A powerful contribution to our self-awareness as New Zealanders (including the Pasifika diaspora and all immigrants) of our place in the vast Pacific Ocean. Which has an epic history all of its own. As the cover note reminds us, ‘The Pacific’s ‘Indigenous times’ are not just smaller sections of larger histories, but dimensions of their own.’
This collection of essays by Samoan-descended Auckland academic Professor Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa provides deep and thoughtful and wide-ranging content. But don’t worry – he’s also a crisp and inspirational writer.
Passages like this tell it like it is – and clearly: “For most of human history, Pacific Islanders were the greatest of sailors and navigators. It took the people of Europe until 1336 to discover the Canary Islands, and the ‘wind’ (as one scholar put it), only a few hundred miles off the African coast. By this time Pacific Islanders had found every inhabitable island, most of which were comparatively small, spread over waters that spanned more than one-quarter of the globe. This remains one of the dazzling human accomplishments; one that has puzzled and inspired scholars since.”
And: “Pacific Islanders considered the sea not so much as a barrier, but as a connection to other places.” (And yes, all foot-noted, if you’re inclined to further reading.)
Winner of the General Non-Fiction Award at the 2024 Ockham NZ Book Awards, An Indigenous Ocean is valuable reading for any Kiwi onboard philosopher. It’s a fixture in the saloon of Skyborne, our 12m cruising catamaran – inspired, of course, by previous Pacific multihull navigators.
By Damon Salesa
2023, Bridget Williams Books
