By Damon Salesa, Published by Bridget Williams Books, 2023. Reviewed by Mary-Ann Bailey

An Indigenous Ocean is a series of essays about the evolving history of the Pacific Ocean and the impact on it of colonisation. It’s a difficult but rewarding read.

Salesa places the Pacific in its global context, but as well as this wider perspective, he also includes the stories of individuals in indigenous communities of the Pacific. Pasifika women Emma and Phebe Coe’s story of the late 1800s is fascinating, and more my kind of read. 

Salesa describes the impact Europeans have had in the Pacific. Most New Zealanders are aware of the story of colonisation in Aotearoa but maybe not of other Pacific countries. I enjoyed reading about Pacific countries, the Indigenous people’s contact with Europeans and their evolution to the present day.  An Indigenous Ocean has widened my understanding of the Pacific and begun to identify my place as one of European ancestry in a Pacific world.

An Indigenous Ocean is well worth reading if you want to understand your place in our world. I suggest one essay at a time. I know I will be dipping into it again.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 295 August 2024: 27