guns and Government on the Central Australian Frontier. Canberra: Restoration Books. 409 pages. ISBN: 978-0977531219 (pb).

 

"On 21 February 1891 in Central Australia the murder of two Aboriginal men prompted an enquiry and a murder trial of Mounted Constable William Willshire. They were just two deaths in a litany of killings, but this time it was more a crime of passion than punishment for cattle rustling. Peter Vallee has thoroughly researched this complex tale about the Central Australian Frontier.

 

When Mounted Constable William Willshire had his troopers shoot two Aboriginal men, Ereminta and Donkey, in cold blood on the morning of February 21 1891, they left behind several witnesses, and an eventful story of the first meetings of Aboriginal and white people in Central Australia. The man who shot Ereminta, Thomas, was an Aranda-Lutheran, one of the Finke River mission s first converts. What kind of Christianity had the Hermannsburg missionaries planted on the Finke River? God, Guns and Government traces the history of the mission's early days, and reveals some surprising connections between the police, including William Willshire, and the missionaries, and the desperate measures the missionaries adopted in the struggle for Aranda hearts and minds. The missionaries thought their real opponents were the pastoralists, who offered young Aboriginal men and women new opportunities outside traditional life. The frontier policemen led a strange and violent life, protecting the white people and serving a law that assumed that all South Australians were equally citizens. It was of little help when relations between black and white descended into armed conflict. From a thousand kilometres away government ministers and police commissioners were supposed to be in control of all this. A fickle electorate and inept laws were ready to judge their failures. In two trials the Swan Taplin enquiry into the Finke River mission and Willshire's trial for murder the deeds of all the players were subject to harsh scrutiny, with results that the proudly British citizens of Adelaide found hard to assimilate. The echoes of these events can be heard in the politics of the Centre and Top End of Australia today.

 

Peter Vallee is a former South Australian who returned to the study of the State's history after working as a lecturer and science administrator. He is married with two children and lives in Canberra."

 

MELANESIA

 

Bidou, Patrice, Jacques Galinier and Bernard Juillerat (eds). 2005. Anthropologie et psychanalyse: Regards croisés. Paris: Éditions de l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Éditions EHESS). 228 pages. ISBN: 978-2-7132-2066-1.

 

"C'est à un échange de regards entre anthropologie et psychanalyse qu´invite cet ouvrage, conçu par des spécialistes des deux disciplines.

 

Le point de départ de l´anthropologie psychanalytique est la prise en compte de la réalité fantasmatique dans les constructions réciproques du sujet et des oeuvres de culture. Le corps physique et psychique des deux sexes constitue ainsi la voie de passage entre l´universel du désir humain et la singularité des civilisations. Cette relation de connivence profonde entre l´individu désirant et l´instauration des règles sociales est le leitmotiv des auteurs de ce volume.

 

With contributions by Gillian Gillison about the Gimi ('Totem et taboo dans les Hautes Terrres de la Papouasie-Nouvelle Guinée: La révolte des filles') and Bernard Juillerat about the Yafar ('l'auteur montre comment le fantasme d'appropriation du cargo serait une défense contre l'angoisse de castration des Yafars face aux Européens blancs, c'est-à-dire face à la modernité' - Bénédicte Sère in Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions, retrieved March 27, 2008, from the World Wide Web: http://assr.revues.org/document3472.html)."

 

De L'Estoile, Benoît, Federico Neiburg and Lygia Sigaud (eds). 2005. Empires, Nations, and Natives: Anthropology and State-Making. Durham: Duke University Press. 344 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8223-3628-0 (cloth) and 978-0-8223-3617-4 (pb).

 

"Empires, Nations, and Natives is a groundbreaking comparative analysis of the interplay between the practice of anthropology and the politics of empires and nation-states in the colonial and postcolonial worlds. It brings together essays that demonstrate how the production of social-science knowledge about the 'other' has been inextricably linked to the crafting of government policies. Subverting established boundaries between national and imperial anthropologies, the contributors explore the role of anthropology in the shifting categorizations of race in southern Africa, the identification of Indians in Brazil, the implementation of development plans in Africa and Latin America, the construction of Mexican and Portuguese nationalism, the genesis of 'national character' studies in the United States during World War II, the modernizing efforts of the French colonial administration in Africa, and postcolonial architecture.

