South Pacific

This chapter examines book history in the anglophone South Pacific, focusing on how creative writing as well as reading developed from small localized efforts within systems of colonial management and then as part of international pressures to decolonize. The discussion begins with a look at the role of European missionaries in promoting literacy in the South Pacific, and how colonial administrators used missions in pacification and to provide education to Indigenous populations. The chapter then considers the publishing activities of colonial governments and how the history of the novel in the Pacific was shaped by regional and international organizations. It also describes publishing by nation states after independence and by groups and individuals despite numerous challenges.