The Polynesian Society Reaches Out: The Last 25 Years of 125 Years

Judith Huntsman

 

PREFACE

Manifest Duty: The Polynesian Society over 100 Years, the centennial publication of the Society’s history by M.P.K.[Keith] Sorrenson tells the story of the Polynesian Society up to 1991, its actual 100th year. I take up the story from 1992, when the Centenary was widely and multiply celebrated. My account is both memoir and history because I have been an actor in various roles—as Secretary (1991-1996), as Editor or co-Editor (1996-2016) and throughout this time as a member of the Council. Keith’s account was from a distance, though he knew many of the prominent actors from the 1950s onwards; my account a very close-up, indeed a rather personal one, so first person pronouns will appear frequently. Nonetheless, I have tried very hard to tell a balanced story. I have sought to cover all the topics covered in Sorrenson’s first 100 years narrative: the Patrons and elected Officers, the Medals and their recipients, the Library, financial matters, publications—the JPS, Memoirs and Māori Texts. Nonetheless, with a shorter time period to cover, the structure of the narrative is more topical than chronological and addresses new matters and concerns. I begin with an account of the Centenary events of 1992, including the opinions of long-time members concerning the Society’s future (what it should do), to which I return at the end. The story is broken into sections covering finances, publications, issues arising from the Digital Era, promoting and increasing the “visibility” of the Society, and finally a brief survey of the present state of the Society. There is something of a chronology here but also inevitable overlap. Finally, I have followed my predecessor’s model in providing useful lists in three appendices.

The only citations are to Manifest Duty… (MD: xx) and in referring to issues of the JPS I give month and year instead of volume and number. Only a few endnotes appear at the end of the text. Nonetheless, I have done my homework, as well as relying on my recall, by locating and reading all the AGM and Council Minutes in my possession and in the Office of the Society, as well as other documents on paper or in computer files.

I have shared drafts of my account with present Officers and some Council members who might point out any omissions and correct any misrepresentations. I thank them all, especially Richard Benton who joined the Society’s Council in 1975, the same year that I joined it as a co-editor. Keith Sorrenson read the penultimate draft more out of interest than as a critic. Robin Hooper has often been my “eagle-eyed” editor and has again corrected my syntax and usage, and picked up my typos. I thank her again. Whatever errors of fact or presentation remain I’ll have to claim as my own.

INTRODUCTION: THE CENTENARY 1992

The Society celebrated its Centenary in 1992 with a sense of achievement. The 100 years had seen the publication of 400 JPS issues, 49 Memoirs and 11 other volumes, including the four parts of Ngā Mōteatea and three special Māori monographs. To mark the occasion the Society not only awarded both an Elsdon Best Memorial Medal “for outstanding scholarly work on the New Zealand Māori” and a Nayacakalou Medal “for significant publication on the Island Pacific”, but also arranged with the University of Auckland for its President, Professor Emeritus Bruce Biggs, to deliver the Macmillan Brown Lectures and for the University of Chicago Distinguished Professor Marshall Sahlins to present the annual prestigious Robb Lectures. In Wellington, the National Library staged an exhibition, “The Polynesianists”, which was launched by the President. Finally, two new memoirs commissioned as centennial publications were launched: the Society’s history, Manifest Duty: The Polynesian Society over 100 Years by M.P.K. Sorrenson in midyear and in 1993 the Centennial Index, compiled by Dorothy Brown. Though not a designated centennial publications, the completion of the festschrift for Ralph Bulmer, edited by Andrew Pawley, Man a d a Half:… was celebrated along with Keith Sorrenson’s history.

The Birthday Party

The Inaugural Meeting of the Polynesian Society was held to Wellington on the 8^th of January 1892; the Party celebrating its 100^th year was held at Auckland University’s Waipapa Marae on the 20^th of March 1992, with bubbly, balloons and a birthday cake. It started, however, in a scholarly manner inside Tanē-nui-a Rangi Meeting house, where President Bruce Biggs presented Sir Hugh Kawharu with the Elsdon Best Medal and Sir Hugh responded with an address: “Kotahitanga: Visions of Unity” (see JPS September 1992). The Party then shifted to Reipae Dining Hall where Council members Margaret Mutu and Douglas Sutton directed the proceedings. The President read a letter of congratulations from Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikāhu and those assembled heard recorded messages from Professor Sir Raymond Firth and Professor H.C. Maude, two of the Society’s most longstanding and illustrious members. President Biggs blew out the candles on the cake and cut it. Slices were passed around, more champagne was poured and a good time was had by all.

Several of the congratulatory messages received on the occasion were published in the June 1992 JPS. Professor Emeritus Sir Raymond Firth concluded: “I would think there are few regional societies in the social and linguistic fields that have had such a long and successful history. Long may it continue to flourish! It deserves every support from New Zealanders and related peoples.” Harry Maude ended: “I raise my glass to proffer a sincere wish that the Polynesian Society’s second hundred years may be as successful as its first.” Professor H.G.A. Hughes from Wales lauded the Society’s “academic integrity and meticulous scholarship” and recalled that “Te Rangi Hiroa once likened the Polynesian Society to a canoe venturing [into] unchartered seas”. However, one letter was less of congratulation, more of admonishment: the Society needed more Polynesian members, more Polynesian Officers and Council members, and the JPS should publish more Polynesian authors and articles of greater interest to Polynesians. These remarks did not sit well with the Officers and Council, or with many of the members assembled. If this critic had done a bit of research before sounding off, he would have known that three (of eight) Council members, the Treasurer and the President too, were of Polynesian ancestry. More significantly, every Officer and Council member was either a native speaker or in some degree fluent in a Polynesian language. What people speak is a better measure of commitment than how they look. This was not a cabal of esoteric academics as implied.

