An Innovative Approach to the History of Colonialism

Giving voice to the women who worked as maids—known as “house-girls” in the Pacific islands of Vanuatu—is the goal of House-Girls Remember: Domestic Workers in Vanuatu, edited by Margaret Rodman, Daniela Kraemer, Lissant Bolton, and Jean Tarisesei. This innovative work is a unique collaborative project with contributions from twenty-one indigenous and four expatriate women. Although women’s history is a popular topic globally, Pacific island women have had few opportunities to conduct research and publish in this field. House-Girls Remember is contextualized within literature on domestic workers and current anthropological theory, but the focus is on the words of the indigenous women themselves.

June 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3012-0 / $45.00 (CLOTH)

Houses Far from Home: British Colonial Space in the New Hebredies, by Margaret Rodman, and Unfolding the Moon: Enacting Women’s Kastom in Vanuatu, by Lissant Bolton, are both available from University of Hawai‘i Press.