Kunapipi
Kunapipi
Volume 27 Issue 2 Article 2
2005
Kunapipi 27 (2) 2005, Contents, Editorial
Kunapipi 27 (2) 2005, Contents, Editorial
Anne CollettFollow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons
Recommended Citation Recommended Citation
Collett, Anne, Kunapipi 27 (2) 2005, Contents, Editorial, Kunapipi, 27(2), 2005. Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol27/iss2/2
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Kunapipi 27 (2) 2005, Contents, Editorial
Kunapipi 27 (2) 2005, Contents, Editorial
Abstract Abstract
Contents, Editorial
KUNAPIPI
Journal of Postcolonial Writing
VOLUME XXVII NUMBER 2 2005
Kunapipi is a bi-annual arts magazine with special but not exclusive emphasis on the new literatures written in English. It aims to fulfil the requirements T.S. Eliot believed a journal should have: to introduce the work of new or little known writers of talent, to provide critical evaluation of the work of living authors, both famous and unknown, and to be truly international. It publishes creative material and criticism. Articles and reviews on related historical and sociological topics plus film will also be included as well as graphics and photographs.
The editor invites creative and scholarly contributions. The editorial board does not necessarily endorse any political views expressed by its contributors. Manuscripts should be double-spaced with notes gathered at the end, and should conform to the Harvard (author-date) system. Wherever possible the submission should be on disc (soft-ware preferably Microsoft Word) and should be accompanied by a hard copy. Please include a short biography, address and email contact if available.
Kunapipi is an internationally refereed journal of postcolonial literature formally acknowledged by the Australian National Library. Work published in
Kunapipi is cited in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature’s Annual Bibliography (UK), The Year’s Work in English Studies (UK),The American Journal of African Studies (USA), The Grahamstown Information Journal (SA),
Australian Literary Studies,The Indian Association for Commonwealth Studies
(India), The New Straits Times (Indonesia), The Australian Public Affairs
Information Service (produced by the National Library of Australia) and the MLA. All correspondence (manuscripts, inquiries, subscriptions) should be sent to: Dr. Anne Collett
Editor — KUNAPIPI
English Literatures Program University of Wollongong Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia
SUBSCRIPTON RATES
Individual: 1 year AUD $60.00
Institutions: 1 year AUD $130.00
Please note that if payment is made in currencies other than AUD$, the equivalent of $10.00 must be added to cover banking costs. Cheques should be made payable to Kunapipi Publishing.
Internet: http://www.kunapipi.com
Copyright © remains with the individual authors.
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the editor.
ISSN 0106-5734 ii
Kunapipi
VOLUME XXVII NUMBER 2
Editor
ANNE COLLETT
Sub-Editor
GREG RATCLIFFE
Editorial Advisors
DIANA BRYDON, LEE THUAN CHYE, DIANA WOOD CONROY, MARGARET DAYMOND, HELEN GILBERT, GARETH GRIFFITHS, ALAMGIR HASHMI, ARITHA VAN HERK, JANIS JEFFRIES, ALAN LAWSON, RUSSELL MCDOUGALL, HENA MAES-JELINEK, GANESH MISHRA, ALASTAIR NIVEN, KIRSTEN HOLST PERTERSEN, CHRIS PRENTICE, BRUCE CLUNIES ROSS, PAUL SHARRAD, KIRPAL SINGH, ANGELA SMITH, HELEN TIFFIN, GERRY TURCOTTE, JAMES WIELAND, MARK WILLIAMS
Production
GREG RATCLIFFE
Five Year Subscriptions
Tribute to Anna
Sonja Bahn Isabel Carrera Jeanne Delbaere Helen Gilbert Zeny Giles Gareth Griffiths Bernard Hickey Dorothy Jones Paul Love Russell McDougall Hena Maes-Jelinek Jamie Scott Paul Sharrad Jennifer Strauss Chris Tiffin Helen Tiffin Adi Wimmer
Acknowledgements
Kunapipi is published with assistance from the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies and the European branch of the Association and the Facuty of Arts University of Wollongong.