 

Contents: Acknowledgments; 1. Benoît de L'Estoile, Federico Neiburg, and Lygia Sigaud, Introduction: Anthropology and the Government of 'Natives': A Comparative Approach; 2. Benoît de L'Estoile, Rationalizing Colonial Domination? Anthropology and Native Policy in French-Ruled Africa; 3. Omar Ribeiro Thomaz, 'The Good-Hearted Portuguese People': Anthropology of Nation, Anthropology of Empire; 4. Florence Weber, Vichy France and the End of Scientific Folklore (1937-1954); 5. Federico Neiburg and Marcio Goldman, From Nation to Empire: War and National Character Studies in the United States; 6. David Mills, Anthropology at the End of Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Colonial Social Sciences Research Council, 1944-1962; 7. Claudio Lomnitz, Bordering on Anthropology: Dialectics of a National Tradition in Mexico; 8. Antonio Carlos de Souza Lima, Indigenism in Brazil: The International Migration of State Policies; 9. João Pacheco de Oliveira, The Anthropologist as Expert: Brazilian Ethnology between Indianism and Indigenism; 10. Jorge F. Pantaleón, Anthropology, Development, and Nongovernmental Organizations in Latin America; 11. Alban Bensa, The Ethnologist and the Architect: A Postcolonial Experiment in the French Pacific; 12. Adam Kuper, 'Today We Have Naming of Parts': The Work of Anthropologists in Southern Africa; References; Contributors; Index.

 

Benoît de L'Estoile teaches social anthropology at the École Normale Supérieure and at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, both in Paris. Federico Neiburg and Lygia Sigaud teach social anthropology at the Museu Nacional, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro."

 

Foster, Robert J. 2008 (April). Coca-globalization: Following Soft Drinks from New York to New Guinea. New York, NY and Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. 304 pages. ISBN: 9780230603868 (pb) and 9780312238711 (hc).

 

"This book explores globalization through a historical and anthropological study of how familiar soft drinks such as Coke and Pepsi became valued as more than mere commodities. Foster discusses the transnational operations of soft drink companies and, in particular, the marketing of soft drinks in Papua New Guinea, a country only recently opened up to the flow of brand name consumer goods. Based on field observations and interviews, as well as archival and library research, this book is of interest to anyone concerned about the cultural consequences and political prospects of globalization, including new forms of consumer citizenship and corporate social responsibility.

 

Contents: Introduction: Cola Connections and Worldly Things; Part 1: Soft Drinks and the Economy of Qualities: The Social Life of Worldly Things: Commodity Consumption and Globalization; Globalizing Coca-Cola: The Multilocal Multinational Corporation; Qualifying Products: Trademarks, Brands and Value-Creation; A Network of Perspectives: The Meanings of Soft Drinks in Papua New Guine;: Part 2: Globalization an Citizenship and the Politics of Consumption: Corporations, Consumers and New Strategies of Citizenship; Shareholder Activism: Consumer Citizenship Inside the Corporation; Pouring Rights: Politics, Products, Agency and Change; Conclusion: Product Networks and the Politics of Knowledge; References.

 

Robert J. Foster is Professor of Anthropology and Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Rochester. He is the author of Social Reproduction and History in Melanesia and Materializing the Nation: Commodities, Consumption, and Media in Papua New Guinea."

 

Lothmann, Timo. 2006. God i tok long Yumi long Tok Pisin: Eine Betrachtung der Bibelübersetzung in Tok Pisin vor dem Hintergrund der sprachlichen Identität eines Papua-Neuguinea zwischen Tradition und Moderne. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. 437 pages. ISBN: 978-3-631-55453-1 (pb).

 

"Diese Arbeit präsentiert die detaillierte Analyse des wichtigsten Meilensteins der Tok Pisin-Literatur, des Buk Baibel. Tok Pisin, eine Pidgin-beziehungsweise Kreolsprache Papua-Neuguineas, hat durch jene Bibelübersetzung eine signifikante Statuserhöhung erfahren. Aber wie wird diese Option genutzt? Wird das Buk Baibel den selbstauferlegten hohen Ansprüchen bezüglich Funktionalität und Standardisierung der verwendeten Sprachvarietät gerecht? Wie konsequent und zielgruppenrelevant wurde bei der Übertragung der ideologisch und kulturspezifisch geprägten Quellen vorgegangen? Ein Einblick in die kirchliche Praxis und die Netzwerke vor Ort verdeutlicht die Haltung der sozial stratifizierten Sprechergruppen zu ihrem Tok Pisin. Doch der Fortbestand ist gefährdet - omnipräsente Anglisierungsprozesse bestimmen die postkoloniale Identitätssuche. Dabei fungieren Missionare und Bibelübersetzer als Brückenbauer zwischen diametralen Welten. Das enthaltene Wörterbuch auf Basis des verwendeten Textkorpus erleichtert den Zugang zum Faszinosum Tok Pisin.

