"On 29 August 1914 New Zealand troops landed in German Samoa and established a colonial rule that was to last almost 50 years. The new administrators were an odd assortment of benevolent misfits. Their unchecked power led to widespread racism and the distortion of justice, bureaucratic bungling caused the spread of the 1918 influenza epidemic which killed 22% of the population, and on 29 December 1929 there was "Black Saturday when the police opened fire on an unarmed peaceful demonstration, killing 9 people and wounding a further 50. This book is the story of the courageous and non violent freedom movement known as "Mau". Thoroughly researched and provocative, Mau: Samoa's Struggle for Freedom is an integral chapter in the history of Samoa, NZ and the Pacific."--Publisher's description.

A large and peaceful pro-independence march along Beach Road in Apia, Samoa. Amidst panic and confusion, New Zealand police open fire with rifles and a machine-gun, killing nine people and wounding fifty. In this BWB Text, Michael Field describes what happened on Black Saturday, 28 December 1929, a day that is largely forgotten in New Zealand history but is vividly recalled in Samoa.

Ua fuifui faatasi, ae vaoeseese "Gathered into one flock from different parts of the forest" The beauty of this Samoan proverb poetically describes The Samoans: A Global Family. From the tea estates of Sri Lanka to the deserts of the Sudan, from the Himalayas of Bhutan to the jungles of Brazil, and from the People's Republic of China to Papua New Guinea, a family is gathered in 285 color photographs captioned with the proverbs of 30 languages. Each person recounts his or her autobiography: a cardinal in Rome, a cowboy in the outback of Australia, a champion sumo wrestler in Japan, a jet pilot in nothern Alaska, an NFL football player at the Super Bowl, a nun in the slums of Lima, Peru. Each brings a story from his part of the "forest." The book is the result of a two-and-a-half-year odyssey around the world, through 45 countries and 20 states and into the lives of over 125 Samoans documenting what it means to be Samoan not only in Samoa but in the farthest reaches of the globe.

New Zealand ruled Samoa from 1914 to 1962 and during this time managed to kill 25 percent of the population in the space of a couple of weeks through the careless introduction of Spanish influenza. Faced with growing Samoan calls for independence New Zealand responded violently, gunning down eight people in the streets of Apia, including high chief Tupua Tamasese, in 1929. The working title comes from a line in a speech given two years ago by Prime Minister Helen Clark when she went to Samoa and offered a formal apology for the events above. The book relates the story of New Zealand's rule, from the invasion by soldiers from Wellington to Auckland, up to Helen Clark's apology.

The task of living in modern New Zealand – and especially in modern Auckland – is not just to understand how to live with different peoples, but how to adapt to the future that has already happened. New Zealand is a nation that exists on Pacific Islands, but does not, will not, perhaps cannot, see itself as a Pacific Island nation. Yet turning to the Pacific, argues Damon Salesa, enables us to grasp a fuller understanding of what life is really like on these shores. After all, Salesa argues, in many ways New Zealand’s Pacific future has already happened. Setting a course through the ‘islands’ of Pacific life in New Zealand – Ōtara, Tokoroa, Porirua, Ōamaru and beyond – he charts a country becoming ‘even more Pacific by the hour’. What would it mean, this far-sighted book asks, for New Zealand to recognise its Pacific talent and finally act like a Pacific nation?

Samoan Queer Lives is a collection of personal stories from one of the world's unique indigenous queer cultures. The first of its kind, this book features a collection of autobiographical pieces by fa`afafine, transgender, and queer people of Sāmoa, one of the original continuous indigenous queer cultures of Polynesia and the Pacific Islands. -- http://www.littleisland.co.nz.