Pacific Studies PDFs

June 20, 2018 6:40 PM

Short fiction and poetry by Déwé Gorodé and political writings by Jean-Marie Tjibaou offer intimate views of New Caledonia unavailable in a political history. Memoirs and biographies convey the stories of a man from the Solomon Islands and a Japanese woman who married an Australian soldier in the years following WWII, plus women's narratives of war and peace on Bougainville and numerous aspects of the Indo-Fijian experience. These are just a few intriguing books digitized as PDFs at The Australian National University's Pacific Institute. [Via.]
posted by Wobbuffet (7 comments total)

Oooh, this is cool. Flagged and faved.
posted by Fizz at 6:53 PM on June 20, 2018

Oi ay, thanks for this.
posted by Thella at 7:10 PM on June 20, 2018

If you enjoy Michi's Memories (within the 'a Japanese woman who married an Australian soldier' link), you'll probably be interested in Betty-san, a collection of short stories by the Japanese author Michiko Yamamoto (and available to borrow online from archive.org). All the stories draw on Yamamoto's experience living in Australia in the '60s, and the titular story in particular presents a fictional life very similar to Michi's. Both Yamamoto and Michi provide incredible insights into Japanese–Australian history and intercultural understanding, Japanese diasporic experiences in Australia, and the lives of Japanese war brides and interracial families in Australia post WWII, amongst many other things. And comparatively I think they potentially reveal heaps about the relationship between fiction, non-fiction and reality. Well worth your time!
posted by Panthalassa at 8:11 PM on June 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

What a great collection. I've read through part of Michi's Memories and it's fascinating.
posted by fever-trees at 8:34 PM on June 20, 2018

My brother just sailed into Noumea, New Caledonia, last week. I'm going to send him this and hope he enjoys it. I think it's great. Thanks for posting.
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:06 PM on June 20, 2018

Michi's Memories is great, thanks.
posted by unliteral at 9:42 PM on June 20, 2018

A little bit of self-linking here, but the Emalus library of the University of the South Pacific has a decent online collection, too!

Thanks very much for posting this!
posted by orrnyereg at 7:01 AM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]