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Books > Humanities > History > Australasian & Pacific history
Consuming Ocean Island tells the story of the land and people of Banaba, a small Pacific island, which, from 1900 to 1980, was heavily mined for phosphate, an essential ingredient in fertilizer. As mining stripped away the island's surface, the land was rendered uninhabitable, and the indigenous Banabans were relocated to Rabi Island in Fiji. Katerina Martina Teaiwa tells the story of this human and ecological calamity by weaving together memories, records, and images from displaced islanders, colonial administrators, and employees of the mining company. Her compelling narrative reminds us of what is at stake whenever the interests of industrial agriculture and indigenous minorities come into conflict. The Banaban experience offers insight into the plight of other island peoples facing forced migration as a result of human impact on the environment.
How have the Aluni Valley Duna people of Papua New Guinea responded to the challenges of colonial and post-colonial changes that have entered their lifeworld since the middle of the Twentieth-Century? Living in a corner of the world influenced by mining companies but relatively neglected in terms of government-sponsored development, these people have dealt creatively with forces of change by redeploying their own mythological themes about the cosmos in order to make claims on outside corporations and by subtly combining features of their customary practices with forms of Christianity, attempting to empower their past as a means of confronting the future.
This book provides a new approach to the historical treatment of indigenous peoples' sovereignty and property rights in Australia and New Zealand. By shifting attention from the original European claims of possession to a comparison of the ways in which British players treated these matters later, Bain Attwood not only reveals some startling similarities between the Australian and New Zealand cases but revises the long-held explanations of the differences. He argues that the treatment of the sovereignty and property rights of First Nations was seldom determined by the workings of moral principle, legal doctrine, political thought or government policy. Instead, it was the highly particular historical circumstances in which the first encounters between natives and Europeans occurred and colonisation began that largely dictated whether treaties of cession were negotiated, just as a bitter political struggle determined the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi and ensured that native title was made in New Zealand.
This book questions the common understanding of party political behaviour, explaining some of the sharp differences in political behaviour through a focused case study-drawing systematically on primary and archival research-of the Australian Labor Party's political and policy directions during select periods in which it was out of office at the federal level: from 1967-72, 1975-83, and 1996-2001. Why is it that some Oppositions contest elections with an extensive array of detailed policies, many of which contrast with the approach of the government at the time, while others can be widely criticised as 'policy lazy' and opportunistic, seemingly capitulating to the government of the day? Why do some Oppositions lurch to the right, while others veer leftward? Each of these periods was, in its own way, crucial in the party's history, and each raises important questions about Opposition behaviour. The book examines the factors that shaped the overall direction in which the party moved during its time in Opposition, including whether it was oriented towards emphasising programmes traditionally associated with social democrats, such as pensions, unemployment support, and investment in public health, education, infrastructure, and publicly owned enterprises, as well as policies aimed at reducing the exploitation of workers. In each period of Opposition examined, an argument is made as to why Labor moved in a particular direction, and how this period compared to the other periods surveyed. The book rounds off with analysis of the generalisability of the conclusions drawn: how relevant are they for understanding the behaviour of other parties elsewhere in the world? Where are social democratic parties such as the ALP heading? Is Opposition an institution in decline in the Western world?
Girt. No word could better capture the essence of Australia ... In this hilarious history, David Hunt reveals the truth of
Australia's past, from megafauna to Macquarie - the cock-ups and
curiosities, the forgotten eccentrics and Eureka moments that have
made us who we are. It recounts the misfortunes of the escaped Irish convicts who set out to walk from Sydney to China, guided only by a hand-drawn paper compass, and explains the role of the coconut in Australia's only military coup. Our nation's beginnings are steeped in the strange, the ridiculous and the frankly bizarre. Girt proudly reclaims these stories for all of us. Not to read it would be un-Australian. About the author: David Hunt is an unusually tall and handsome
man who likes writing his own biographical notes for all the books
he has written (one). He has worked as an historical consultant and
comedy writer for television, and also has a proper job. "A sneaky, sometimes shocking peek under the dirty rug of
Australian history." "Hilarious and insightful -- Hunt has found the deep wells of
humour in Australia's history."
War has shaped Australian society profoundly. When we commemorate the sacrifices of the Anzacs, we rightly celebrate their bravery, but we do not always acknowledge the complex aftermath of combat.In The Cost of War, Stephen Garton traces the experiences of Australia's veterans, and asks what we can learn from their stories. He considers the long-term effects of war on returned servicemen and women, on their families and communities, and on Australian public life. He describes attempts to respond to the physical and psychological wounds of combat, from the first victims of shellshock during WWI to more recent understandings of post-traumatic stress disorder. And he examines the political and social repercussions of war, including debates over how we should commemorate conflict and how society should respond to the needs of veterans.When the first edition of The Cost of War appeared in 1996, it offered a ground-breaking new perspective on the Anzac experience. In this new edition, Garton again makes a compelling case for a more nuanced understanding of the individual and collective costs of war.