EACLALS
We wish to thank: Text Publishing for permission to print the extract from Célestine Hitiura Vaite’s forthcoming novel, Tiare: The Husband Who Didn’t Deserve His Wife and Everything That Happened After That; Éditions Grain de Sable for permission to reproduce Isabelle Goulou’s illustrations from L’enfant Kaori; Deborah Carlyon and University of Queensland Press for permission to reproduce the drawings from MamaKuma; Biliso Osake for permission to reproduce his cartoon; Ani O’Neill, Niki Hastings-McFall, Filip Tohu, John Pule, Fata Feu’u for permission to reproduce images of their work; and Eric Aubry for permission to reproduce the photograph of Déwé Gorodé.
Front Cover: Dancers in the Kaul 1 SingSing Group from Karkar Island, Madang district, PNG, wearing bilum typical of this region as part of their dance constume performance at the Goroka Show, 1994. (Photograph: Susan Cochrane)
Kunapipi refers to the Australian Aboriginal myth of the Rainbow Serpent which is the symbol of both creativity and regeneration. The journal’s emblem is to be found on an Aboriginal shield from the Roper River area of the Northern Territory of Australia.
European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies
Contents
Editorial, Anne Collett vii
ESSAYS
Dominique Jouve, Lia Bryant,Judith Gill & Deidre Tedmanson, 9 “If I Don’t Speak to My Child in My Own Language,
Then Who Will?” Kanak Women Writing Culture for Children’
Raylene Ramsay, ‘Déwé Gorodé: The Paradoxes of Being a Kanak 23 Woman Writer’
Stéphanie Vigier & Raylene Ramsay, ‘Women Writers in New Caledonia’ 43
Karen Stevenson, ‘Threads of the Island, Threads of the Urban’ 63
Shayne Kearney, ‘The Power of the Pen: Solomon Islands Women Uniting 77 to Overcome Adversity through Writing’
Linda Crowl, ‘Carrying the Bag: Women Writers and Publishers in 92 the Pacific Islands’
Susan Cochrane, ‘Bilong Ol Meri (For All Women): The New Guinea 107 Bilum’
Steven Winduo, ‘Papua New Guinea Women Finding Paths through 131 Limitation’
Holly Walker, ‘Developing Difference: Attitudes towards Maori 215 “Development” in Patricia Grace’s, Potiki and Dogside Story’
Jo Diamond, ‘He Korari PuaWai: Postcolonial Raranga in Aotearoa 231 New Zealand and Australia’
Daphne Lawless, ‘“Craving for the Dirty Pah”: Half-Caste Heroines in 240 Late Colonial New Zealand Novels’
Sarah Ailwood, ‘Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf and Tensions of 255 Empire during the Modernist Period’
Jen Crawford, ‘Spaze: Void States and the Mother-Child Relationship in 268
The Matriarch, The Dream Swimmer, Cousins and Baby No-Eyes’ BIBLIOGRAPHY
Stéphanie Vigier, ‘Women Writers in New Caledonia’ 53 FICTION
Jane Downing, ‘The Tradition of Weaving’ 58
Mathilda Parau, ‘To Lean On’ 135
Anne Mathew, ‘Gara’ 139
Helen Setu, ‘A Test of Fate’ 143
Michelle Kopi, ‘Mother’s Child’ 150
Célestine Hitiura Vaite, ‘Pito’s Congratulation’ 197
Lani Young, ‘Don’t Tell’ 251
‘Stillborn’ 276
POETRY
Leah Moide, ‘Our Past’ 174
Melissa Aigilo, ‘Moral Intents’, ‘Kitchen Duty’ 175
Cresantia Frances Koya, ‘The Mothers of Wisdom’, ‘Untitled’, 201 ‘Free Fall in Love’, ‘Fools’ Gold’
Briar Wood, ‘Sea Wall’, ‘Kirikau’ 213
Konai Helu Thaman, ‘A Celebration of Peace’, ‘The Way Ahead’ 281 INTERVIEW
Anne Collett, ‘“Why not a Woman!”: An Interview with Tahitian Writer, 177 Célestine Hitiura Vaite’
REVIEW ESSAYS
Edward P. Wolfers, ‘Award-Winning Account of a Pioneering Papua New 119 Guinean Woman’s Life on the Frontiers of Change:
MamaKuma by Deborah Carlyon’
‘Pacific Women and Peace: Bougainville’s “Mothers of the Land”’ 156
Paul Sharrad, ‘Re-viewing Reviewing: Thoughts on Pacific Poetry 206 and Hybridity’
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 284
vii
EDITORIAL
