University of Hawai'i Press
Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures
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Edited by:
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With contributions by:
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Translated by:
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About this book
In this anthology of contemporary eco-literature, the editors have gathered an ensemble of a hundred emerging, mid-career, and established Indigenous writers from Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and the global Pacific diaspora. This book itself is an ecological form with rhizomatic roots and blossoming branches. Within these pages, the reader will encounter a wild garden of genres, including poetry, chant, short fiction, novel excerpts, creative nonfiction, visual texts, and even a dramatic play—all written in multilingual offerings of English, Pacific languages, pidgin, and translation. Seven main themes emerge: “Creation Stories and Genealogies,” “Ocean and Waterscapes,” “Land and Islands,” “Flowers, Plants, and Trees,” “Animals and More-than-Human Species,” “Climate Change,” and “Environmental Justice.” This aesthetic diversity embodies the beautiful bio-diversity of the Pacific itself.
The urgent voices in this book call us to attention—to action!—at a time of great need. Pacific ecologies and the lives of Pacific Islanders are currently under existential threat due to the legacy of environmental imperialism and the ongoing impacts of climate change. While Pacific writers celebrate the beauty and cultural symbolism of the ocean, islands, trees, and flowers, they also bravely address the frightening realities of rising sea levels, animal extinction, nuclear radiation, military contamination, and pandemics.
Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures reminds us that we are not alone; we are always in relation and always ecological. Humans, other species, and nature are interrelated; land and water are central concepts of identity and genealogy; and Earth is the sacred source of all life, and thus should be treated with love and care. With this book as a trusted companion, we are inspired and empowered to reconnect with the world as we navigate towards a precarious yet hopeful future.
Author / Editor information
ʻO Sia Figiel ʻo se fatu solo ma se tusitala na tūsia le where we once belonged. ʻO lana uluaʻi tusi faʻaliliu lenei i le Gagana Sāmoa.
Sia Figiel is a poet and writer of the novel where we once belonged. This is her first work of translation into Samoan.
Dan Taulapapa McMullin is an artist and poet from Sāmoa Amelika (American Samoa). His book of poems Coconut Milk (University of Arizona Press, 2013) was on the American Library Association Rainbow List Top Ten Books of the Year.
Taulapapa's artwork has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum, De Young Museum, Oakland Museum, Bishop Museum, NYU's /A/P/A Gallery, and the United Nations. His performance poem The Bat and other early works received a 1997 Poets&Writers Award from The Writers Loft. His film Sinalela won the 2002 Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival Best Short Film Award.
His film 100 Tikis is an art appropriation video at the intersection of tiki kitsch and indigenous sovereignty, and was the opening night film selection of the 2016 Présence Autochtone First Peoples Festival in Montreal; and was an Official Selection in the Fifo Tahiti International Oceania Documentary Film Festival and at Pacifique Festival in Rochefort, France. His art studio and writing practice is based in Hudson, New York, where he lives with his partner Stephen. Taulapapa is currently working on a novel. His work can be viewed at www.taulapapa.com.
ʻO le atamai o aliʻi, le Susuga Maualaʻivao Albert Wendt ʻo se tusitala lāuiloa i le Pasefika ma ʻo se polofesa ʻua lītaea mai le Iunivesitē o 'Aukilani, Niu Sila.
Maualaivao Albert Wendt is the Pacific’s most renowned writer. He is an emeritus professor at Auckland University.
Topics
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Frontmatter
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Contents
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Map of the Pacific Islands
xii -
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Editors’ Introduction
xiii - Creation Stories and Genealogies
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Introduction
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Maps to the Ancestors
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Ikurangi
10 -
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At the Centre of Everything
12 -
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Black Stone
14 -
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Grace Mera Molisa
16 -
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Our stories are within us
21 -
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Inside Us the Dead
23 -
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Beginning
30 -
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Offspring of Oceania
32 -
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Notous and Falcons
35 -
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Gata (with a mechanical jaw)
37 -
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Shore Song
40 -
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Tåno I Man Tao
42 -
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Matariki
44 -
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Ars Pasifika
46 -
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Masu
48 -
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Tooth of the Moon
51 -
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Déwé Gorodé
53 -
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Into Our Light I Will Go Forever
55 - Ocean and Waterscapes
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Introduction
57 -
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Ocean Birth
61 -
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Prelude to Lagimalie
63 -
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Rivers in the Sea
64 -
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star language
65 -
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Na Wai Eā, The Freed Waters
67 -
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Mahealani Perez-Wendt
78 -
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Clouds and Water
80 -
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Children of the Shoreline
86 -
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Atlas
96 -
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Ocean Pictures
99 -
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To Hånum-Måmi, i Nanå-ta
102 -
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anatomy of a storm
114 -
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Great World
116 -
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From “The Ocean in Us”
117 -
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Kantan Tåsi (Song of the Sea)
120 - Land and Islands
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Introduction
123 -
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To Island
127 -
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GAFA
128 -
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Migration Story
131 -
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fa’ñague / fuh-nyah-ghee/
137 -
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Guam’s Place Names Continue to Be Challenged
139 -
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makua smiles back
149 -
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Absorb the maunga
151 -
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Wistful Thinking
152 -
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Wao / Vao
154 -
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Throughout the Islands
157 -
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And. now.
