New Publications Feature

In an attempt to help highlight new published works - monographs and books - on Melanesian topics, I have added a new link on the side of the book where I will periodically add titles and links for readers.

For example ANU E-Press (a favorite of mine) has recently come out with some new titles that will be of interest to people:

• Brij V. Lal and Vicki Luker have edited a new book entitled Telling Pacific Lives: Prisms of Process (2008), the contributions of which arose out of a conference on life histories and the writing of life stories in the Pacific at the ANU's Division of Pacific and Asian History held in December 2005. While the collection will appeal to people interested in the Pacific, history and life stories more widely several of the essays deal with Melanesian topics:
• Deborah Van Heekeren's chapter 'The Kila Wari Stories: Framing a Life and Preserving a Cosmology' examines the life story of the heroic figure Kila Wari as told to her by the Vula'a of Irupara village on the Papuan coast.
• Michael Goddard's contribution is entitled 'From "My Story" to "The Story of Myself" - Colonial Transformations of Personal Narratives among the Motu-Koita of Papua New Guinea' and builds on his work in Port Moresby.
  
• Wolfgang Kempf's chapter 'Mobility, Modernisation and Agency: The Life Story of John Kikang from Papua New Guinea.' examines the life story of John Kikang (1927-1997), a Ngaing man from the Rai coast of Madang, to look at broader shifts in people's lives in PNG.
• Geoffrey Gray builds on his work on Chinnery with a chapter about the anthropologist entitled, 'E.W.P. Chinnery: A Self-Made Anthropologist.'
• Noted Pacific historian Hank Nelson further elucidates the individuals involved in the combat that affected Papua New Guinea and Australia during WWII in a chapter entitled, 'Lives Told: Australians in Papua and New Guinea.'
• Clive Moore contributes with a chapter on the preparation of the Solomon Island's Historical Dictionary entitled, 'Biography of a Nation: Compiling a Historical Dictionary of the Solomon Islands.'
  
• Sinclair Dinnen and Stewart Firth have edited a book entitled Politics and State Building in Solomon Islands (2008) which examines 'a crisis moment in recent Solomon Islands history. Contributors examine what happened when unrest engulfed the capital of the small Melanesian country in the aftermath of the 2006 national elections, and consider what these events show about the Solomon Islands political system, the influence of Asian interests in business and politics, and why the crisis is best understood in the context of the country’s volatile blend of traditional and modern politics.' Contributers include: Sam Alasia, Matthew Allen, Transform Aqorau, Anita Butler, Sinclair Dinnen, Stewart Firth, Jon Fraenkel, Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka, Clive Moore, Mary-Louise O'Callaghan, Jaap Timmer, and Ian Scales
• Kate Barclay and Ian Cartright have written a book entitled Capturing Wealth from Tuna: Case Studies from the Pacific (2007) which examines the tuna fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific. Chapters deal with Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Fiji (along with the Cook Islands, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands).
  

Please let us know if you have a new book coming out that you would like listed.