 

Contentst: Pidgin- und Kreolsprachen (Zyklus und Entstehungstheorien); Entwicklung des Tok Pisin; Christentum in Papua-Neuguinea; Die Bibelübersetzung in Tok Pisin (Standardisierung, Korpusanalyse lexischer und grammatikalischer Merkmale, interkulturelle Problemfelder); Beispiele aus kirchlicher Praxis; Medien und Politik; Wörterbuch Tok Pisin- Deutsch.

 

Timo Lothmann, geboren 1976, studierte Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft, Geschichte und Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule Aachen, wo er zur Zeit am Institut für Synchrone Anglistik lehrt. Sein gefächertes wissenschaftliches Interesse gilt unter anderem interdisziplinären Aspekten der Sozio- und Psycholinguistik sowie der Übersetzungstheorie und -praxis."

 

Macdonald, Rosita. (2008). Safety, Security, and Accessible Justice: Participatory Approaches to Law and Justice Reform in Papua New Guinea. Pacific Islands Policy No.3. Honolulu: East-West Center. 52 pages. Retrieved May 21, 2008, from the World Wide Web: http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/pip003.pdf.

 

"Rosita MacDonald examines the challenges facing the law and justice reform partnership between Australia and its former colony Papua New Guinea (PNG). Serious safety and security issues confront PNG, with the incidence of violent crime increasing and the capacity of the law enforcement, court, and prison systems to deal with offenders deteriorating.

 

MacDonald acknowledges the challenge of implementing institutional reforms appropriate to the PNG cultural and political context, and highlights the fact that measurable and sustainable reforms within the law and justice sector have failed to occur despite a substantial investment of resources from both governments. Law and justice policy in PNG should shift, she says, from the official rhetoric supporting traditional and community-led approaches to a greater investment by the PNG and Australian leadership to restorative justice approaches, the village court system, and under-utilized community organizations."

 

Trompf, Garry W. 2006. Religions of Melanesia: A Bibliographic Survey. Westport: Praeger Publishers. 720 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0-313-28754-1 (hc)

 

"Melansia boasts over one-quarter of the world's distinct religions and presents the most complex religious panorama on earth. The region is famous for its unusual new religious movements that have adapted traditional beliefs to modernity in surprising ways. As the first bibliographical survey to comprehensively cover the entire region, Religions of Melansia is an invaluable reserach aid for anyone interested in this growing field. Trompf's work is a complete listing of scholarly publications and provides readable and concise descriptions that will clearly guide the researcher toward the most relevant sources.

 

This survey covers 2188 entries organized topically and regionally. Trompf covers such subjects as traditional and modern belief systems and the emergent indigenous Christianity that has taken root. Regional coverage includes West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Fiji."

 

Van den Heuvel, Wilco. 2006. Biak: Description of an Austronesian Language. Utrecht: LOT. 496 pages. ISBN: 978-90-78328-10-0. Retrieved May 15, 2008, from the World Wide Web: http://www.lotpublications.nl/publish/articles/001950/bookpart.pdf.

 

"This work contains the first comprehensive description of the Biak language, an Austronesian language spoken by approximately 70,000 speakers on the island Biak and in several settlements along the northern coast and off-shore islands of the Bird's Head peninsula of Papua, Eastern Indonesia. The description focuses on the language as spoken in the village Wardo, but also contains data from other villages in the area. The study is mainly based on primary data gathered by the author during fieldwork on Biak. It is not placed within an all-encompassing theoretical framework, although insights from various linguistic theories are used to support the analysis. The Biak language is part of the South Halmahera West New Guinea subgroup of the Austronesian family, of which only a handful have been described in any detail. Given the close historical relation between this group and the Oceanic languages, the present book contains valuable data for a closer understanding of these languages. In the area around the island Biak we find a mixture of Austronesian and non-Austronesian (Papuan) languages. Due to the traditionally prominent role of Biak people in trade, the language has been in contact with many languages in the area. The present work, then, is of interest not only to scholars of Oceanic languages or Austronesian languages in general, but also to scholars of Papuan languages, scholars of language contact, and those interested in the typology of language as such."

 

Verschueren, Jan. 2008. Dema: Music from the Marind Anim: The Verschueren Collection 1962. Anthology of Music from West Papua No.2. Leiden: PAN Records (paradox@dataweb.nl). Distributed for Rein Spoorman (http://www.reinmusic.nl) and Institute for Multicultural Music Studies in Amsterdam. CD. 71 minutes.