158 -
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LET THE MOUNTAIN SPEAK
159 -
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From The Missing King
160 -
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I-Land-Ness
162 -
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From “The Summer Island”
164 -
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Papa-tu-a-nuku (Earth Mother)
170 -
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Mother’s Chemo Cycles
171 - Flowers, Plants, and Trees
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Introduction
173 -
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And so it is
177 -
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Family Trees
179 -
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Friend
181 -
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In truth, I have gathered you all from the same garden
183 -
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LANGAKALI
184 -
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Native Species
188 -
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Blood in the Kava Bowl
191 -
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DER TRAUM
193 -
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Lele Nā ‘Uhane o Nā ‘Ohi‘a
200 -
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lei-making
201 -
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tala
204 -
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What the bush really wanted
205 -
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Trongkon Nunu
206 -
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Gathered by Plants: Some Decolonial Love Letters
210 -
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Star Pines
218 -
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To Hear the Mornings
219 -
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Make Rope
221 - Animals and More-than-Human Species
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Introduction
225 -
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Taonga
229 -
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Chasing the Sun’s Rays
232 -
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Kuita and the Flame
233 -
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Kāne Kōlea
236 -
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Fish & Crab
238 -
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Fish Tickling
239 -
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Fish Girl
240 -
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Excerpt from Anggadi Tupa: Harvesting the Storm
243 -
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“Pues adios, Paluma! Esta agupa’!”
250 -
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Red and Yellow
254 -
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Fanihi
256 -
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Olik
259 -
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DA LAST SQUID
260 -
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Hawaiians Eat Fish
264 -
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Wayne Kaumualii Westlake
265 -
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Kāhea Before the Approach of Makahiki
266 -
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My Jesus Is a Monk Seal
270 - Climate Change
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Introduction
273 -
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More than Just a Blue Passport
277 -
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Puka-Puka—Taui‘anga reva, climate change
281 -
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Chief Telematua’s Speech to the United Nations
283 -
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Jacinda Adern goes to the Pacific Forum in Tuvalu and my family colonises her house
284 -
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Nice Voice
286 -
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c entangled letters of the alphabet washing the ocean a mix
287 -
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Surely uncertain
288 -
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Homes of Micronesia
289 -
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Pacific Islanders March for Self-Determination
293 -
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The letter of the day
296 -
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The Word of the Day
298 -
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Moa Space Foa Ramble
299 -
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Water Remembers
301 -
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Ewi am lomnak
303 -
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Tāwhaki
304 -
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Unity
315 -
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Dear Matafele Peinam
317 - Environmental Justice
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Introduction
321 -
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The Broken Gourd
325 -
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Meramu Nafkah Meratapi Lahan
327 -
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From Potiki
330 -
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A Letter to My Brother
336 -
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Looking for Signs
338 -
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HANUABADA
341 -
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bilum, for rosa
346 -
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Air Conditioned Minds: The Problem of Climate Control in Guåhan
347 -
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On Being Indigenous in a Global Pandemic
349 -
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Go Home, Stay Home
354 -
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Kū‘oko‘a: Independence
357 -
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A meditation on pain, solidarity and 2020
362 -
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Muri Lagoon—Te Tai Roto o Muri, Rarotonga
364 -
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O le Pese A So‘ogafai
367 -
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To Pōhakuloa
369 -
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Bombs in Paradise
371 -
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No ordinary sun
377 -
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Poem for March 1st—Commemoration of the U.S. Bombing of Bikini Island
378 -
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Monster
381 -
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Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner
383 -
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We Are Called
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Afterword
387 -
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Contributors
389