Not long ago I was asked to write one of those ‘history of the world in a thousand words’ entries for an encyclopaedia. In this particular case it was a ‘history of women in the South Pacific’ in two thousand words — a request that I declined at first, feeling that my qualifications were decidedly inadequate: I was a woman, I was an Australian, and I had published in the area of postcolonial women’s writing. When pushed hard enough however, I reluctantly agreed and embarked on an intensive research project whose outcome was not only the potted history, but also the discovery that information was scant and scattered, library holdings were generally pretty limited, and the most important sources were often people who knew people who could tell me this and lend me that. The exercise left me feeling frustrated but also stimulated: I wanted to know more.
This special issue of Kunapipi is a very small part of that ‘more’. It has been a long (a covert apology for publication delay) and a fruitful (an overt congratulation to those who contributed) project. The ‘South Pacific’ is a lose term, chosen for convenience rather than anything more sophisticated (Linda Crowl’s essay includes an informative discussion of the term). For me as editor (with the not very postcolonial strains of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical in my head — ‘Bali Ha’i’ and ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ battling for supremacy) it served to limit the field (or rather ocean), with an emphasis on small island cultures (and hence the absence of Australia). After much searching, inquiring, pleading and harassing, I received contributions from and about, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tahiti, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Cook Islands, Tonga and Samoa. The issue grew beyond anything I had envisaged, and I would like particularly to thank Paul Sharrad for his knowledge and guidance — where to look, who to ask…. At one point I recall his suggestion to contact Konai Helu Thaman, to which I replied ‘Who?’. An eminent poet and scholar, her poems ‘A Celebration of Peace’ and ‘The Way Ahead’ bring the issue to a close with the promise or at least the possibility of a green future and the prospect of peace. It may be that this is wishful thinking, but if we have no vision of peace then we cannot work toward it.
There are two dominant strands that bind the various contributions of this issue together, and they are the old familiars: the forces of destruction and creation. ‘Day after Day’, writes Déwé Gorodé,
We will try to
glue back together the broken pieces of our dashed hopes reform the slaughtered images of our strangled speech rediscover the unity of the scattered word
thrown to the four winds of solitude by the gunpowder of violence
viii
day after day second after second
like the river hollowing out its bed the ant counting her dead
the foam marking the shore
recreate the ritual phrase that unmasks treachery reinvent the magical dance that ensures victory
(qtd Ramsay 33)
This is the violent history of colonialism, but it is also the violent history of patriarchy: women’s poems and stories speak out against the silence of the forced marriage, the battered wife, the raped daughter, the murdered unmarried mother. But as much as I am repeatedly shocked by the stories that speak of violence done to women, I am endlessly surprised by the testimonies to women’s strength, endurance and creativity. Weaving is a theme that runs throughout the issue, not only in the material cultures of bilum, jaki, lei, and raranga, but also in the verbal cultures of traditional speaking and contemporary writing:
… the women gather To thread dreams Words and silences Into stories and stones
Of love That will sing
(Cresantia Frances Koya, ‘The Mothers of Wisdom’ 201)