 

"Dema is a CD with unique historical recordings of the Marind Anim of Southern West Papua. The once famous and notorious Marind Anim culture with its secret initiation rituals, colourful Dema spirit processions and ritualized head hunting had almost disappeared in the 1960's due to colonisation and missionary activities.

 

In 1962 the catholic priest father Jan Verschueren made a series of recordings trying to capture as much as possible of the music accompanying the grand Dema processions, rituals and cults which once formed the highlights of the traditional Marind Anim culture. Having worked in the area since 1931, speaking fluently the language, the Marind Anim trusted him enough to allow him to record the secret initiation and head hunting songs.

 

The 42 tracks on this CD give an overview of these recordings. Together with the wax cylinder recordings he made in 1933 these are the only existing recordings of the music. The text of the 20 page booklet accompanying the CD is based on the notebooks and publications of Jan Verschueren and is richly illustrated with rare historical pictures from Dutch archives.

 

Research, trackselection and liner notes: Fred Gales and Rein Spoorman. Editing and mastering Robert van de Bosch. Photography: photo archive of the National Museum of Ethnology, the Royal Tropical Institute, and from publications as indicated. Production and design: Rein Spoorman (RMP). Produced in cooperation with the Institute for Multicultural Music Studies (IMS) in Amsterdam."

 

Wrightson, John. 2005. Mission to Melanesia: Out of Bondage. London: Janus Publishing. 292 pages. ISBN: 978-1-85756-600-0 (pb).

 

"A fascinating and detailed history of the Melanesia Mission, established by the Anglican Church during the 1840s. The record of the Mission's progress during the following hundred years, offers a vivid impression of the vitality, dedication, sensitivity and sheer humanity of those who contributed to its story. For a long while many of the far-scattered inhabitants of the south west Pacific had a fearsome reputation for headhunting, cannibalism and other pagan practices. Their early contact with the white man led first to brutal conflict and then to unspeakable acts of savagery on both sides. Deceived and taken, by fair means of foul, to work as virtual slaves on the colonial estates of Australia and Fiji, the islanders suffered disease, disorientation and death in their thousands. Those that survived returned to their homes, bitter and resentful, to create ever greater problems in their native society."

 

Zocca, Franco. 2007. Melanesia and Its Churches: Past and Present. Point Series No. 31. Goroka: Melanesian Institute. 218 pages. ISSN: 9980-65-007-9 (pb).

 

"Melanesia and Its Churches: Past and Present deals with the growth of authentic Melanesian indigenous churches from embryonic stages to what they are today. Its central emphasis is on the current situation of the Melanesian Christians and Churches. Leading up to this, the author traces their roots historically and culturally.

For any serious students of history of mission and church development in Oceania, this book is a great asset. Theological colleges' bookshops in Oceania would do well to have this book available as a textbook for the course in history of missions. Written in a very comprehensive way, students would get a good working knowledge of their own missionary stories."

 

MICRONESIA

 

Abels, Birgit. 2008 (May). Sounds of Articulating Identity: Tradition and Transition in the Music of Palau, Micronesia. Berlin: Logos Verlag. 315 pages. ISBN 978-3-8325-1866-0.

 

"This book provides an overview of historical and contemporary music-making practices and their social contexts in the Republic of Palau, Micronesia. The study identifies and analyzes strands of musical development over the course of, roughly, the last century. Its secondary focus is on the conceptualization of the musical transition in Palauan discourse(s) and its interaction with (g)local identity negotiation. As the ethnomusicological exploration of the Palauan world proceeds, the book demonstrates how a study of the music of a small island nation is capable of transcending the boundaries of ethnomusicology as an academic discipline, and it adds rich material to the discourse about globalization and to the field of cultural studies."

 

Hatashin, Omi. 2008 (May). Private Yokoi's War and Life on Guam, 1944-72: The Story of the Japanese Imperial Army's Longest WWII Survivor in the Field and Later Life. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. 144 pages. ISBN: 978-1-905246-69-4 (cl).

 

"In 1972, when discovered by local hunters on Guam, former tailor Yokoi was widely reported as a 'no surrender man' who survived, living up to the old Japanese military code of honour. This book is about the reality of such a man (and the ingenuity he applied to ensure his survival), which is very different from the stereotype. The first part is the English translation of his own autobiography, which was narrated to his wife who wrote everything down. The second part is a biography of Yokoi after his return to Japan, including his marriage, upper house elections in 1974, his pottery and his views on modern life. He died in 1997.Although Intelligence officer Onoda's story of survival on Lubang caught the headlines in the same year (1974) that Yokoi published his story, it is interesting to note that Yokoi, a mere Private, did not attract the same amount of interest in Japan, partly because of stories of 'cowardice' and partly because he was simply a nobody in the Imperial Japanese Army and therefore an embarrassment. This book, therefore, sheds a different light on the reality of the war in the Pacific while addressing some key issues concerning the nature of Japanese culture in modern times."