Papua New Guinea has experienced a remarkably rapid transition from scattered primitive societies to a modern unified nation. The dictionary covers major economic, social, political, and cultural developments, basic geographic information and biographies. With maps.
When the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany partitioned Poland in September of 1939, thousands of Jews fled Poland into Lithuania and fled across the USSR to Japan. With the help of Jan Zwartendijk, acting Dutch consul, and Chiune Sugihara, Japan's vice consul in Lithuania, the refugees obtained documents for their perilous escape from Nazi persecution. From Japan, many refugees moved on to Dutch-controlled Curacao or other final destinations. Decades after the war, and one year before his death in 1986, Sugihara was finally honored by Israel with the "Righteous Among the Nations" Award for the help he gave to the Jews in 1940. He also received the Raoul Wallenburg Award posthumously in 1990. However, in Japan little was known about Sugihara's heroic actions for more than five decades. The author, Seishiro Sugihara (no relation to Chiune), reveals a pattern of deception and obfuscation by Japan's foreign ministry to obstruct recognition of Sugihara's philanthropy. The Sugihara episode, the author contends, is only one in a long line of scandalous cover-ups which have plagued the Ministry, including its ill-fated Twenty-One Demands upon Nationalist China in 1915; and more infamously the failure of its Washington Embassy to follow orders and deliver the "declaration of war" on December 7, 1941 which resulted in the Pearl Harbor operation being stigmatized as a "sneak attack." His book is the first to demonstrate that, while Japan's military was abolished during the Occupation, the Foreign Ministry secured its own future at the expense of Japan and the Japanese people, and deliberately and systematically placed Sugihara's act of kindness beyond public scrutiny.
The Shipwreck of the Batavia combines in just the one tale the birth of the world's first corporation, the brutality of colonisation, the battle of good vs evil, the derring-do of sea-faring adventure, mutiny, ship-wreck, love, lust, blood-lust, petty fascist dictatorship, criminality, a reign of terror, murders most foul, sexual slavery, natural nobility, survival, retribution, rescue, first contact with native peoples and so much more. Described by author Peter FitzSimons as "a true Adults Only version of Lord of the Flies, meeting Nightmare on Elm Street," the story is set in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. The magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is just about to break into the open when, just off the coast of Western Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night. While Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the long-boat across 2000 miles of open sea for help, his second-in-command Jeronimus Cornelisz takes over, quickly deciding that 250 people on a small island is unwieldy for the small number of supplies they have. Quietly, he puts forward a plan to 40 odd mutineers how they could save themselves, kill most of the rest and spare only a half-dozen or so women, including his personal fancy, Lucretia Jansz - one of the noted beauties of Holland - to service their sexual needs. A reign of terror begins, countered only by a previously anonymous soldier Wiebbe Hayes, who begins to gather to him those are prepared to do what it takes to survive . . . hoping against hope that the Commandeur will soon be coming back to them with the rescue yacht. It all happened, long ago, and it is for a very good reason that Peter FitzSimons has long maintained that this is "far and away the greatest story in Australia's history, if not the world's." FitzSimons unique writing style has made him the country's best-selling non-fiction writer over the last ten years, and he is perfect man to make this bloody, chilling, stunning tale come alive.
The last book in a trilogy of explorations on space and time from a preeminent scholar, The Boundless Sea is Gary Y. Okihiro's most innovative yet. Whereas Okihiro's previous books, Island World and Pineapple Culture, sought to deconstruct islands and continents, tropical and temperate zones, this book interrogates the assumed divides between space and time, memoir and history, and the historian and the writing of history. Okihiro uses himself-from Okinawan roots, growing up on a sugar plantation in Hawai'i, researching in Botswana, and teaching in California-to reveal the historian's craft involving diverse methodologies and subject matters. Okihiro's imaginative narrative weaves back and forth through decades and across vast spatial and societal differences, theorized as historical formations, to critique history's conventions. Taking its title from a translation of the author's surname, The Boundless Sea is a deeply personal and reflective volume that challenges how we think about time and space, notions of history.
Hawaiian Missionaries is a collection of stories that are the Gems of Hawaiian History. The book focuses on the American Missionaries in Hawaii, and also contains some intriguing stories on the rare Hawaiian Missionary postage stamps. It is a well written thought-provoking work that you will find easy to follow and enjoyable.