The President was particularly annoyed. Later in the year, in his address at the opening of “The Polynesianists” exhibition at the National Library in Wellington, he spoke at some length about the massive scholarly contributions of Elsdon Best and then stated the Polynesian Society’s credo: “I hope…. fervently that the affairs of the Society remain in the hands of scholars; if scholars happen also to be Polynesians, so much the better, but scholarship, not ethnicity, should remain the guiding principle…. The Society should continue to ‘belong’ to all those who meet its broad criteria for membership—Polynesians, Polynesianists and others alike—who have a sufficient serious interest in and commitment to the objects of the Society as laid down in its constitution to make an effort to join it.” These words of Bruce Biggs are taken from a carefully reasoned report to Council, “Comments on the Comments on Possible Future Developments for the Society made in the Course of the Centenary Celebrations”, by Richard Benton, which was presented to Council in 1993 and also considered several other less virulent critiques calling for more involvement of Polynesian peoples in the Society and JPS. I will return to these matters after my story of the last 25 years.

Of Patrons and Officers

Any historical account should record matters of retirement, succession and death. My narrative, more topical than chronological, would not handle these matters well, so I here relate these facts, which are also recorded in Appendix 2.

After presiding over the centennial year, Bruce Biggs retired as President and Council member, and was succeeded by Sir Hugh Kawharu, who in turn retired in 2005 to be succeeded by Dame Joan Metge and then in 2010 by Dr Richard Benton.

Following the death of the Society’s Patron in 2006, the Council decided to ask both Tumu Te Heuheu (Te Heuheu Tūkino VIII) and the Samoan Head of State Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Taisi Efi to become the Society’s Patrons, thereby together acknowledging both the Aotearoa “home” of the Society and the many peoples of the Pacific.

Bruce Biggs’s died in October 2000 and his obituary by Andrew Pawley was published in December 2000. Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu passed on in 2006 and Dame Joan Metge contributed her obituary to the September journal issue. Sir Hugh Kawharu’s death, also in 2006, was marked by an obituary by Professor Emeritus Ranginui Walker.

Richard Moyle continued as Editor until 1994, after 8 years in that role, and Ray Harlow briefly succeeded him. Judith Huntsman was elected to the editorship in 1996 and continued as sole or co-Editor until 2016. Melinda Allen was elected to co-edit with Judith in 2013 and became sole Editor in 2016.

Judith Huntsman had been Secretary since 1991, and in 1996 was succeeded by Melenaite Taumoefolau as elected Secretary. She served for three years and retired to be succeeded by Melani Anae, which brings us to 2002.

Rangimarie Rawiri was elected Treasurer a year before the Centenary and was still Treasurer 25 years thereafter, notably the longest standing officer the Society has ever had. In 2002, she agreed to take on a dual position as Secretary/Treasurer. An intervention by Robin Hooper at the AGM affirmed that she would receive the annual honoraria for both positions.

FINANCIAL UPS AND DOWNS

The Centennial Year saw the Polynesian Society’s finances in good shape with over $20,000 in the bank (some of which was designated for centennial publications), a comfortable number of members and subscribers, and adequate publication sales. The Council had agreed to offer student prizes to top students in second-year Māori and Pacific courses at New Zealand universities as a centennial initiative. The apparent largess, however, rather emboldened them to launch other new programmes, including giving themselves Honorary Member status.

Unfortunately, the situation rapidly changed. At the beginning of 1993, there was $13,210 in the bank, but at the end of the year a $1500 trading deficit. The bills for centennial publications had depleted the accumulated funds and dues/subscriptions for the coming year were not yet received, and in fact a goodly number would never be received. The following year the trading deficit was slightly less and Council recommended that a policy for handling dues in arrears be instituted. In 1995 the Treasurer reported that efforts to recover arrears could be considered successful despite some resignations, but also expressed frustration about overdue audited accounts, which admittedly had been an ongoing problem.

In 1996 it all came to a head. The Treasurer informed Council: “There is as at 31.10.96 an overdraft in our accounts. There is an unpaid account to Uniprint of approximately $10,000 which is affecting the printing of the December journal. Our cash situation is quite drastic.” The cash flow statement showed income from subscriptions and dues to be $45,700, while outgoings were $58,800—$28,800 of this attributed to journal production and postage costs ($7,200 per issue). At end of year, after early payment of some Institutional subscriptions, the Society had $2407 in the bank, but these were payments towards the coming year’s journals.

