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.
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 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.
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.