ABSTRACT
In embarking on this study of indigenous Pacific writing, it seems appropriate to begin with the work of Albert Wendt, the most prolific and influential indigenous writer of the wider Pacific region. As a founding member of the publication committee for MANA (a Pacific literary periodical established in 1973), Wendt has played a central role in the emergence of Oceanic literature in English, and he has edited several important collections of Pacific writing. His own creative writing also offers the most sustained exploration of the metaphorical properties of the human body as a medium for exploring the dynamics of colonialism and independence in the Pacific region. This chapter investigates the way in which Wendt uses corporeal symbolism in order to interrogate European constructions of the Polynesian body, and to explore the corruptions and complexities of post-imperial Oceania.