How had this dire situation come about? Such financial crises had periodically occurred during the Society’s history: in 1954 the cause was dues and subscriptions in arrears (MD 115), during the First World War and Great Depression it was membership losses (MD 48, 67-71), and on occasion inattentive Treasurers or lax Auditors were to blame (MD 86). In retrospect, this mid-1990s crisis had a number of causes and all had to be addressed.

A Working Party of Council comprising the officers and two members of Council was formed to consider remedial measures. The immediate conundrum was how to pay for printing and posting. The Manager of the University’s printing arm refused to print another issue of the JPS until the $10,000 debt was cleared and the posting agency refused to post the journal unless outstanding postage charges were paid. We were in a classic “catch 22”: if we could not print and post the JPS we would have no members or subscribers and therefore no money to pay debts. The Secretary persuaded the University to set up a reasonable debt repayment schedule. Postage and mailing arrangements were looked into. In order to get the December issue out the Editor changed production arrangements. These evolved over time and came to save the Society $1500 to $2000 per annum. Under the immediate new arrangements the Arts Faculty Dean agreed to have the JPS formatted by the Faculty’s publication officer and the Editor engaged a new (and less expensive) printer.

In addition, the Working Party decided to raise Institutional Subscriptions by $10 and recommend a $10 increase in members’ annual dues to the AGM, and to hold a book-sale of the Society past publications at a 60 percent discount. The President wrote a persuasive letter to Life Members urging them to replenish the publication fund.

The Working Party did not investigate how this dire situation had come about, but it appears that the apparent bounty of 1992 had encouraged some ill-considered spending. Programmes set in place to mark the Centenary, such as the annual student prizes of three-year honorary memberships, while worthy, were not costed, and had come to number 30 per annum and potentially 90 after three years. Then there were the honorary memberships for Council members. Journal issues had become larger (130-150 pages per issue), thus substantially increasing printing and postage costs, and the early sales of the final volume of Nga Moteatea provoked another large print-run and a very large printing bill. The deficits of the previous three years also contributed, but they were not large enough to be alarming at the time, and were generally attributed to dues and subscriptions arrears that surely would be eventually paid.

The Treasurer’s report in July 1997 indicated that the Society was just managing to keep up with expenses, but there was still an outstanding $7300 debt to the University. By the November, the Society’s debt had been reduced to $2365.88 and subscription payments banked in the previous month amounted to $9216.26, while outgoings were $2991.55 leaving $6224.71 balance. Some of the financial pressure had been alleviated by drawing some $4000 from Life Members Fund to reduce the printing debt, which would be replaced by back transfers as funds built up. The Auditor’s report for 1997 showed a profit of $1333.00. Council decided to reconsider the student prize programme which had become increasingly onerous and had not produced the anticipated rewards (that the prize-winners would continue as paying members), but was reluctant to abandon the initiative and instead reduced the tenure of the prizes to two years. Some years later the prizes were discontinued.

By February 1998 the Society’s bank balance was $11,274.40 (largely attributable to dues and subscription payments that came in at the beginning of the calendar year) and $1000.00 had been transferred back to Life Members Fund. In November overall funds in the bank were over $8000. Yet, a warning had been sounded in the annual audit statement from a newly appointed, more diligent auditor about dues and subscriptions arrears and questionable recovery of some $10,000 of those unpaid for 12 months. The accountant predicted that if this situation were to continue, the Society would be running at a regular loss. Consequently, a long overdue clean-up of records showed some members’ dues were long in arrears and produced a resulting long list of automatic resignations—under a new regime of no pay/no JPS. Yet, these resignations were happily exceeded by the number of new members. The estimated total of individual members and subscribers after the clean-up was 950. Continuing support in preparing the journal contents for printing was confirmed by the Dean of Arts and the Anthropology Department contributed $1000 towards copy editing.

The Treasurer’s report on cash flow showed a balance of $19,093.49 at end of February 1999 after expenses of $23.533.13 paid, and the loan from the Life Members Fund had been repaid. Yet, member resignations occasioned by polite requests to pay their arrears were becoming a concern, and Council, as it had many times before, brainstormed strategies for recruiting more members. More troubling were the 45 Institutional subscribers who were years in arrears. When the Treasurer noted the deficit of $3203 in audited accounts as a result of $10,034 of bad debts being written off and a net surplus of only $6,831 the Council decided to increase Institutional subscriptions to $75 and recommend to the AGM that members’ dues be increased another $10 to $50, noting that, in comparison to other journals, the JPS was very inexpensive. Institutional subscriptions were increased again—to $90—the following year and again in the next—to a comfortable $100, and most overseas Institutions continued their annual payments despite the increases. A gentle reminder of dues payments was inserted in December journal issues posted to members. The audited accounts of the 2000 calendar year presented at 2001 AGM showed a small net surplus and an increase in subscriptions for 2001 paid in advance. Finally, the Society’s accounts were healthy. The gradual turn around could be attributed to the Treasurer’s successful pursuit of overdue payments, the purging of members in arrears, small increases in dues and subscriptions, and careful control of the routine costs of journal production and posting. However, the rising costs of packaging and posting the journal issues was a worry, as was the increasing number of non-arrivals at their destinations. The Treasurer investigated other options, in the end deciding that packaging and posting could be done in-house, where there would be more control.