Australia was born with its eyes wide open. Although politicians spoke publicly of loyalty to Britain and the empire, in secret they immediately set about protecting Australia's interests from the Germans, the Japanese - and from Britain itself. As an experienced intelligence officer, John Fahey knows how the security services disguise their activities within government files. He has combed the archives to compile the first account of Australia's intelligence operations in the years from Federation to World War II. He tells the stories of dedicated patriots who undertook dangerous operations to protect their new nation, despite a lack of training and support. He shows how the early adoption of advanced radio technology by Australia contributed to the war effort in Europe. He also exposes the bureaucratic mismanagement in World War II that cost many lives, and the leaks that compromised Australia's standing with its wartime allies so badly that Australia was nearly expelled from the Anglo-Saxon intelligence network. Australia's First Spies shows Australia always has been a far savvier operator in international affairs than much of the historical record suggests, and it offers a glimpse into the secret history of the nation.
The Polynesian navigator Kupe is credited with the discovery of the land his expedition named Aotearoa, country of the long white cloud. How did he and the many voyagers that followed find their way without modern navigational techniques through perilous seas in wooden canoes?By examining myth, star charts and contemporary Polynesian seafaring, Jeff Evans traces the methods by which the early explorers made their epic voyages in Part One. The book s second part travels with Maori canoe expert Matahi Brightwell and navigator Frances Cowan aboard the traditional canoe Hawaiki-nui following age0old navigational techniques with no modern aids on its historic voyage from Tahiti down to New Zealand."
This account of Sir Earle Page's eight-month mission to London provides insights into Anglo-Australian, Anglo-Dominion and United States-Australian wartime relations during a crucial phase of the Second World War. It offers an understanding into the man himself: his thoughts about Australia during the war; his hopes for its future after the war; and the relations Page had with leading political figures, military officials, and policy-makers of the day. The diary revolves around interrelated themes: the battles to represent Australia in the British War Cabinet and to secure a larger share of lucrative wartime food contracts; and the future of Anglo-Australian relations in the Pacific as the United States asserted its dominance over its British ally. The ill-fated defence of Malaya/Singapore and the collapse of British prestige at the hands of the Japanese between December 1941 and May 1942 serves as a backcloth to Page's mission and its significance.
A study which takes the reader beyond the euphemistic and romantic popular misconceptions to reveal the often invisible past and the present subterfuge of Australia. It portrays a country of stark contrasts, of visionaries and criminals whose secrets are exposed.
This is the story of two Scots, Lachlan Macquarie, governor of the British colony of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and of his wife, Elizabeth Macquarie, both of whom pioneered a policy of rehabilitation and renewal as part of their treatment of the convicts. The first part of the book canvasses what the Macquaries set out to achieve, and their stated reasons for this, as well as enquiring into the deeper personal forces at work within their lives. It introduces their supporters and opponents both in the Colony and in Britain. In the second part, the idea of enlightenment is introduced, its definition based on Churchill's understanding of what it means for a society to be civilized. In this light, the punitive thinking of the Macquaries' opponents both in Britain and the Colony represent darkness. In contrast, the Macquaries' work is seen as an enlightenment, one having the potential to inform, indeed challenge, the darkness of the current punitive climate of public opinion so characteristic of much of the Western world today. Following this, comes an overview of a proposal for a very different approach to the treatment of crime and criminals. There are barriers to this - ones identified by studying what a number of the enlightened minds in Britain at the time of the Macquaries were saying. Yet, there are today pockets of enlightenment to be discerned. Accordingly, though the Macquarie governorship ended in personal tragedy for the two of them, there is the opportunity for a second Age of the Macquaries, one not just confined to a remote, tiny corner of this world.
A lively collection of extraordinary stories of adventure and discovery, The Explorers tells the epic saga of the conquest and settlement of Australia. Editor Tim Flannery selects sixty-seven accounts that convey the sense of wonder and discovery, along with the human dimensions of struggle and deprivation that occurred in the exploration of the last continent to be fully mapped by Europeans. Beginning with the story of Dutch captain Willem Janz's 1606 expedition at Cape York -- the bloody outcome of which would sadly foreshadow future relations between colonists and Aboriginal peoples -- and running through Robyn Davidson's 1977 camelback ride through the desolate Outback deserts, The Explorers bristles with the enterprise that Flannery explains as "heroic, for nowhere else did explorers face such an obdurate country".
This book explores the fin de siecle, an era of powerful global movements and turbulent transition, in Australia and beyond through a series of biographical microhistories. From the first wave feminist Rose Summerfield and the working class radical John Dwyer, to the indigenous rights advocate David Unaipon and the poet Christopher Brennan, Hearn traces the transnational identities, philosophies, ideas and cultures that characterised this era. Examining the struggles and aspirations of fin de siecle lives; respect for the rights of women and indigenous peoples, the injustices and hardship inflicted on working men and women, and the ways in which they imagined a better world, this book examines the transformation and renewal brought about by fin de siecle ideas. It examines the distinctive characteristics of this 'great acceleration' of economic, technological and cultural forces that swept the globe at the turn of the 19th century both within an Australian context and on the world stage. Asserting that the fin de siecle was significant for the making of modern Australia, and demonstrating the impact Australian fin de siecle lives had on the transnational and global movements of the era, Mark Hearn traces the turbulent nature of the fin de siecle imagination in Australia, and its response to these dynamic forces.
