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Nuanua: Pacific Writing in English Since 1980
WENDT, Albert. ed. Nuanua: Pacific Writing in English Since 1980. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1995. x, 405. ISBN 0-8248-1731-1 (pa), $16.95. Glossary. Acid-Free.
Nuanua, Albert Wendt’s second anthology of Pacific writing contains short stories, excerpts from novels, and poems from after 1980 by sixty-five authors from nine island nations, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa (American and Western), the Solomon Island, and Vanuatu. This follow-up to Wendt’s 1980 anthology, Lali, which contains works written prior to 1980 by established Pacific authors and authors new to the scene. The stories and poems express the culture, society, history, political situations, religions, mythologies, dance, music, attitudes, and feelings of the respective Pacific regions.
In Wendt’s introduction he explains his purpose for creating Nuanua and prior to that Lali. Pacific literature, once only an oral tradition, began to take off in the 1960s. Before this time, foreigners created most of the literature written about the Pacific, which created mythologies as well as stereotypes about Pacific people. The works within Nuanua’s pages tell the stories of the Pacific people during their post-colonial struggles to recapture their culture and traditions, as well as respond to their portrayal by outsiders. These stories deal with the effects of colonialism, racism and modernism, and their effects on the indigenous people and others living in the island nations from both the male and female perspectives. Written by Pacific Islands’ people, Nuanua’s collection is composed in English so they can share their stories with the rest of English-speaking world. The stories contain some indigenous words, but there is a glossary in the back of the book.
All of the works contained in Nuanua were carefully selected to fulfill Wendt’s purpose for the anthology, explained in the previous paragraph. The stories are well written, easy to read, and beautifully show the culture and struggles of the various Pacific Islands. The stories not only portray the lives of the indigenous people, but also those who migrated to the islands, the minorities, and the racial and cultural tension among the different groups. A particular touching and powerful excerpt, written by Satendra Nandan from The Wounded Sea, expresses the emotional and physical pain of life after colonialism and the political, familial, and personal struggles of the Fijian population.
If Nuanua has any shortcomings it is only in that it could not contain more stories from all over the Pacific and that some islands are more represented than others. The most notable regions left out of the collection are Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, and Hawaii. Although these areas are missed, Wendt points out in his introduction that he could not include all nations and islands and that these three already have anthologies of their writings. Some islands like Kiribati and Niue only have one or two stories. This is easily explained because they are only recently reestablished nations and their writers might not have been so well established at the time Wendt reviewed and selected stories.
Nuanua is a valuable book for any Pacific, academic, public, or high school collection to purchase because of its importance in Pacific literature, Pacific studies, history and its great stories. Theses stories, excerpts and poems give insight into the different cultures and their struggles, both similar to and varied from one another. Nuanua is “printed on acid-free paper and meet(s) the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources,” so will stand up to the repeated use it will likely receive from readers, scholars, and students.
One of the most famous Pacific writers, Albert Wendt, born in Western Samoa in 1939, has spent most of his adult life in education, first in Samoa as a teacher and principal, then as a professor in Samoa, Fiji, and then New Zealand. Currently he is the Distinguished Writer in Residence and the Citizen Chair for the English Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which he will serve as through 2008. Prior to that he held a position as a professor of New Zealand Literature at the University of Auckland. Wendt received such honors and awards as the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature (2000), the New Zealand Senior Pacific Islands Artist’s Award (2003), the Japan’s Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture (2004), and an honorary Doctor of Literature from Victoria University (2005). Went has written and published over fifteen works including novels, short stories, plays, and poems.
Nuanua, Albert Wendt’s second anthology of Pacific writing contains short stories, excerpts from novels, and poems from after 1980 by sixty-five authors from nine island nations, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa (American and Western), the Solomon Island, and Vanuatu. This follow-up to Wendt’s 1980 anthology, Lali, which contains works written prior to 1980 by established Pacific authors and authors new to the scene. The stories and poems express the culture, society, history, political situations, religions, mythologies, dance, music, attitudes, and feelings of the respective Pacific regions.
In Wendt’s introduction he explains his purpose for creating Nuanua and prior to that Lali. Pacific literature, once only an oral tradition, began to take off in the 1960s. Before this time, foreigners created most of the literature written about the Pacific, which created mythologies as well as stereotypes about Pacific people. The works within Nuanua’s pages tell the stories of the Pacific people during their post-colonial struggles to recapture their culture and traditions, as well as respond to their portrayal by outsiders. These stories deal with the effects of colonialism, racism and modernism, and their effects on the indigenous people and others living in the island nations from both the male and female perspectives. Written by Pacific Islands’ people, Nuanua’s collection is composed in English so they can share their stories with the rest of English-speaking world. The stories contain some indigenous words, but there is a glossary in the back of the book.
All of the works contained in Nuanua were carefully selected to fulfill Wendt’s purpose for the anthology, explained in the previous paragraph. The stories are well written, easy to read, and beautifully show the culture and struggles of the various Pacific Islands. The stories not only portray the lives of the indigenous people, but also those who migrated to the islands, the minorities, and the racial and cultural tension among the different groups. A particular touching and powerful excerpt, written by Satendra Nandan from The Wounded Sea, expresses the emotional and physical pain of life after colonialism and the political, familial, and personal struggles of the Fijian population.
If Nuanua has any shortcomings it is only in that it could not contain more stories from all over the Pacific and that some islands are more represented than others. The most notable regions left out of the collection are Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, and Hawaii. Although these areas are missed, Wendt points out in his introduction that he could not include all nations and islands and that these three already have anthologies of their writings. Some islands like Kiribati and Niue only have one or two stories. This is easily explained because they are only recently reestablished nations and their writers might not have been so well established at the time Wendt reviewed and selected stories.
Nuanua is a valuable book for any Pacific, academic, public, or high school collection to purchase because of its importance in Pacific literature, Pacific studies, history and its great stories. Theses stories, excerpts and poems give insight into the different cultures and their struggles, both similar to and varied from one another. Nuanua is “printed on acid-free paper and meet(s) the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources,” so will stand up to the repeated use it will likely receive from readers, scholars, and students.
One of the most famous Pacific writers, Albert Wendt, born in Western Samoa in 1939, has spent most of his adult life in education, first in Samoa as a teacher and principal, then as a professor in Samoa, Fiji, and then New Zealand. Currently he is the Distinguished Writer in Residence and the Citizen Chair for the English Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which he will serve as through 2008. Prior to that he held a position as a professor of New Zealand Literature at the University of Auckland. Wendt received such honors and awards as the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature (2000), the New Zealand Senior Pacific Islands Artist’s Award (2003), the Japan’s Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture (2004), and an honorary Doctor of Literature from Victoria University (2005). Went has written and published over fifteen works including novels, short stories, plays, and poems.
Submitted May 2008 by Sarah Myhre, LIS Student, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
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