The ten years after the Centenary had seen the Society’s finances plummet, followed by a slow, rather painful recovery. Costs had been constrained, and annual dues and subscriptions were being paid. The regular worry was declining membership numbers. A new worry was about the Society’s lack of new publications, although several were regularly discussed at Council meetings. This was a matter of regret since publication sales decrease when there were no new publications to sell.

At the AGM back in 1993, an eminent member of the Society had been emphatic about the “significance of the Society’s publication programme in terms of its mandate and finances”. Council fully agreed but was financially stymied. In 2002, the situation changed quite dramatically. A number of memoir publications appeared during the first decade of the new millennium, but it was one grand project, one that had languished for years, that set the Society on a new course—new editions of the four parts of Nga Moteatea.

PUBLICATIONS 2000—2011 AND HOW THEY WERE ACHIEVED (see Appendix 3)

The Centennial Year had seen the publication of M.P.K. Sorrenson’s history of the Polynesian Society, Manifest Duty: The Polynesian Society Over 100 Years and the 624 page festschrift for Ralph Bulmer, Man and a Half: Essays in Pacific Anthropology and Ethnobiology in Honour of Ralph Bulmer, edited by Andrew Pawley. The Centennial Index, compiled by Dorothy Brown, came out the following year. Thereafter there were no publications until the new millennium.

This does not mean that there was no talk within Council and beyond about publications. At virtually every Council meeting there were discussions about what was to be done about Ngā Mōteatea, just as there had been at meetings in the late 1980s. Apirana Ngata’s classic work on Māori waiata was originally published as supplements to JPS issues in the 1940s and 1950s by Ngata with his collaborator Pei Jones. Beginning in 1958 they were published in three parts as Māori Texts. They sold steadily and were each reprinted twice, but stocks of the volumes were getting low. A fourth part was published in 1990, when further manuscript material was unearthed at the Turnbull Library, and reprinted five years later (see above). The President, Editor and most Council members were adamant that no further facsimile editions of the earlier volumes would be printed—the quality of the old mid-20^th century type was dreadful for an age of digital printing and design, new orthographic conventions had received wide acceptance and a long list of noted errata had accumulated over the years. In short, the volumes’ appearance just did not reflect their contents. What was required was a new edition that befitted the cherished work and would, by the way, enrich the Society’s coffers. One by one, except for part 4, the volumes went out of print. What was needed was a new edition, but to accomplish this there were three practical constraints: expertise, time and money. This was a big project, requiring commitment and funding, but all Council could manage was much hand-wringing and forays here and there. Bruce Biggs was willing to take on Part 2, but after 1997 his health did not allow him to continue. He was relieved to turn over his computer files, but could not commit further. Robin Hooper, who had acceded to my request that she might oversee progress (or not) on Ngā Mōteatea and any memoirs, worked with Bruce to establish a consistent format and he was agreeable to discussing problems with her as they arose. As for Part 1, it was being handled (or not) at Waikato and in all communications to Council, for one reason or another, nothing concerted was happening. Robin working with Bruce seemed to be making some headway, by and large everything else was at a standstill. When Robin stepped away, Richard Benton agreed to take on oversight of whatever progress was being made with Parts 1 and 2. His reports were not encouraging. Yet, there was one positive development. Robin and I had informal conversations about the Ngā Mōteatea volumes with Elizabeth Caffin, then in charge of Auckland University Press. She advised that the Society think in terms of a “long term project of producing handsome new editions of all volumes” and intimated that “AUP would be pleased to be associated with such a project”. Further, she thought that “there would be funds available for this venture”. Richard Benton agreed to work with me in pursuing the possibilities.

In the meantime, new memoirs were proposed, but again who could or would edit and where were the funds? One memoir did proceed: Te Ariki Tara ‘Are’s History and Traditions of Rarotonga lifted from late 19^th century pages of the JPS and edited by Richard Walter (for the English) and Rangi Moeka‘a (for the Cook Island Māori). It was published as Memoir 51 in 2000. It had taken for the editors two years, checking back and forth, to develop an agreeable text and suitable translation with guidance from Robin, and it was made clear to the editors that the Society had no available funds for printing. They were asked “to suggest/explore avenues for funding” and indeed Otago University and Creative New Zealand provided full support for production of the work.

