Daughters of the Pacific

The Pacific Rim: Expanding the Scope of Colonial and Postcolonial - T. Williams

As a woman of Native Hawai'ian ancestry, I do believe that Pacific Rim peoples are among the most colonized in the world and your website should feature literature and cultural commentary/criticism inclusive of the area. I would also like to suggest that you find a copy of an anthology edited by Zohl de Ishtar called Daughters of the Pacific. In her introductory chapter she makes the case as well or probably much more eloquently that I can:

The Pacific is wrapped in a veneer of silence that has masked Pacific peoples from those of us who live outside the region, and for most of us who live on its edges. Relegated to the far corners of our minds we assume 'nothing ever happens' there. It is forgotten and ignored. . . . Pacific peoples. . . are not accorded serious consideration in global terms. . . . the Pacific is home to almost six million Indigenous people. . . . While there are thirteen independent states, many nations remain heavily colonized. To the North are the Marshalls, Belau, the Northern Marianas and The Federal States of Micronesia, all bound to the United States. These are joined by the U.S. territories of Guam, American Samoa and Hawai'i. The French have their domain -- New Caledonia, Tahiti-Polynesia, and Wallis and Futuna. Rapa Nui . .. is governed by Chile. Other nations, like Tokelau and Niue, have special arrangements with Aotearoa (New Zealand) or Australia, both lands where the Indigenous peoples have become minorities under a dominant European culture. . . . Pacific nations which are independent--Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Kiribati, to name a few--have had to strive to reclaim their inalienable rights to self-determination, and yet even they remain trapped under the economic control of neo-colonial governments.

Zohl de Ishtar sailed to Mururoa Atoll in August 1995 to follow up on the stories she collected in 1986 that make up the text of Daughters of the Pacific. Indigenous women from across the Pacific have a voice in this book. Hawai'i, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Marianas, Guam, Belau, Fiji, Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and Te Ao Maohi/Tahiti Polynesia.

For more information, go to PACIFIC ACTION.

Zohl de Ishtar was invited to be one of the ten presenters at the Closing Ceremony of the Hague Appeal for Peace conference - the end of millenium peace and social justice conference - along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the PM of Bangladesh, Queen Noor of Jordon and many other notables. Believing that it is important that Indigenous peoples speak for themselves, and that there is a clear mandate for non-Indigenous peoples to be heard on issues of de-colonisation, Zohl decided to share the stage. Over 50 Indigenous people from 8 Pacific nations, and some other non-indigenous activists, joined her on the stage. The presentation was given by Maori elder Pauline Tangiora of Aotearoa (aka New Zealand), with a traditional dancing presented by Bougainvillean women. The delegation called for the eradication of colonisation and outlined a vision for a future planet where Indigenous and non-Indigenous live in justice and equality and where colonisation is a dim memory.