publishing

Focus on Pacific publishing

A symposium, “Publishing in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands”, was held in Honolulu on Novem ber 18-19. The affair was co sponsored by several teaching units of the University of Hawaii (UH), the university’s press, and the East West Center’s Com munication Institute.

The symposium was the brain child of Dr Miles Jackson, for mer territorial librarian of Ameri can Samoa, and now Dean of UH’s Graduate School of Library Studies. Its purpose was to pro vide educators, librarians, pub lishers, writers and booksellers with information on the issues and problems of publishing in Hawaii and the Pacific.

Most of the speakers and par ticipants in the discussion were from Hawaii, so the event had a distinctly Hawaiian bias. How ever, three speakers from abroad did expand the scope of topics and discussion: Kevin Walcot, publisher. Word Publishing Company, Papua New Guinea; Albert Wendt, author and profes sor of Pacific Literature, Univer sity of the South Pacific; and lan Willison, curator, English Lan guage Collections, British Library.

Walcot gave the opening address. He focused on problems of publishing that are common to the Pacific region as a whole, and those that are more peculiar to PNG. Concerning the former, it was clear that the problems which- plague publishing in the islands are for the most part the same ones causing difficulties in other areas. While the Pacific area is vast, it tends to be ignored because its total population is small by world standards. Costs are high because of the sums involved in moving people and goods over the great distances between island groups and the world centres of industrial pro duction. There are serious prob lems with technical facilities.

The linguistic diversity of the region causes problems, and, in the case of publishing, makes for small reading audiences. Furth er, societies that have long relied

upon rich oral traditions are not quick to produce literary ones.

A combination of all these factors accounts for the fact that there is little commercial incen tive to enter publishing enter prises in the Pacific.

While problems exist in abundance, Walcot suggested that there are also certain oppor tunities for the resourceful pub lisher. For example, there is no publication in the region design ed for women, and there is a potential youth market because Pacific populations are young.

Willison talked about the gen eral place of the written word in the scheme of things, at least in the pre-television era. He noted that “the world’s ordered experi ence of itself is determined by writers” that is, what is writ ten and published largely shapes our perceptions of people, places, events, and things.

Willison went on to suggest that the Pacific as we know it was created by writers. The ac counts of the voyages of James Cook and other European explor ers gave form to the initial per ceptions of the Pacific in the Western world. The writings of missionaries and colonial ad ministrators followed. An thropologists (while not specific ally mentioned) added their views. In this regard, one thinks of the perceptions of Samoans created by Margaret Mead in the late 19205, and the current con troversy as to the accuracy of those images stirred by Derek Freeman’s recent book.

Willison commented that new perceptions are now being of fered by indigenous Pacific wri ters who have emerged in recent years. Specific attention was called to Lali: A Pacific Antholo gy (1980), edited by Albert Wendt, for two reasons: 1) it is the first representative anthology of what has been written in English by Pacific islanders, and 2) it has appeared in the predo minant mode of publishing today a quality paperback issued by a large publishing conglomerate

(Longman Paul Ltd of New Zea land) with branches and repre sentatives throughout the world.

The problems of contemporary publishing were very much on the minds of local writers in Hawaii. They too find that poten tial reading audiences are limited, but the reasons are not

those resulting from linguistic

diversity or the smallness of par ticular language groups: rather, many local writers are from minority ethnic groups which do not share the values of the polit

ically and economically power

ful, and their literary efforts are simply not welcomed in the lar

ger society.

Roland Kotani is the editor of Ka Huliau (The Turning Point) which is self-described as

“Hawaii’s Grassroots Journal’’.

It is relatively new (founded in early 1983), appears every six weeks, and has a circulation of about 3000. Kotani reported that there is a resurgence of a local people’s movement. It sees Hawaii as a special place, whose environment should be respect ed. Kotani contrasted the present with the 1950 s and 1960 s when tourism and the economy were expanding, and pride was taken in recently achieved statehood (1959). He sees similarities bet ween the present literature of the grassroots movements and pre- World War II Hawaii, when ethnic and labor presses were flourishing.

Dr Haunani Kay Trask, a young Hawaiian woman and as sistant professor of American Studies at UH, is conducting

research on Hawaiian political movements. In her opinion, Hawaii offers a poor publishing environment for local writers, and she views Hawaii not as part of the U.S. but as an American colony.

