Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures

by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner (Editor), Craig Santos Pérez (Editor), Jean Anderson (Translator)

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.

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous, Short Stories, Anthologies, Environment, Nature, Nonfiction

420 pages, Hardcover

First published August 31, 2022

About the author

Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner is a Marshall Islander poet, performance artist, educator. She received international acclaim through her poetry performance at the opening of the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in 2014. Her writing and performances have been featured by CNN, Democracy Now, the Huffington Post, NBC News, National Geographic, and more. In February 2017, the University of Arizona Press published her first collection of poetry, Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter.

Kathy also co-founded the youth environmentalist non-profit Jo-Jikum dedicated to empowering Marshallese youth to seek solutions to climate change and other environmental impacts threatening their home island. Kathy has been selected as one of 13 Climate Warriors by Vogue in 2015 and the Impact Hero of the Year by Earth Company in 2016. She received her Master’s in Pacific Island Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Reviews

[Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a literary scholar and a person of Chamorro descent, I am profoundly grateful to live in a time where The New Oceania Literary series is being published. Having poetry, prose, and drama in print, from a vast diaspora of Micronesian peoples, is deeply important to recognizing the rich cultures and histories of the islands.

I'm inching closer to my degree thesis, and without a doubt, this collection has solidified my interest in basing the project around Micronesian literature. Having recently visited Guam, I dealt with the harsh reality that the lack of accessible materials on the mainland severely limits my research. There is so much beautiful work that exists but is rarely circulated because of academia's focus on EuroWestern pieces. I hope this series continues on for many volumes. I sure as hell will be marking each edition up with my color-coded post-its.

I would speak more on the ecological themes of this volume, but then I'd end up writing the equivalent of a fifteen-page essay, so I'd rather save that for later. From creation myths to critiques on ecofacism, the works are wide-reaching explorations of relevant topics in the modern landscape of Micronesia. In the wake of the pandemic and devastating natural disasters, all I can say is that I can't recommend the collection enough.

[Cat Randle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-literatures Edited by Kathy Jetňil-Kijiner, Leora Kava and Craig Santos Perez
It has taken me over a year to read this book thoroughly. Mind blown. I wanted to understand the eco struggle from the Pacific people’s point of view. Some are familiar, in my late teens, and early 20s I was part of the team that produced the Peace Movement Aotearoa magazine. I was aware of the bomb testing in Bikini and Muraroa. This book brings home the ongoing generational trauma of nuclear bomb testing in our Pacific. But there are gems in here that I discovered.
The book has 7 sections- Creation stories and genealogies-Oceans and Waterspaces-Land and Islands-Flowers, plants and trees, Animals and more than Human Species,-Climate change,-Environmental justice.
The book starts with the foundation of the Pacific and then to the change. It is personal, political, lyrical and educative. I was made aware when I read Vi Avo by ????? Pacific peoples future is unknown so they move backwards into the future. This excited me because it is something Steampunkers say. But it is more, just because an island is over the horizon doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. The Pacific isn’t a big waste dotted with islands. It is a connection between people and places. Even though you can’t see the tribe, ancestor, or ancient, they are connected to you via your genealogues, stories and language.
The writing in this book is of a very high standard. Reading the author's bios, I discovered most authors are lecturers or hold high office and those who don’t are amazing storytellers.
This book maps out the Pacific and love of the people and the land and the pain of greed, colonisation, war and loss of language. America's racial history is shameful and they invaded and applied their style of ruling all over the Pacific. So we learn of the joy of living in the Pacific and how to relate to the ocean and land. We hear the pain of stolen land and stolen language and then the return of the self as the activists scream out their defiance.
Pacific people work differently from the Western world. They see things differently and this is clear and proudly put front and centre.
My favourite stories are
Taonga by Tina Makereti a sharp short story. Our narrator tells us about how incomprehensible the environmental collapse of the ocean is.-
Children of the Shoreline by Micheal Poleloa, where a group of children adopt an old man by the shoreline. It is a gem, describing reef life and the joy of living by the sea.
From Potiki by Patricia Grace, Chapter 13 Dollarman where a man tries to buy and shift a marae from a Māori Tribe. Patricia succinctly shows us why money isn’t important and why the past life, tribal well-being and future of the meeting-house is. It is a humbling and important lesson for any ally to absorb.
Guam's place Names continues to be challenged by Peter Onedera. A fascinating look at the renaming and reclaiming of Guam and the CHamoru language in a non-fiction almost essay-like story.
Chief Telematuas Speech to the United Nations by Vilsoni Hereniko is a one-page transcript, love story, the plea for dignity and guidance for any advocate and ally to the Pacific.
Tāwhaki by Whiti Ihimaera-a story of human survival and hope after the world has changed as a result of global warming. Ihimaera is a clever writer and I loved this future story of human loss and love and resolution in the face of global catastrophe.
The poems I loved were
Papa-tu-a-nuku (Earth Mother), Bird of Prayer and No Ordinary Sun by Hone Tuwhare. Papa-tu-a-nuku (Earth Mother) is a clever love song and guarded support of The Land Marches in Aotearoa by Dame Whina Cooper. Bird of Prayer is a 5 line idyll to a hawk and No Ordinary Sun is a stark reminder of the destruction by Atomic bombs. I have seen Hone perform this poem live in Dunedin at a peace march when he was a Fellow at Otago University. It is an elegantly and sparingly crafted poem.
Monster by Kathy Jetňil-Kijiner where she chronicles Marshallese women's pain and condenses the injustice of the atomic testing and the resulting malformed spring into a raw scream.
Make Rope by Imaikalani Kalahle is a life-affirming shout of joy about his people, in dialect.
The Letter of the Day by Katerine Teaiwa. She takes the familiarity of Sesame Street and the structure of their songs to deliver a biting satire of colonialism.
Hawaiians Eat Fish by Wayne Kaumualii Westlake is a humourous concrete poem that is pithy, cyclical and fun.
There are SO many good poems and stories in this anthology. My head felt like it was exploding as I was carried across oceans, past lives, colonisation and current fears.
This book is a keeper and would be a book which would be reread again and again. This book has introduced me to so many new Pacific voices and I have doubled my reading list as I look for these authors.
Enjoyed isn’t quite the word, uplifted, inspired, educated and my mind has expanded. Get it out and read it if you want to understand the Pacific peoples and the ecological issues they face.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, thick collection. I only wished it had a bit more guidance for me as a reader.

[Emily Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did I read ALL of this anthology? No.
Sue me - it deserves a place on the feed! 😤