 

POLYNESIA

 

Andrade, Carlos. 2008 (July). Ha'ena: Through the Eyes of the Ancestors. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. 200 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8248-3119-6 (cl).

 

"Ha'ena is a land steeped in antiquity yet vibrantly beautiful today as any Hollywood fantasy of a tropical paradise. He 'aina momona, a rich and fertile land linked to the sea and the rising and setting sun, is a place of gods and goddesses: Pele and her sister, Hi'iaka, and Laka, patron of hula. It epitomizes the best that can be found in the district of northwestern Kaua'i, known to aboriginal Hawaiians as Hale Le'a (House of Pleasure and Delight). This work is an ambitious attempt to provide a unique perspective in the complex story of the ahupua'a (narrower wedge-shaped land sections that ran from the mountains to the sea) of Ha'ena.

 

Carlos Andrade begins by examining the stories that identify the origins and places of the earliest inhabitants of Ha'ena. The narrative outlines the unique relationships developed by Hawaiians with the environment and describes the system used to look after the land and the sea. Andrade goes on to research the changes wrought by concepts and perceptions introduced by European, American, and Asian immigrants. He delves into the impact of land privatization as Hawai'i struggled to preserve its independence. The Mahele and the Kuleana Act, legislation that laid the foundation for all landholding in Hawai'i, had a profound influence on Ha'ena. Part of this story includes a description of the thirty-nine Hawaiians who pooled their resources, bought the entire ahupua'a of Ha'ena, and held it in common from the late 1800s to 1967 - a little-known chapter in the fight to perpetuate traditional lifeways. Lastly, Andrade collects the stories of kupuna who share their experiences of life in Ha'ena and surrounding areas, capturing a way of life that is quickly disappearing beneath therising tide of non-Native people who now inhabit the land.

 

Carlos Andrade is assistent professor of Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawai'i."

 

Clark, John R.K. 2007. Guardian of the Sea: Jizo in Hawai'i. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. 184 pages. 60 illustrations. ISBN: 978-0-8248-3158-5 (pa).

 

"Jizo, one of the most beloved Buddhist deities in Japan, is known primarily as the guardian of children and travelers. In coastal areas, fishermen and swimmers also look to him for protection. Soon after their arrival in the late 1800s, issei (first-generation Japanese) shoreline fishermen began casting for ulua on Hawai'i's treacherous sea cliffs, where they risked being swept off the rocky ledges. In response to numerous drownings, Jizo statues were erected near dangerous fishing and swimming sites, including popular Bamboo Ridge, near the Blowhole in Hawai'i Kai; Kawaihâpai Bay in Mokulç'ia; and Kawailoa Beach in Hale'iwa. Guardian of the Sea tells the story of a compassionate group of men who raised these statues as a service to their communities.

 

Written by an authority on Hawai'i's beaches and water safety, Guardian of the Sea shines a light on a little-known facet of Hawai'i's past. It incorporates valuable firsthand accounts taken from interviews with nisei (second-generation) fishermen and residents and articles from Japanese language newspapers dating as far back as the early 1900s. In addition to background information on Jizo as a guardian deity and historical details on Jizo statues in Hawai'i, the author discusses shorecasting techniques and organizations, which once played a key role in the lives of local Japanese. Although shorecasting today is done more for sport than subsistence, it remains an important ocean activity in the Islands.

 

In examining Jizo and the lives of issei, Guardian of the Sea makes a significant contribution to our understanding of recent Hawai'i history.

 

Contents: Acknowledgments; Introduction; Prologue; 1. Casting for Ulua; 2. Stores, Clubs, and Tournaments; 3. Jizo the Protector; 4. Jizo on the North Shore; 5. Warning Signs; 6. Jizo on the South Shore; 7. Pilgrimages; 8. Drownings in Hawai'i; Epilogue; Timeline of Events; References; Index.

 

John R. K. Clark, a former lifeguard and retired deputy fire chief of the Honolulu Fire Department, is the author of six books on Hawai'i's beaches published by University of Hawai'i Press."

