Polynesian Literary anthology Varua
Tupu—the first of its kind—offers English-speaking readers the stories,
memoirs,
poetry,
photography, and paintings of a French Polynesian artistic
community that has been growing in strength since the 1960s. In the literature
and images of Varua Tupu, the people
of this astonishing group of islands speak for themselves.
The art includes work by such artists as
Michel Chansin, Bobby Holcomb, Michel Ko, Claire Leimbach, and Marie-Helene
Villierme.
Writers contributing works of fiction,
nonfiction, poetry, and memoir include Louise Peltzer, Flora Devatine, Taaria
Walker, Rai a Mai, Henri Hiro, Patrick Araia Amaru, Bruno Saura, John Lind,
Celestine Hitiura Vaite, Titaua Peu, and Kareva Mateata-Allain. Translators
include Nola Accili, Anne-Marie Coeroli-Green, Jean Toyama, and Mateata-Allain
Varua Tupu is a welcome sign that the obstacles dividing Tahiti from the rest of the Pacific are rapidly being
overcome. Even the barrier of language no longer need divide us from one another.
We all belong to the Pacific, as brothers, sisters, and cousins, and it is
significant that we are able to travel freely across the reef, physically and
through the imaginations of our artists, and get to know one another again.
The voices
of indigenous people of French Polynesia can be heard for the first time in
English in this volume, and our faces and Island way of life can be seen in the
wonderful art.