Island Time - New Zealand's Pacific Futures

Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2017. Spine creased and faded.

The task of living in modern New Zealand ? and especially in modern Auckland ? is not just to understand how to live with different peoples, but how to adapt to the future that has already happened.

New Zealand is a nation that exists on Pacific Islands, but does not, will not, perhaps cannot, see itself as a Pacific Island nation. Yet turning to the Pacific, argues Damon Salesa, enables us to grasp a fuller understanding of what life is really like on these shores.

After all, Salesa argues, in many ways New Zealand?s Pacific future has already happened. Setting a course through the ?islands? of Pacific life in New Zealand ? ?tara, Tokoroa, Porirua, ?amaru and beyond ? he charts a country becoming ?even more Pacific by the hour?. What would it mean, this far-sighted book asks, for New Zealand to recognise its Pacific talent and finally act like a Pacific nation?

BWB Texts are short books on big subjects by great New Zealand writers. Commissioned as short digital-first works, BWB Texts unlock diverse stories, insights and analysis from the best of our past, present and future New Zealand writing.