When Queen Salote of Tonga attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London in 1953, she was greeted as the tallest queen of the smallest kingdom and gained universal admiration for her natural dignity and the warmth of her personality. This account of Queen Salote's life and times is more than a biography, for it also describes the politics and social structure of a small kingdom that was a world in microcosm.
This biography of Queen Salote of Tonga is also a political & social history of the kingdom of Tonga between 1900 & 1965. It looks at aspects of Tongan society, especially the role of rank, status & of the leading families & the Queen's skill in keeping the loyalty of her people.
"This volume of essays is an exploration of the way in which scholars from different disciplines, standpoints and theoretical orientations attempt to write life stories in the Pacific. It is the product of a conference organised by the Division of Pacific and Asian History at The Australian National University in December 2005. The aim of the conference was to explore ways in which Pacific lives are read and constructed through a variety of media: films, fiction, faction, history under four overarching themes. The first, Framing Lives, sought to explore various ways of constructing a life from a classic western perspective of birth, formation, experiences and death of an individual to other ways, for example, life as secondary to a longer genealogical entity, life as a symbol of collective experience, individual lives captured and fragmented in a mosaic of others, lives made meaningful by their implication in a particular historical or cultural web, the underlying values and world views that inform one or another approach to framing a life. The second theme, the Stuff of Life, looked at materials, methods and collaborative arrangements with which the biographer, autobiographer and recorder work, their objectives, constraints, inspirations, challenges and tricks. The third section, Story Lines, focused on formats and genres such as edited diaries, collections of writings, voice recordings, genres of biography autobiography, truth and fiction (verse, dance, novels) and the varieties and different advantages of narrative shapes that crystallise the telling of a life. The final section, Telling Lives/Changing Lives, focused on biography/autobiography and the consciousness of identity, history, purpose, lives as witness and windows, telling lives as change for those involved in the tale, the telling, the listening. The overall aim was to bring out both the generic or universal challenges of telling lives as well as to highlight the particular tendencies and trends in the Pacific. Yet these four themes, which seemed analytically promising at the outset, proved in practice difficult to disentangle from the presentations at the workshop"--Provided by publisher.
Travelers will find the best of the South Pacific in this guidebook that provides in-depth coverage of outdoor recreation. Complete with helpful maps, photographs and illustrations, as well as useful advice on food, entertainment, and money, this guidebook offers the tools travelers need for a uniquely personal experience.
An encyclopaedia of information on major aspects of Pacific life, including the physical environment, peoples, history, politics, economy, society and culture. The CD-ROM contains hyperlinks between section titles and sections, a library of all the maps in the encyclopaedia, and a photo library.
Extraordinary people lead extraordinary lives and, from the beginning, even before he had any control over his life, John Meigs’ life was extraordinary: kidnapped by his father, never to see his mother again. Once on his own, he tried his hand as a reporter in Los Angeles in 1936, and then in Honolulu, where he got drawn into the art world, becoming one of the original designers of the Hawaiian aloha shirts. Those pursuits were interrupted with the onset of World War II and John’s enlistment in the Navy. After a serendipitous escape of death and military duty in Florida, John returned to Hawaii, where he met New Mexico artist Peter Hurd. That encounter led John to New Mexico and to interactions with a wide variety of notable people, including painters Andrew Wyeth and Georgia O’Keeffe, poet Witter Bynner, oilman and cattleman Robert O. Anderson, and actor Vincent Price. With the notable artist Rolf Armstrong, of “pin-up girl” calendar fame, John traveled to Paris in 1952 where his off-beat nature led him to Alice B. Toklas. After returning to New Mexico, numerous opportunities knocked on John’s door, beckoning him in different directions all at the same time. In 1979, his travels led to a particularly significant development in John’s life when he picked up a hitchhiker, who became a complicated fixture in his life as both a sidekick and a love object. Meig’s fascinating life continued to unfold, garnering attention and impacting those close to him. As can happen, though, even with the most accomplished and creative, eventually, a sad, slow mental decline set in.
