Popular Oceanian Cultural Books
Find cultural books written by authors from Oceania for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (20)
1.
Bloody Woman by Lana Lopesi EN
Country: Oceania / 
New Zealand
New Zealand
Description:
Bloody Woman is bloody good writing. It moves between academic, journalistic and personal essay. I love that Lana moves back and forward across these genres: weaving, weaving – spinning the web, weaving the sparkling threads under our hands, back and forward across a number of spaces, pulling and holding the tensions, holding up the baskets of knowledge. Tusiata Avia This wayfinding set of essays, by acclaimed writer and critic Lana Lopesi, explores the overlap of being a woman and Sāmoan. Writing on ancestral ideas of womanhood appears alongside contemporary reflections on women's experiences... continue
2.
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent EN
AustraliaDescription:
Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard. ... BURIAL RITES evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and pla... continue
3.
Chalo Jahaji : On a Journey Through Indenture in Fiji by Brij V. Lal EN
FijiDescription:
Indians of the indentured diaspora have a remarkable lot in common. Meeting as 'foreign' students in India, the girmitiya descendants from Guyana, Mauritius, Fiji and Natal immediately develop a close bonding because of their use of common words, similarity of names, culinary preferences and transported texts. In similar manner, when Brij Lal visited Trinidad in 1998, both his physical as well as his spiritual being enabled him to blend immediately with his Bhojpuri brethren in Chinidad Tapu. His book, Chalo Jahaji, focusses ostensibly on the girmit experience in Fiji. It seeks to tell the sto... continue
4.
Dark Emu : Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture by Bruce Pascoe EN
Description:
In this seminal book, Bruce Pascoe uncovers evidence that long before the arrival of white men, Aboriginal people across the continent were building dams and wells; planting, irrigating, and harvesting seeds, and then preserving the surplus and storing it in houses, sheds, or secure vessels; and creating elaborate cemeteries and manipulating the landscape. All of these behaviors were inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag, which turns out have been a convenient lie that worked to justify dispossession. --back cover.
5.
Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia by Evelyn Flores, Emelihter Kihleng EN
Country: Oceania / 
Micronesia
Micronesia
Description:
For the first time, poetry, short stories, critical and creative essays, chants, and excerpts of plays by Indigenous Micronesian authors have been brought together to form a resounding—and distinctly Micronesian—voice. With over two thousand islands spread across almost three million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, Micronesia and its peoples have too often been rendered invisible and insignificant both in and out of academia. This long-awaited anthology of contemporary indigenous literature will reshape Micronesia’s historical and literary landscape. Presenting over seventy authors and one ... continue
6.
Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia by Evelyn Flores, Emelihter Kihleng EN
KiribatiDescription:
For the first time, poetry, short stories, critical and creative essays, chants, and excerpts of plays by Indigenous Micronesian authors have been brought together to form a resounding—and distinctly Micronesian—voice. With over two thousand islands spread across almost three million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, Micronesia and its peoples have too often been rendered invisible and insignificant both in and out of academia. This long-awaited anthology of contemporary indigenous literature will reshape Micronesia’s historical and literary landscape. Presenting over seventy authors and one ... continue
7.
Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia by Evelyn Flores, Emelihter Kihleng EN
Country: Oceania / 
Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands
Description:
For the first time, poetry, short stories, critical and creative essays, chants, and excerpts of plays by Indigenous Micronesian authors have been brought together to form a resounding—and distinctly Micronesian—voice. With over two thousand islands spread across almost three million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, Micronesia and its peoples have too often been rendered invisible and insignificant both in and out of academia. This long-awaited anthology of contemporary indigenous literature will reshape Micronesia’s historical and literary landscape. Presenting over seventy authors and one ... continue
8.
Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia by Evelyn Flores, Emelihter Kihleng EN
NauruDescription:
For the first time, poetry, short stories, critical and creative essays, chants, and excerpts of plays by Indigenous Micronesian authors have been brought together to form a resounding—and distinctly Micronesian—voice. With over two thousand islands spread across almost three million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, Micronesia and its peoples have too often been rendered invisible and insignificant both in and out of academia. This long-awaited anthology of contemporary indigenous literature will reshape Micronesia’s historical and literary landscape. Presenting over seventy authors and one ... continue
9.
Kalyana by Rajni Mala Khelawan EN
Description:
A moving story about what it means to be a woman in a society where choices are limited and decisions are difficult. A must read for mothers, and their adult daughters.
10.
Legends, Traditions and Tales of Nauru : A Transcript of a Series of Lectures Delivered by Native Teachers by Timothy Detudamo EN
Description:
In a fast globalizing world, group histories,traditions and memories, especially of smaller countries, are at risk of being lost. In 1938, Head Chief Detudamo had the foresight to transcribe and then translate, a series of lectures relating to the legends, customs and tales of Nauru, delivered by what he termed 'native teachers'. Seventy years later, in line with its aim of ensuring that the historic and contemporary 'voice' of the Pacific is heard on the world stage, IPS Publications is pleased to make them more widely available in this, THE LEGENDS, TRADITIONS AND TALES OF NAURU. This book i... continue