Explores the relationship between indigeneity and migration among Māori and Pacific peoples

Once Were Pacific considers how Māori and other Pacific peoples frame their connection to the ocean, to New Zealand, and to each other through various creative works. In this sustained treatment of the Māori diaspora, Māori scholar Alice Te Punga Somerville provides the first critical analysis of relationships between Indigenous and migrant communities in New Zealand. 

Alice Te Punga Somerville’s Once Were Pacific is the first major study of how Māori and Pacific people talk to each other in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Oceania. It is a splendid book, remarkably lucid, insightful, comprehensive, and accessible.

 Albert Wendt, author of Leaves of the Banyan Tree

University of Minnesota Press 2012

Winner, First Book 2012 - Native American & Indigenous Studies Association