 

Clarke, Alan. 2007. The Great Sacred Forest of Tane / Te Wao Tapu Nui a Tane: A Natural Pre-history of Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland: Reed Publishing. 520 pages. ISBN: 978-0-7900-1153-0 (hb)

 

"A comprehensive and unique natural history, Alan Clarke leaves no stone unturned in explaining the origin and possible uses of New Zealand's flora, tracing their evolution back to before early human habitation. As well as studying a variety of plants and elaborating on their botanical make-up, he presents a fascinating commentary on the dietary, economic, medicinal and decorative uses of each. The result of a life's labour of love, The Great Sacred Forest of Tane will enthrall and capture the mind of anyone interested in NZ's primordial past."

 

Freeman, Derek. 2006. The Social Structure of a Samoan Village Community. Canberra: Target Oceania, Division of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University (in association with New Zealand Australia Connections Research Centre, University of Canterbury, Christchurch). xi + 159 pages. ISBN: 1-74076-216-9.

 

"Peter Hempenstall was invited by the Freeman family and the ANU to prepare for publication Derek Freeman's 1948 postgraduate thesis for the University of London. It was the first serious western village study of Samoa and has lain unknown and largely unremarked despite the controversy over Margaret Mead. Peter Hempenstall has edited and annotated the thesis and written an extensive introduction on Freeman's intellectual life. The NZAC Research Centre is delighted to be associated with this publication by Target Oceania, which is the forerunner of a major book to be written on Derek Freeman's influence on anthropology in Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America."

 

Leach, Foss. 2006. Fishing in Pre-European New Zealand. Dunedin: New Zealand Journal of Archaeology (special publication) and Archaeofauna (volume 15). 359 pages. ISBN: 0-476-00864-6 (hc). Abstract in four languages at http://www.nzarchaeology.org/fishing%20files/fishing.htm.

 

"This authoritative volume draws together a broad range of information about pre-European Maori fishing in a well illustrated and very readable form. The author uses identifications and measurements of fish remains from 126 archaeological sites covering the full time span of prehistoric New Zealand to describe the range of fish caught by pre-European Maori, explore variations between regions and through time, and examine the impact of Maori on the fishery.

 

The archaeological information is placed in a series of wider contexts - the Pacific background to Maori fishing, the nature of the New Zealand fishery, climatic fluctuations during the last millennium, and the nutritional requirements of human diet and the role of marine food in it.

 

The discussion of the technology and material culture of fishing breaks new ground in its treatment of cordage and knots, netting and fish hooks, canoe design, fish preservation and cooking methods. Research on fish behaviour towards hooks provides much needed insight into the reason why the rotating hook, so common amongst early Maori and other Pacific island peoples, was so successful.

 

The author shows that pre-European Maori had a different approach to conservation of the marine environment than is currently employed in modern fisheries management and that claims of pre-European over-exploitation of snapper and other species are ill-founded. An especially important finding is that the average size of fish increased over time following the strategy of taking large numbers of what would now be considered under-sized fish. New

 

Zealand had super-abundant fish stocks right up to the time of first European settlement, and all necessary marine food was obtained in shallow waters less than 100 m from the shore. Pre-European Maori fishermen in New Zealand are shown to have been extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of the New Zealand fishery."

 

Moon, Paul. 2007. The Struggle for Tamaki Makaurau: The Maori Occupation of Auckland to 1820. Auckland: David Ling Publishing. 154 pages. ISBN 978-1-877378-14-0 (pb).

 

Maori Auckland is synonymous with Ngati Whatua, or so it seems. However, there is a much longer and far more contentious history of the area which challenges this assumption, and raises the possibility of several other tribes staking a claim for dominion over Auckland.

 

This book offers a concise survey of Auckland's history in the centuries before European involvement. From the first Polynesian arrivals, through to the growth of the isthmus, and the devastating invasion that altered its entire political make-up in the mid-700s, The Struggle for Tamaki Makaurau uncovers a truly fascinating history of the region, and will cause many Aucklanders to see their city, and the current Treaty claims, in an entirely new light.

 

Dr Paul Moon is a Senior Lecturer in Maori Studies at the Auckland University of Technology. His previous books include Hone Heke, Ngapuhi Warrior; The Path to the Treaty of Waitangi; Hobson, Governor of New Zealand 1840-1842; FitzRoy, Governor in Crisis 1843-1845; Ngapua, The Political Life of Hone Heke Ngapua; Tohunga, Hohepa Kereopa and A Tohunga's Natural World: Plants, Gardening and Food.