Possibilities did arise by the way of other publications, when arrangements with other publishers brought in royalties and the Editor began to pursue external sources of funding. Reed Publishing at this juncture were heavily invested in Māori publications, and came up with two proposals: an edited and illustrated single volume bringing together Elsdon Best’s “Notes on the Arts of War, as Conducted by the Maori of New Zealand” from 1902 to 1904 volumes of the JPS, and an enhanced edition of Memoir 46, The Puriri Trees are Laughing (1987), co-authored by Jeffery Sissons, Wiremu Wi Hongi and Pat Hohepa, which was re-titled Ngā Pūriri o Taiamai. Both books were launched at the 2001 AGM. Prominently noted on their covers were their “association with the Polynesian Society” and Society received 10% royalties from both, giving it a publication nest egg. This emboldened me to consider other proposals, specifically new editions of the Oldman catalogues of Māori and Polynesian artefacts, originally published as Memoirs 14 (1938) and 15 (1943). Editors had been approached from time to time with diverse offers (often out-of-the-blue) to reprint the catalogues, but they had been held at bay. The Memoirs were long out of print and cherished by collectors and dealers; it made sense for the Society to retain control over the volumes and aim to publish new editions. Roger Neich, Ethnologist at the Auckland Museum, had recently joined the Society’s Council and was keen to work on this project, and he enlisted the assistance of Janet Davidson, his counterpart at The National Museum/Te Papa. The scholarly expertise was engaged, but money to fund technical expertise was needed. That expertise was available in Hamish Macdonald who had the skills both to tidy up the 250 Plates, and to format and design the volumes. I applied for and got a $5000 grant from the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust to contract Hamish. Roger and Janet wrote a history of W.O. Oldman and his collection, and Janet constructed a list of all the artefacts and where they were held. Roger and I edited the text—a more arduous undertaking than anticipated. Finally, $10,000 was received from Lottery Heritage to print the two volumes. They were launched in 2004 by Roger’s counterpart at the Smithsonian, Adrienne Kaeppler (her words are in the December 2004 JPS), who had long advocated for new editions. She was right: they “sold like hot cakes”, further enriching the publication fund. The Society had come to realise it could publish books, and sell them at a profit, without investing much of its own money but by getting grants and subsidies, and it could benefit through “in association…” arrangements with other publishers, especially those with good distribution networks. All of these played a part in the most ambitious project the Society had yet undertaken, what Elizabeth Caffin had labelled “handsome new editions of all volumes” of Ngā Mōteatea.

A brief history of the Ngā Mōteatea Project ¹

Sometime around 2000 I encountered Jenifer Curnow at an art exhibition in the grand concourse of the Auckland Railway Station. Jeny was then working with Jane McRae on the Māori-Language Newspaper Project (1999-2002). In the course of our conversation I suggested in passing that she might consider working on a new edition of Ngā Mōteatea after completing her present project. Then in late 2001, I received an unexpected phone call from Jeny—she was indeed interested. I arranged to meet with her, Jane McRae and Richard Benton early in the New Year and the upshot of that strategic meeting was that Margaret Mutu agreed to support the project, and Jeny and Jane agreed to take on the editing task provided funding could be found. Now we had the people, but not yet the money. With our publication nest egg from the Society’s association with Reeds, Jeny was contracted to scope the funding possibilities and the extent of the task.

At the memorial celebration for Allen Curnow shortly thereafter, I was somewhat startled to be confronted by Murray Shaw (then Chair of the Creative New Zealand Arts Council) who had been directed to me by Jeny from across the room. His enthusiasm for the project was palpable. The outcome was a meeting and further meetings that resulted in a successful application to Creative New Zealand for Ngā Mōteatea Part 1 and encouragement from Creative New Zealand to apply for further funding in the coming years for Parts 2-4.

Even before that funding was granted, the project had received most welcomed support from the Dean of Arts, who made computer facilities and expertise available, and designated Jeny an Honorary Research Fellow—entitled to a parking permit!

In late 2002 the Ngā Mōteatea team was formed: Jeny as manager and co-editor, Jane McRae as co-editor, Margaret Mutu as Commissioning Editor, the Society’s Editor and Council member Richard Benton as advisors, two PhD candidates in Māori Studies, Tane Mokena and Yvonne Sutherland, as editorial assistants, and Merimeri Penfold and Hineira Woodard as language advisors. Early in 2003, Richard could report to the Society’s Council: “The Council owes a great debt to Jeny Curnow and Judith Huntsman… for their tireless pursuit of the goal of obtaining secure funding for the new edition of Ngā Mōteatea… [they] have led the way in finally getting the project off the ground.” Jeny did not just got it off the ground; she managed the six-year undertaking with tact, aplomb and dedication, not only editing, but also writing reports and applications, liaising with Elizabeth Caffin at the Press, keeping the books along with the Treasurer, seeking out expertise for various tasks, arranging launches and contacting advocates and the press. My role was one of back-up, consultant and signer of grant proposals, reports etc. We had many happy “business” lunches at a café in Mt Eden.

With all in place, there was action all around in 2003. Experts were contracted to scan the first three Parts, redesign the genealogies and select waiata for CDs, which would be slipped into the four Parts, from the University’s Archive of Māori and Pacific Music. The editors edited with the help of their assistants, who entered the edits into the scanned Part 1. The plan was for the editing to be completed by the end in the year, delivered early in the 2004 to Auckland University Press and Ngā Mōteatea Part 1 launched at midyear. This is exactly what happened.

Other significant things happened too. With the new edition of Part 1 transferred to Auckland University Press, the Press and the Society entered into a formal agreement to publish all four volumes of Ngā Mōteatea. The Polynesian Society would be designated “author” rather than “co-publisher”, thereby receiving royalties without having the hassle and costs of designing, printing and distributing, and the publications would bear the words “in association with the Polynesian Society”. The plot was that each subsequent year would see the publication of each subsequent Part, with Part 4 completing the new edition in 2007. And that is exactly what happened.

