This diverse collection of essays examines important issues related to mental health among Pacific Islanders through the topics of identity, spirituality, the unconscious, mental trauma, and healing. Contributors: Emeline Afeaki-Mafile‘o, Margaret Nelson Agee, Siautu Alefaio, A. Aukahi Austin, Tina Berking, Philip Culbertson, Caroline Salumalo Fatialofa, Yvette Guttenbeil-Po‘uhila, Joseph Keawe‘aimoku Kaholokula, David Lui, Karen Lupe, Maika Lutui, Cabrini ‘Ofa Makasiale, Tavita T. Maliko, Peta Pila Palalagi, Suiamai Simi, Seilosa Skipps-Patterson, Karanina Siaosi Sumeo, To‘oa Jemaima Tiatia, Sione Tu‘itahi, Fia T. Turner-Tupou.

Wayfinding and Critical Autoethnography is the first critical autoethnography compilation from the global south, bringing together indigenous, non-indigenous, Pasifika, and other diverse voices which expand established understandings of autoethnography as a critical, creative methodology. The book centres around the traditional practice of ‘wayfinding’ as a Pacific indigenous way of being and knowing, and this volume manifests traditional knowledges, genealogies, and intercultural activist voices through critical autoethnography. The chapters in the collection reflect critical autoethnographic journeys that explore key issues such as space/place belonging, decolonizing the academy, institutional racism, neoliberalism, gender inequity, activism, and education reform. This book will be a valuable teaching and research resource for researchers and students in a wide range of disciplines and contexts. For those interested in expanding their cultural, personal, and scholarly knowledge of the global south, this volume foregrounds the vast array of traditional knowledges and the ways in which they are changing academic spaces and knowledge creation through braiding old and new. This volume is unique and timely in its ability to highlight the ways in which indigenous and allied voices from the diverse global south demonstrate the ways in which the onto-epistemologies of diverse cultures, and the work of critical autoethnography, function as parallel, and mutually informing, projects.

The U.S.-Associated Pacific Basin consists of six island jurisdictions: American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. This book examines one aspect of the ties and U.S. involvement with this part of the world--its role in the region's health care delivery system. Although the health status of the islanders and the challenges faced by the health care systems naturally vary within and among the jurisdictions, in general, almost all health indicators for the islanders are worse than those of mainland Americans. The health systems in the area must deal with conditions normally seen in developing countries (e.g., malnutrition, tuberculosis, dengue fever, and cholera) and in developed countries alike (e.g., diabetes, heart disease, and cancer). In examining the strengths and weaknesses of the area's systems, the volume provides a regional health overview and assessments of health care in individual jurisdictions, evaluates the Pacific Basin Medical Officers Training Program, and lays out a strategic plan for future health services in the U.S.-Associated Pacific Basin.