 

Moser, Patrick (ed.). 2008 (May). Pacific Passages: An Anthology of Surf Writing. Honolulu: University Press of Hawai'i. 352 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8248-3155-4 (paper)

 

"A thousand years after Hawaiians first paddled long wooden boards into the ocean, modern surfers have continued this practice, which has recently been transformed into a global industry. Pacific Passages brings together four centuries of writing about surfing, the most comprehensive collection of Polynesian and Western perspectives on the history and culture of a sport currently enjoyed by millions of people around the world. The stories begin with Hawaiian legends and chants and are followed by the journals of explorers; the travel narratives of missionaries and luminaries such as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Jack London; and the contemporary observations of Tom Wolfe, William Finnegan, Susan Orlean, and Bob Shacochis.

 

Readers follow the historical transformation of surfing's image through the centuries: from Polynesian myths of love to Western accounts of horror and exoticism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to modern representations of surfing as a character-building activity in pre-World-War II California and the quintessential expression of disaffected youth. They explore the sport's most recent trends by writers and cultural critics, whose insights into technology, competition, gender, heritage, and globalism reveal how surfing impacts some of today's most pressing social concerns.

 

Aided by informative introductions, the writings in Pacific Passages provide insight into the values and ideals of Polynesian and Western cultures, revealing how each has altered and been altered by surfing - and how the sport itself has shown an amazing ability throughout the centuries to survive, adapt, and prosper.

Patrick Moser is associate professor of French at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, where he teaches a course on the history and culture of surfing. He has published articles in Surfer, Surf Life for Women, and The Surfer's Journal. He collaborated with 1977 world surfing champion Shaun Tomson on Surfer's Code: 12 Simple Lessons for Riding through Life.
"

 

Mak, James. 2008 (March). Developing a Dream Destination: Tourism and Tourism Policy Planning in Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i. 272 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8248-3243-8 (paper).

 

"This book is an interpretive history of tourism and tourism policy development in Hawai'i from the 1960s to the twenty-first century. Part 1 looks at the many changes in tourism since statehood (1959) and tourism's imprint on Hawai'i. Part 2 reviews the development of public policy toward tourism, beginning with a story of the planning process that started around 1970 - a full decade before the first comprehensive State Tourism Plan was crafted and implemented. It also examines state government policies and actions taken relative to the taxation of tourism, tourism promotion, convention center development and financing, the environment, Honolulu County's efforts to improve Waikiki, and how the Neighbor Islands have coped with explosive tourism growth. Along the way, author James Mak offers interpretations of what has worked, what has not, and why. He concludes with a chapter on the lessons learned while developing a dream destination over the past half century.

 

Contents: Map of the Hawaiian Islands; Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Tourism in Hawaii: An Overview; 3. Genesis of State Policy on Tourism; 4. State Tax Policy on Tourism; 5. Tourism Promotion, the Hawaii Convention Center, and the Hawaii Tourism Authority; 6. Protecting Hawaii's Natural Environment; 7. Improving Waikiki; 8. The Neighbor Islands; 9. Lessons from Hawaii's Experience; Index .

 

James Mak is professor of economics at the University of Hawai'i."

 

Richards, Rhys. 2008. Easter Island 1793 to 1861: Observations by Early Visitors before the Slave Raids. Los Osos, CA: Easter Island Foundation. 144 pages. ISBN: 978-1-880636-28-2 (pb)

 

"An exhaustive collection of reports, letters, and accounts - some never before published - from the first ships to visit Easter Island. A valuable scholarly edition to find a space on every Rapanuiphile’s bookshelf!"

 

Seuffert, Nan. 2006. Jurisprudence of National Identity: Kaleidoscopes of Imperialism and Globalisation from Aotearoa New Zealand. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate Publishing. 170 pages. ISBN: 0-7546-4618-1 (hb).

 

"Presenting a unique blend of historical and contemporary research from a range of interdisciplinary and theoretical analysis, this book examines the intersection of 'race', gender and national identity. Focusing on New Zealand, the book highlights the ways in which shifts in national identity shape and limit legal claims for redress for historical racial injustices internationally.

 

Key features: 1. Analyzes the identity configurations produced by New Zealand's process of 'settling' colonial injustices and highlights the wider relevance for other groups such as Australian Aborigines and Native Americans; 2. Traces the connections and discontinuities between the free trade imperialism of the mid-19th Century and the Free Trade Globalization of the late 20th Century; 3. Rich, rigorous interdisciplinarity and use of a range of theoretical perspectives provides insights relevant to legal theorists, feminists and legal scholars internationally.

 

Contents: Acknowledgements; 1. Interventions: law, postcoloniality, nation, 'race' and gender; 2. Foundations: law's deceptions and 'good citizens' of free trade imperialism; 3. Jurisdiction: colonial marriage law, concubinage and polygamy; 4. Race purity in an emerging nation: orientalism, law, policy, immigration and Maori; 5. Nation as partnership: treaty settlements in the glare of globalisation; 6. Producing race and gender through national identity in law; 7. White women leading the nation: shifting law and policy terrain, cleaning up the mess; 8. Immigration: anxiety, paradox and belligerence; 9. Convergences and divergences; References; Index.

