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Keep the Pasifika feeling alive after the festival with books of and about the Pacific, by Kiran Dass

TATAU: A HISTORY OF SAMOAN TATTOOING

by Sean Mallon & Sebastien Galliot

Lavishly illustrated and beautifully produced, it’s no surprise this stunning book has been shortlisted for the Illustrated Non-Fiction Award in the 2019 Ockham Book Awards. Tracing the singular history of Samoan tattooing practices during the last 3000 years, this book is the first comprehensive study that looks at the cultural and practical history of Samoan tattooing. Packed with diagrams, tattoo designs, photographs, ephemera, film stills and examples of significant artefacts, it considers at the impact tattooing has had in the Pacific and beyond.

VAKA MOANA — VOYAGES OF THE ANCESTORS

by K.R. Howe

Vaka Moana is a story of voyaging, navigation and identity; a voyage across thousands of kilometres and hundreds of generations, and a testament to the ingenuity and bravery of humankind. A deep dive into the long-standing oral traditions of the great voyagers; the exploration and settlement of the Pacific, the finely-honed craft that made the journeys possible, and the navigation methods that allowed people to safely traverse the ocean, this also charts the fateful meeting of two cultures: The Pacific and European.

SOUTH SEA VAGABONDS

by Johnny Wray

In 1933, Aucklander Johnny Wray was fired from his mundane office job at the age of 21. So he kicked off an adventurous plan to embark on the journey of a lifetime to sail the South Seas. He taught himself how to sail, and scrounged materials including kauri, tarseal and whale glue to cobble together a DIY yacht which he called Ngataki. An irrepressible spirit, Wray’s accounts of derring-do and adventures at sea are often hilarious, always entertaining and a fitting ode to living life as a free spirit. First published in 1939, the 2016 75th anniversary edition is a testament to and celebration of the timeless nature of his story.

PICTURING THE PACIFIC: JOSEPH BANKS AND THE SHIPBOARD ARTISTS OF COOK AND FLINDERS

by James Taylor

Science, natural history, art and travel come together in this stunning overview of oil paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints produced by the pioneers who sailed from Europe to explore the Pacific between the 1760s and the early 19th century. Picturing the Pacific offers a different perspective of the Pacific — an area that few had access to. Naturalist, botanist and natural history expert Joseph Banks spearheaded these — the earliest documented views and depictions of the exotic flora and fauna and the beautiful people of the Pacific.

OUT OF THE VAIPE, THE DEADWATER: A WRITER’S LIFE

by Albert Wendt

“We are what we remember…” A leading writer who has had a profound influence on Pacific literature, Albert Wendt’s powerful contribution to the brilliant BWB Texts series sees him look back on his childhood in Vaipe, a Samoan suburb. Exploring the reliability of memory, in this slim extended biographical essay, Wendt investigates whether the Vaipe he re-created in his poetry, stories and novels is in fact an accurate representation or an imagined one. It’s a thoughtful and nuanced Pacific personal history.