Towards a New Pacific Historiography

Towards a New Pacific Historiography argues for a re-imagining of Pacific History using the idea of cultural theorist Hayden White that the historical text is a literary artefact. The book discusses the institutionalisation of Pacific History largely through the efforts of J. W. Davison. It also engages in a scrutiny of several Pacific History texts, evaluating the merits and demerits of these texts as literary artefacts. The book contends that the Western academic discipline of History has created a privileged space for itself by marginalising other forms of historical knowledge and that many Pacific historians continue to use sources and methodologies that are of European origin, and profess a world-view that is blatantly Western. The consequence of all this is that Pacific historiography has become a methodologically and stylistically reactionary discipline. The author suggests that only the re-imagining of Pacific History will allow the discipline to make a worthwhile contribution to new Pacific epistemologies; the program to re- imagine History could come from the way postcolonial theorists and creative authors have transformed English Literature and the English language.