 

Nan Seuffert is Professor at the School of Law, University of Waikato, New Zealand."

 

Spitz, Chantal T. 2007. Island of Shattered Dreams. Translated by Jean Anderson. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. 172 pages. ISBN: 978-1-86969-299-5 (pa). Distributed for Huia Press. First published in French in 1991.

 

"Finally in English, Island of Shattered Dreams is the first ever novel by an indigenous Tahitian writer. In a lyrical and immensely moving style, this book combines a family saga and a doomed love story, set against the background of French Polynesia in the period leading up to the first nuclear tests. The text is highly critical of the French government and, as a result, its publication in Tahiti was polarizing.

 

For sale only in the U.S, its dependencies, Canada, and Mexico.

 

Chantal Spitz is the best-known of Tahiti's indigenous writers and the author of two novels, L'Île des rêves écrasés (Papeete: Les Éditions de la Plage, 1991; Pirae: Au Vent des Îles, 2003) and Hombo, transcription d'une biographie (Papeete: Éditions Te Ite, 2002), along with a collection of essays, Pensées insolentes et inutiles (Papeete: Éditions Te Ite, 2006). She is a founding member of the review Litterama'ohi, of which she is currently editor. Jean Anderson is Programme Director for French at Victoria University of Wellington. She has co-translated into French works by several New Zealand writers including Patricia Grace and Janet Frame."

 

Stevenson, Christopher M. and Sonia Haoa Cardinali. 2008. Prehistoric Rapa Nui: Landscape and Settlement Archaeology at Hanga Ho'onu. With contributions by Joan Wozniak, Helene Martinsson-Wallin, and Paul Wallin. Los Osos, CA: Easter Island Foundation. 297 pages. ISBN 978-1-880636-26-8 (pb).

 

"As the authors of this book show, contrary to past perceptions, the Easter Island landscape was a highly transformed and managed agricultural terrain that emerged in response to deforestation by the Polynesians who settled there. This volume adds a new dimension to scholarly investigations about why the island’s prehistoric society evolved the way it did."

 

Wood-Ellem, Elizabeth (ed.) 2007. Tonga and the Tongans: Heritage and Identity. Alphington: E. Wood-Ellem for Tonga Research Association, Melbourne. 264 pages. 50 illustrations. ISBN: 978-0646474663 (pb).

 

Contents: Preface; 1. Nanasipau'u Tuku'aho, God and Tonga are my Inheritance; 2. David V. Burley, Tonga's Lapita Beginning and its Role in Polynesian Origins; 3. Guy Powles, Constitutions and People's Values: Changing the Constitution of Tonga; 4. 'Asinate Samate, Re-imagining the Claim that God and Tonga are my Inheritance; 5. Filipe Tohi and Hilary Scothorn, Tupu'anga: Source and structure of Tongan lalava patterns; 6. Adrienne Kaeppler, Heliaki, Metaphor, and Allusion: The art and aesthetics of Ko e 'Otua mo Tonga ko hoku Tofi'a; 7. Maureen Powles, Daniel Wheeler: A Quaker in Tonga 1836; 8. 'Aioema 'Atiola, Tongan Wesleyan Missionaries Abroad 1835-1985; 9. Christine Liava'a, The Western High Pacific Commission Archives: A source for research; 10. Sioana Faupula, The Shirley Baker Archives (1836-1903): Papers filmed by the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau; 11. Elizabeth Wood-Ellem, Conspiracies and Rumours of Conspiracies in Tonga; 12. Pasemata Vï Taunisila and Gareth Grainger, The Ata Family; 13. Siupeli Taliai, Ko e Kau Fakaongo; 14. Gareth Grainger, The Fakaongo Exiles from Tonga to Fiji 1887-90; 15. Phyllis Herda, The Political Aspects of Marriage in Traditional Tonga; 16. Tangikina Moimoi Steen, Creating a Culturally Safe Space for Tongans in Adelaide: The Gap Project; 17. Helen Lee, Generational Change: The children of Tongan migrants and their ties to the homeland; 18. Bruce Hill, Foreign Correspondent's Report; 19. Kalafi Moala, Media: A Tool for National Development; Bibliographies; Index.

 

Copies may be obtained from Elizabeth Wood-Ellem: fihu28[at]optusnet.com.au."

 

 

Index - Contents - Previous page - Next page