We Are the Ocean

We Are the Ocean is a collection of essays by Epeli Hau'ofa, whose writing over the past three decades has consistently challenged prevailing notions about Oceania and prescriptions for its development. He highlights major problems confronted by the region and suggests alternative perspectives and ways in which its people might reorganize to relate effectively to the changing world. Hau'ofa's essays crisscross Oceania, creating a navigator's star chart of discussion and debate. "Our Sea of Islands," "The Ocean in Us," "Pasts to Remember," and "Our Place Within," all of which are included in this collection, outline some of Hau'ofa's ideas for the emergence of a stronger and freer Oceania. Throughout he expresses his concern with the environment and suggests that the most important role that the "people of the sea" can assume is as custodians of the Pacific, the vast area of the world's largest body of water.

Epeli Hau'ofa has been working at the University of the South Pacific's main campus in Suva, Fiji, where he is the founder and current director of the Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture, established in 1997.