It was not, however, all that simple. First, the idea of including CD recordings in the volumes was floated and pursued. Again expertise and funds were required. The Dean of Arts funded the latest electronic equipment to make recordings of the archived waiata in the Archive of Māori and Pacific Music, and Mervyn McLean, the inaugural Director of the Archive, was contracted to select the waiata from the Archive suitable for each Part, drawing upon the McLean collection housed there and other archived recordings. Yet another expert was contracted to produce the master CDs. The funding from Creative New Zealand did not cover this expense, but an application to the Lilburn Trust did help, year after year.

Second, the Society had been concerned from the start about the absence of an English translation of Part 4. (Why there was none is a matter that I shall eschew.) There was no Pei Jones around anymore to do this, but Hirini Moko Mead was keen to undertake it and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga/The National Māori Centre of Research Excellence was willing to fund it. In 2006, as Part 4 was being put together, the translator and all the editors poured over this “other half” that had been missing from the earlier editions. It would make Part 4 really a new work rather than a new edition. The Society’s President, Sir Hugh Kawharu, praised the translation of Part 4 as “a landmark in scholarly history”.

The new edition of Ngā Mōteatea was a six-year undertaking (2002-2007), involving many people with diverse expertise and numerous advocates, who wrote letters of support and praise, and institutions that provided substantial funding. The latter (aside from the Society itself that picked up certain small pieces) funded the undertaking to about $233,000: $160,000 from Te Waka Toi and the Arts Council of Creative New Zealand, $58,000 from Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, $13,000 from the Lilburn Trust and some $1,800 “in kind” from the University of Auckland Arts Faculty.

The new editions were enthusiastically received. Part 1 sold out in a matter of months and another printing was available at the launch of Part 2. Part 3, though not publicly launched, was quickly in demand and Part 4 had record sales at its “splendid launch”, sponsored by the Society and Ngā Pae on 19 June 2007, at the University’s Waipapa Marae. Pita Sharples (then MP for Tamaki-Makaurau) formally launched Part 4 and a number of distinguished speakers followed him. About 100 people were in attendance, including a party of Ngāti Awa, there to support their kaumātua Hirini Moko Mead. The meeting house rang with their singing of their waiata from Ngā Mōteatea Part 4. It was a grand occasion befitting the completion of the largest project the Society has ever undertaken—and profited from, which was completed in a timely manner and with elegant results. Congratulations were due to all, and most especially to Jenifer Curnow who kept it going and all together.

Turning to Other Publications

Two more memoirs on Cook Island history, both by Michael Reilly, were published: War and Succession in Mangaia—from Mamae’s Texts (2003) and Ancestral Voices from Mangaia: A History of the Ancient Gods and Chiefs (2009). These two volumes, along with the compilation and editing of The History of Rarotonga (2000, see above) and Jukka Siikala’s ‘Akatokamanāva. Myth, History and Society in the South Cook Islands (1991) continued the Society’s explicit policy from its founding of publishing texts in indigenous languages with English translations, something very few academic journals do. The three millennium memoirs received financial support for their publication from the University of Otago; the earlier 1991 work was part-funded by the Finnish Anthropological Society of Helsinki.

In the Society’s Centennial Year, when Bruce Biggs had presented the Macmillan Brown Lectures, he titled them Kimihia te Mea Ngaro: Seek that which is Lost. The Macmillan Brown Centre had fully intended to publish the Lectures at the time, but by the mid-2000s only a number of partially edited versions could be found. Andrew Pawley, determined to bring this work to light, tracked down the original manuscript with the help of the Macmillan Brown Librarian and the happy solution was that the Polynesian Society’s Council agreed to undertake publication. Jane McRae lightly edited the lectures, retaining the voice of the speaker of them. Andrew and I composed a Preface, Hamish Macdonald formatted and designed the book that became Memoir 51. Andrew launched it following the 2006 AGM at which he was awarded the Nayacakalou Medal for his contributions to Oceanic Linguistics.

I learned as soon as the Ngā Mōteatea project was concluded that both Jeny and Jane were looking for new projects.

Jeny decided to prepare a new edition of Pei Te Hurinui Jones’s King Pōtatau: An Account of the Life of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, the First Maori King (published by the Society in 1959 and long out-of-print). Some years earlier the Society had been approached about republishing another of its out-of-print Memoirs, but when that possibility was broached to the Society’s Patron Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikāhu, she suggested a new edition of King Pōtatau… be prepared instead. A republishing request, this time from Huia Press, corresponded with the Queen’s wishes and a joint publication was agreed to. The Society would provide the edited, formatted and designed text (work that was partially funded by a grant from Lottery Heritage); Huia would undertake printing and distribution. The Polynesian Society would continue to hold copyright and receive quite generous royalties. Jeny punctilious as ever in her respect of the integrity of the original work, followed the protocols used for Ngā Mōteatea. She incorporated already noted errata and corrected “other minor errors”, modified inconsistencies in format, completed the bibliography and introduced macrons to conform to current orthographic practice. She arranged for a new layout of the whakapapa and tracked down George French Angas’s original colour portrait of Pōtatau to grace the cover. The new edition received a memorable launch, again at Waipapa Marae and again managed by Jeny. The Hon. Nanaia Mahuta launched it, speaking informally and warmly of relations of her father (Robert Mahuta) with Pei Te Hurinui Jones and of his admiration for him. The launch was attended by Pei’s son Brian, and Dame Joan Metge, who also had known his father, presented him with a special copy on behalf of the Society. A substantial party of Kīngitanga elders attended, along with their supporters, and kōrero flowed.

