Stuff We Like
Stuff We Like
Samoan History in 56 Minutes
Juniper Films in Australia and the National University of Samoa have teamed up to produce and market a video documentary called Samoana: The Islands They Named Samoa. The classy production narrates the history of Samoa from the time Polynesian seafarers first made landfall there 3,000 years ago, through its colonial entanglements with Germany and New Zealand, then on through independence in 1962 and the country’s more recent history. Samoans we know who’ve watched it all say they learned things about their own history and culture that they didn’t know. The video is available in both English and Samoan versions from Juniper Films in Sydney. You may email them at junfilms@ozemail.com.au.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Songs from New Caledonia
Throughout the Pacific, the Lifu Island Dance Co. has wowed its audiences and intrigued other musicians and performers with its unique, tightly harmonized and syncopated chants. Now the Musique du Monde series offers listeners the chance to hear the music of Lifu on this CD, Kanak Songs from the Island of Lifu. It’s available, at various prices, from music stores around the region. Or you can order direct from Buda Records, click on Chant Kanak de Lifou at www.budamusique.com.
Black Star, Black Light
Aotearoa-based Samoan novelist Albert Wendt now proves he’s not just a novelist anymore. He’s a poet too, it seems. The University of Auckland Press has just released a quirky, illustrated book of poems by Wendt called The Book of the Black Star. Here’s the opening poem, done in hand-drawn, ragtag urban calligraphy: “Black star, were you born during the fired DAWN before Tagaloa-a-lagi invented the alphabet of omens?” That’s it. The poems are filled with rich allusions to traditional Samoan mythology. The symbol of fetu uliuli, the black star, fills the book with mystery and dark appeal. One can still hear the voice of the iconoclastic young novelist, now layered over by the experience of the suburban grandfather that Wendt has become. The Book of the Black Star is available from bookstores around the region, or from the University of Auckland Press for NZ$34.95. www.auckland.ac.nz/aup.
Pacific History Posters
Teachers in the Pacific Islands should all get a set of these regional country profiles done by the National University of Samoa and the University of New South Wales. Each country in the region gets a poster-size summary of its key demographic data, historical events and a list of its holidays and festivals. A timeline from pre-contact to the present is included for each place, too. This packet of posters would make a wonderful teaching tool for briefing a new generation on the history of its neighbors around the region. The posters come with guidelines for teachers. For more information, email Dr. Asofou So‘o at a.soo@nus.edu.ws or check out the UNSW Web site at www.arts.unsw.edu.au/southpacific/.
