published in 1998 by the Institute of Pacific Studies, 318 pages
I worked at the international University of the South Pacific for much of my career, a unique institution serving the tertiary educational needs of Pacific Island students. Teaching geography there could be a frustrating business as many students knew more about the geography of New Zealand and South America than they did about the various island groups in the Pacific. This was a result of a lack – at least in the 1990s – of teaching materials about this vast region, almost one third of the entire surface of our planet. So this book was my attempt to fill in some of the gaps, focusing especially on Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. I like to think it helped. The list of chapters is here.
Here are a couple of pictures from the Fiji chapters –
On the left is my photo of Nabukelevu Volcano at the western extremity of Kadavu Island, one of the youngest volcanoes in Fiji whose most recent activity was witnessed by humans and, as told at the start of Chapter Six in The Edge of Memory, encoded in myths that only much later became correctly interpreted by scientists. On the right is my photo of Gusuniqara Point on Vatulele Island where a series of emerged notches, similar in form to the modern wave-formed notch, testify to the periodic occurrence every 1400 years or so of massive land-lifting earthquakes here.
Another idea I developed in this book, later far more elegantly developed by my friend Bill Dickinson, a distinguished geologist, was the possibility that people never settled the islands of the Pacific until their coasts had evolved to a suitable condition. This diagram shows what I mean.
Four thousand years ago (upper diagram), because coral reefs were still growing upwards trying to ‘catch up’ with rising post-glacial sea level, there was no coastal lowland along island shores. Just one millennium later, coincidentally (?) the time people did start to settle islands in the western Pacific, the situation had changed (lower diagram) – broad well-watered coastal plains had developed, covered with coconut forest, fringed with reefs and lagoons. Just like you find in so many places today – see below.
My reassessment of Bill Dickinson’s arguments can be found here.
This book is still sold at the University Bookshop on the Laucala Campus (Suva, Fiji) of the University of the South Pacific. Reviews of Pacific Island Landscapes are here.