 Close up

In 2007, Jane had proposed writing an introduction to Ngā Mōteatea for a general audience, particularly students and teachers, who might find the monumental four volumes rather formidable. In fact, she saw it as fulfilling the wishes of Apirana Ngata for what he referred to, in 1933, as a “pocket edition” that might entice readers to sample more fully the other volumes. Jane found a superb native-speaking Māori collaborator in Hēni Jacob and the two became co-authors. An Introduction… is completely bi-lingual (cover, title and contents pages and footnotes, though not copyright page or bibliography), Māori on the left (verso) and English on the right (recto)—a book designer’s nightmare. The text comprises three sections: how Ngā Mōteatea was “created”, from 1920 to its new 2004-2007 edition, by Ngata and his successors, as well as the continuing role of the Polynesian Society in publishing it, beginning in 1944. The core of the Memoir is Jane’s essay on the nature of waiata: their forms, imagery, uses and language, and the history often contained therein. Ten carefully selected songs illustrate her commentary and these same songs, as they appear in Ngā Mōteatea itself, comprise the final section. Ngā Mōteatea: An Introduction/He Kupu Arataki was launched at Government House by Michael Reilly in July 2011 as a publication of Auckland University Press and Memoir 56 of the Polynesian Society. The Society funded Jane’s research for and creation of the English text, with part-funding from Lottery Heritage, and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga provided full-funding for the Māori translation by Hēni Jacob. The Press took care of the formatting, design, printing and distribution of the volume, and again the Society received royalties as copyright holder.

After 2011, the impetus for Polynesian Society publications waned. The 2000-2011 output, largely paid for by grants and subsidies, and often “in association” with more commercial publishers, initially gave the Society a substantial bank balance and then a continuing modest income. The Council shifted its focus to enlarging the Society’s membership and subscription base (see below for this story).

The JPS: Its Production and Innovations in its Contents

Richard Moyle continued as Editor until the AGM in 1994 when he retired after a tenure of eight years. Ray Harlow, who had comparable skills in the use of PageMaker, succeeded Richard, but then retired himself after two years. Judith Huntsman, who had been Secretary for the past five years and had been elected Editor several times before that, succeeded Ray.

I have detailed above the ways in which the Society weathered its mid-90s financial crisis and how the production of the journal issues changed from December 1996. Another significant and welcomed change occurred in 2004 when Hamish Macdonald, who had formatted and designed several Memoirs, proposed or agreed to take over all aspects of the journal’s production—formatting, designing, liaising with the printer and dispatching complementary PDF copies to authors, etc., thus relieving me of the burdens of dealing with printers and with changing and often frazzled Arts Faculty publications officers. From years of association with the Anthropology and Māori Studies departments, Hamish was familiar with the academic matters that JPS articles addressed so he became my editing colleague as designated Production Editor, and produced several Memoirs as well as the JPS. In 2010, Hamish was elected to Council in recognition of his contributions to the Society and its publications. His informed advice in Council was invaluable. Hamish’s skills in photography and book design produced more visually pleasing journal issues. There were innovations in layout, which readers usually did not recognise, and the appearance of crisp back and white and, later, colour images, which they certainly did—first on the cover and then inside the issues.

Keith Sorrenson’s Manifest Duty:… includes three Tables categorising JPS content by geographic area² (MF 52, 91, 136): Māori, Other Polynesian, Other Pacific and Other. Compared to the 1954-1990 Table, a rough calculation of contents 1991-2017 indicates an increase in the number of Other Polynesian (including Fiji) and a decrease in the number of Māori (though increasing throughout the period) and Other Pacific (Other is insignificant in both cases). Readers can make of this what they may. As the Editor for 20 of those 25 years, my response would be: the JPS publishes submitted manuscripts that are deemed publishable by the standards of its referees and editors. Whatever editorial bias there might be would be the consequence of scholarly networks within the areas. For example, a goodly number of the editors from the mid-50s to the mid-60s were active researchers in Papua-New Guinea; thereafter the editors were Polynesian scholars. Another factor is the name of the Society and its journal that does predispose scholars working in Polynesia to consider submission to the JPS. But you cannot change the name of a society and journal that have been around for 125 years.

In the past 25 years, JPS issues, either fortuitously or by design, have increasingly been “special issues”, sometimes with guest editors. The only three I can recall, before Biological Anthropology in the Pacific in 1994, are the September 1983 and 1984 collections of “state of the art” essays on Māori topics by nine leading scholars and June 1976 Incest Prohibitions in Micronesia and Polynesia. I handled the latter as a novice editor and had printed far too many copies (with the approval of Council) thinking the topic would have salacious appeal. Incest might have but incest prohibitions certainly did not. From 1999 to 2016, eleven more focused issues were published. The editors have encouraged proposals for “special issues” with an attractive brochure, distributed at conferences, highlighting to session organisers the advantages of publishing the best of the presented papers in a “special issue”. For the Society, there are advantages too. JPS “special issues” are apt to appeal beyond the usual JPS readership and, in some respects, do compensate for the absence of new Memoir publications, which require expert editors and substantial funding.

