Description: A historical overview and thematic examination of Polynesia (especially New Zealand and its outlying islands), 900-1600.
Brief description: Madi Williams (University of Canterbury) researches the boundaries of history and the inclusion of Indigenous and non-Western perspectives into New Zealand/Aotearoa and South Pacific histories.
Review Quotes:
The principle that undergirds the work is seeing history through the eyes of its participants, not from an outsiders' vantage point. "The real challenge of global history is to write from other perspectives, not write about other places from your own particular world view," she writes. "It is only through this approach that any depth of understanding can be gained." How did South Polynesians view their new world, their whenua hou? Madi Williams' book provides a welcome glimpse.
--Kennedy Warne