Poet Richard Hamasaki is the editor and publisher of Seaweeds and Constructions, an indepen dent art and literary journal. He noted that 95 per cent of the indigenous literature of the Pacif ic appears only in pamphlet-like forms, their circulations are limited, and most people never get to see them.

Darrell Lum, editor of Bam boo Ridge the Hawaii Writer’s Quarterly, with a circulation of 500, reported that in his experi ence local writers are ignored.

He indicated that a large body of literature is being written, but commercial and university pre sses are simply not interested. As a consequence, the potential market for the output of local writers can only be guessed at.

Associate Professor Rubellite Kawena Johnson is a Hawaiian who teaches her own language at UH, and she chaired the discus sion on local writers. Her recent book Kumulipo: Hawaiian Hymn of Creation, Volume 1, published by UH Press, has been well received as a scholarly work.

Johnson agreed, however, with the general sentiments express ed, and that there should be room for the publication of dissenting opinion in Hawaii.

Albert Wendt discussed his own writing. For him, writing can be fun, especially when it “pours well”. But more often than not, it is simply hard work.

Great commitment is required, and it is a very lonesome en deavor. Wendt’s emphasis on hard work and commitment re mind one of Ernest Heming way’s reflections upon the art of writing in his The Moveable Feast.

The point of literature, accord ing to Wendt, is to create mean ing, and here it would appear that he is in agreement with Willison.

With regard to his own work, Wendt hopes that he has destroy ed some stereotypes about Sa moans and has presented some more accurate views. He sug gested with a smile that he might well have created some new stereotypes in the process.

A View from Honolulu Robert C. Kiste looks at the Pacific

Wendt encouraged local wri ters in Hawaii. Commenting on a literature of dissent, he indicated that it was his own observation that in former colonised areas of the world, indigenous writers emerge and go through an initial period of criticising the colonial power. After independence, the new governments become the focal point of criticism.

Because of colonial boun daries, Wendt recalled that in the past he had never thought of Hawaii as part of the Pacific.

However, with the emergence of local writers in Hawaii, and Hawaii’s participation in the South Pacific Festival of Arts, he now thinks of Hawaii as being at least more involved with the reg ion.

With regard to Pacific writers elsewhere, Wendt reminded, the audience that the Institute of Pacific Studies (IPS), at the Un iversity of the South Pacific, is without parallel in providing a publishing avenue for Pacific

writers. He called the IPS effort one of the most exciting publish ing ventures in the academic

world today. With justification

Wendt credited the IPS program as being largely due to the work of one dedicated man, Professor Ron Crocombe.

One part of the symposium looked at things from the view

point of publishers. Benjamin

Bess, publisher of Bess Press,

Honolulu, reported that large

mainland publishing houses are not interested in a regional mar ket. This leaves room within a region for a proliferation of small publishers, and Bess indicated that there are 40 in Hawaii alone.

Bess himself publishes educa tional materials for Hawaiian his tory and language study prog rams. He would like to see the small publishers form a Hawaii book publishers association so that they can join forces to mar ket nationally, locate and share

expertise, etc.

Gary Cooper, director of mar

keting, UH Press, commented on

his organisation being perceived

as a regional press, and also a relatively small one. National re

viewers for prestigious publica

tions like The New York Review of Books appear uninterested in items with a regional focus. The large chains of bookstores (there are two really giant ones in the U.S. mainland) are not interested in books that do not receive national reviews.

Further, they want to deal only with a few publishers, and they choose the large, well known firms, with plenty of advertising funds behind them. Even when the UH Press has a book which might be of interest to a wider audience than a purely regional one, it is usually unable to gain any national notice. A case in point is a quite recent release, Hawaii Under the Rising Sun by Dr John J. Stephan, UH profes sor of history. It is a well written, thoroughly researched, and fas

cinating account of Japan’s plans

for the conquest and rule of Hawaii after Pearl Harbor. It should appeal to many with inter ests in World War II, but is receiving scant attention on the mainland.

As a final point, Walcot also mentioned that news in the Pacif ic still flows along the lines established in colonial times.

American flag islands receive most news from U.S. sources and almost nothing from coun tries in the Pacific itself. The flow of news and the content of newspapers were the topics of a talk given by Dr Jim Richstad, editor. Pacific Islands Communi cation Journal. John Simpson, Pacific Daily News, and Floyd Takeuchi, formerly of PDN and now with the Honolulu Advertis er, felt that there are some, if only few, signs of change for the better. However, they provided impressions rather than hard da ta. All agreed that the formation of a Pacific news service is long

overdue.

Robert C. Kiste.