Thousand–Year History of Pacific Peoples in New Zealand

17 April 2012

Major New Publication the First to Cover the Thousand–Year History of Pacific Peoples in New Zealand

Tangata o le Moana: New Zealand and the People of the Pacific will be published by Te Papa Press in early May. The lavishly illustrated book features fifteen essays on the history of Pacific people’s interactions with New Zealand and the impact New Zealand has had on its Pacific neighbours.

Edited by Sean Mallon, Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai and Damon Salesa, Tangata o le Moana draws on 50 years of individual and institutional-based research by leading New Zealand scholars. Most importantly, the book is told from uniquely Pacific perspectives - taking the viewpoints of Pacific peoples who have made New Zealand their home.

Sean Mallon, one of the book’s editors and Senior Curator Pacific Cultures at Te Papa, notes that despite Pacific peoples’ long association with New Zealand, their stories are almost non-existent in general historical publications.

‘Tangata o le Moana: New Zealand and the People of the Pacific brings together the social, cultural and economic contributions of the Pacific peoples to New Zealand in one publication for the first time,’ Mallon says.

‘The essays, in some instances, literally draw on a lifetime of research by individual contributors, some of whom were active participants in the events they write about. They present a truly Pacific side to the history of New Zealand.’

From the earliest encounters to the little-known lives of Pacific people in 19th century New Zealand, New Zealand’s colonial aspirations to the lost stories of Pacific people’s contribution to New Zealand’s war effort, this book reveals a surprising, and sometimes fraught, history of Pacific relations.

With hundreds of historical and contemporary photos and archival records and drawing on rich oral histories, the Tangata o le Moana book also explores the emergence of Pacific community organisations, the politically explosive era of the dawn raids, the effect of New Zealand’s contemporary foreign policy on the Pacific, and the rise (and rise) of Pacific individuals in New Zealand politics, sports, and arts.

The book was conceptualised by Mallon and Māhina-Tuai during a four-year research programme for the eponymous exhibition at Te Papa (that opened in 2007). Acknowledging the many excellent individual historical publications, both realised that there was no one book that brought all the threads of Pacific story in New Zealand together. Approaching leading scholars, including fellow editor and historian Damon Salesa they have worked with Te Papa Press to develop a scholarly, accessible and richly illustrated collection of essays.

Tangata o le Moana: New Zealand and the People of the Pacific is the latest Pacific publication by New Zealand’s only dedicated museum publishing house, Te Papa Press. Previous Pacific titles by the Press include Tatau: Samoan tattooing, New Zealand Art, Global Culture (the story of Samoan tattooist, Sulu’ape Paulo III), Pacific Art in Detail and Tivaivai: The Social Fabric of the Cook Islands (both originally published by the British Museum), Pacific Art Niu Sila: The Pacific Dimension of Contemporary New Zealand Arts , Speaking in Colour: Conversations with Artists of Pacific Island Heritage, and Icons from Te Papa: Pacific.

Tangata o le Moana: New Zealand and the People of the Pacific, edited by Sean Mallon, Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai and Damon Salesa , is published by Te Papa Press in May 2012. RRP NZ$79.99 ISBN 978-1-877385-72-8.

Further information about the editors and contents of the book follow the media release.

About the Editors

Sean Mallon
Sean Mallon is of Sāmoan and Irish descent and is senior curator Pacific cultures at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. He is the author of Samoan Art and Artists: O measina a Samoa (2002) and he co-edited Speaking in Colour: Conversations with artists of Pacific Island heritage (1997), Pacific Art Niu Sila: The Pacific dimension of contemporary New Zealand arts (2002) and Tatau: Samoan tattoo, New Zealand art, global culture (2010).

Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai
Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai is a freelance curator and writer. Her current area of work is on the promotion and development of Pacific arts, with a focus on Tongan arts. She has authored and contributed to various publications including a series of bilingual children’s books based on Pacific myths and legends.

Damon Salesa
Damon Salesa is the author of a number of works in Sāmoan and Pacific, New Zealand and imperial and colonial history, including Racial Crossings: Race, intermarriage, and the Victorian British Empire (2011). He is associate professor of Pacific Studies, University of Auckland. Previously he was an associate professor of history at the University of Michigan.

Chapter titles

1. E kore au e ngaro: Ancestral connections to the Pacific
2. Explorers and pioneers: The first Pacific people in New Zealand
3. Visitors: Tupaia the navigator priest
4. Little-known lives: Pacific Islanders in nineteenth-century New Zealand
5. A Pacific destiny: New Zealand’s overseas empire 1840–1945
6. Barques, banana boats and Boeings: Connecting New Zealand and the Pacific
7. FIA (forgotten in action): Pacific Islanders in the New Zealand armed forces
8. A land of milk and honey? Education and employment migration schemes in the postwar era
9. Communities and cultures: Pacific organisations in New Zealand
10. Economic links between the Pacific and New Zealand in the twentieth century
11. All power to the people: Overstayers, dawn raids and the Polynesian Panthers
12. Good neighbour, big brother, kin? New Zealand’s foreign policy in the contemporary Pacific
13. Representing the nation: Pacific peoples and politicians in New Zealand
14. Conspicuous selections: Pacific Islanders in New Zealand sport
15. Arts specific: Pacific peoples and New Zealand arts

Contributors
Anne Salmond, Cluny MacPherson, Fulimalo Pereira, Gavin McLean, Geoff Bertram, Graeme Whimp, Janet Davidson, Melani Anae, Peter Adds, Teresia Teaiwa, Claudia Orange

ENDS

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