Depicted by the man himself, The Journals of James Cook is an intimate first-hand account, providing an uncensored and reliable narrative of adventures spanning across the globe. The Journals of James Cook depict three of Captain James Cook's most glorious expeditions, starting in 1768 and leading to Cook's tragic death in 1779. Having ventured all over the Pacific, Cook encountered lands not yet charted by the British. Though his discoveries and maps inadvertently led to British colonization, Cook held a deep respect for the native people he encountered. He recorded their practices and wrote of them fondly. Cook even befriended some of the native people he encountered, including a Tahitian man who, after hearing of Cook's homeland, wanted to visit it as well. Per the man's request, Cook sailed him to Britain, where the man stayed until he and Cook sailed back to Tahiti three years later. After charting Australia, and the whole coast of New Zealand, Cook was involved in a plot to kidnap a Hawaiian monarch and ransom them in order to recover stolen property. He was killed during this expedition, leaving behind a legacy of a detailed description of the Pacific Ocean and its coasts. James Cook's expeditions around the world and his detailed and innovative work as a cartographer inspired advancements in scientific, medical, historical and geological fields. His influence has also reached the literary world, inspiring novel series and characters, including the infamous Captain Hook. Exuding ambition, courage, and confidence, The Journals of James Cook provide a privileged peak into the travels and accomplishments of an adventurous, and invaluable man. Packed with wonder but free of imperialistic arrogance, The Journals of James Cook serve as a valuable an intriguing primary source of a time when places in the world were yet to be mapped. Now presented in an easy-to-read font and redesigned with a stunning new cover, James Cook' The Journals of James Cook is accommodating to contemporary readers, providing a fresh version of the esteemed literary work while preserving its wonders and adventures.
LARGE PRINT EDITION. Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen is a moving personal portrait of a girl who grew up to become Hawaii's first and only queen, a beloved monarch who fought for the rights of her people. Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen is an autobiography by Queen Lili'uokalani. Published in 1898, the book was written in the aftermath of Lili'uokalani's attempt to appeal on behalf of her people to President Grover Cleveland, a personal friend. Although it inspired Cleveland to demand her reinstatement, the United States Congress published the Morgan Report in 1894, which denied U.S. involvement in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen appeared four years later as a final effort by Lili'uokalani to advocate on behalf of Hawaiian sovereignty, but it unfortunately came too late. That same year, President McKinley and the United States Congress approved the annexation of Hawaii. In Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, Lili'uokalani reflects on her experiences as a young girl growing up on Oahu, where she was raised as a member of the extended royal family of King Kamehameha III. Born in Honolulu, she was educated among her fellow royals from a young age. In addition to her studies, Lili'uokalani developed an artistic sensibility early on, and was fond of both writing and music. She crafted the lyrics to the popular song "Aloha 'Oe" (1878), just one of the more than 100 songs she would write in her lifetime. Although her book was unsuccessful as an attempt to advocate for Hawaiian sovereignty and the restoration of the monarchy, it has since been recognized as a moving personal portrait of a girl who grew up to become Hawaii's first and only queen, a beloved monarch who fought for the rights of her people. With a professionally designed cover and manuscript, this edition of Lili'uokalani's Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen is a classic of Hawaiian literature designed for the modern audience. Add this beautiful edition to your bookshelf, or enjoy the digital edition on any e-book device.
Today only a select few know firsthand what it is like to feel their ship shudder from the blast of their own guns, watch enemy guns flash back, and see friendly ships erupt in flames. Russell Crenshaw is one of those few. His riveting account of the savage night battle for the Solomon Islands in early 1943 offers readers a unique insider's perspective from the decks of one of the destroyers that bore the brunt of the struggle Drawing on his experience as a gunnery officer on the USS Maury, his vivid, balanced, and detailed narrative includes the Battle of Tassafarounga in November 1942 and Vella Gulf in August 1943, actions that earned his warship a Presidential Unit Citation and sixteen battle stars. Crenshaw also discusses the impact of radar and voice radio, the shortcomings of U.S. torpedoes and gunfire, and the devastating effectiveness of Japan's super torpedo. About the Author Capt. Russell Syndor Crenshaw Jr., USN (Ret), is the author of Naval Shiphandling and lives in Drayden, MD, US.
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