THE SOCIETY EMBRACES THE DIGITAL AGE—WITH SOME RESERVATIONS

Well before the Centenary, the Society’s editors had happily employed the new communication channels of the internet and the efficiencies of editing manuscripts digitally. No longer did letters need to be posted to advise people that their manuscript had been received, to solicit referees for received manuscripts, to inform submitters of the judgements on their manuscripts, to engage with authors concerning possible content and stylistic improvements, to send edited contributions to authors for their approval and to post offprints of their published articles. It could all be done by email. By the late 80s, issues were being formatted and designed by Richard Moyle with the aid of PageMaker, though whether this made the editor’s job any easier might be open to question. This, however, was only the beginning.

In 1999, by something of a backdoor, the Society received its first commercial proposal to digitise its back issues and also a tentative approach from the University of Auckland Library about the possibility of a project to digitise back issues for open access. The latter seemed preferable to Council and the commercial proposal was declined, as were several others until 2006 when the Library’s project seemed to be stymied, and the Society signed some agreements with persistent online providers. Ironically, the Library project suddenly was alive again and subsequently the Society would have reservations about some of the online provider agreements that had been signed. Thus, this account is divided into two parts: the successful Library project of JPS Online, and the mixed outcomes of the online provider agreements. Notably, the two agreements that were non-commercial proved to be worthwhile, the commercial ones distinctly problematic. In this second part, the numerous approaches and proposals from commercial publishers to unburden the Society of production and distribution of the JPS will also figure.

JPS Online

By 2000, a webpage for the Society and the JPS was linked to the Anthropology Department webpage and maintained by Peter Sheppard, but little further had been mooted about the Library project. With Council approval, I initiated a correspondence with The University of Auckland Librarian. Our interchanges seemed promising enough for me to recommend that the Society work towards a formal agreement with the Library and reject all other advances. The Library had launched a number of digital projects, and indeed at the time was digitising all the photographs from the Anthropology Department’s Photographic Archive. To digitise the JPS was a tricky undertaking because of difficulties the scanner had in reading (and checking) the Pacific language texts and linguistic articles heavily laced with unusual orthographic symbols. Peter Sheppard undertook to handle negotiations with the Library and, if nothing seemed to be progressing by 2005, to assess the situation. The Society had agreed to collaborate in 2004, but digitising the first 100 volumes required funding that the Library did not yet have.

In early 2006 the Council, given the lack of reported progress on the Library project, decided on Peter’s recommendation to sign a non-exclusive contract with Informit, associated with an academic institution in Melbourne. Other non-exclusive contracts followed, even though members of Council had different points of view about them. Put simply, on the one hand, was it not incumbent on the Society to disseminate knowledge as prescribed in its aims and to make the materials it had published available to the descendants of those in the Pacific who had contributed them, but, on the other hand, how could the Society sustain itself if it made its intellectual property openly available at no cost? In any case, it turned out that the Society had acted too soon for by midyear the Library project was moving ahead again and by the year’s end had become international. The University of Auckland Library had become a partner in a consortium of three libraries along with the Hamilton Library at the University of Hawai‘i-Mānoa and the Melanesian Archive at the University of California at San Diego. JPS Online, already in progress, was the showpiece for what was called “The Pacific Gateway Project” in funding applications, and the involvement of the two US-based partners meant that United States funding sources could be tapped.

JPS Online was formally launched at the University’s Fale Pasifika in July 2007. By early 2008, volumes 1-48 were online, by July the number was 70 and at the year’s end all 100 were up. In early 2009, the site was active, allowing “browsing” through facsimiles texts and “searching” through re-keyed texts via a sophisticated search engine.

The Library proposed adding recent volumes (from volume 101 onward) to JPS Online in 2010 and asked what length of embargo the Society might wish to impose. Later some Polynesian Society out-of-print Memoirs were added to the site. These were works that the Society had no wish (or indeed resources of time, expertise and funds) to republish. They could be available to scholars and others with an abiding interests, while not overburdening the Society’s storage space.

The response to JPS Online was most pleasing, both for the Library and the Society. The Library regularly provides statistics on “hits” and where they had come from, and forwarded comments and requests (not all of which are appropriate). The JPS keeps adding volume by volume with an embargo on adding a year’s volume to the site until some time had passed. The length of the embargo was debated by Council from time to time, and was finally settled at one year.

Of Packaging and “Bundling”—Of Good Guys and Bad Guys

The “bundlers” (commercial operations providing arrays of journals online for institutions) regularly approached the Society from about 2000 to sign non-exclusive contracts allowing them to add the JPS to their “bundles” of academic journals. Some agreements were in time considered dubious in the absence of agreed payments; others, notably non-commercial JSTOR and Informit, provided a steady revenue stream, as have payments from Copyright Licencing Ltd. (a not-for-profit copyright licensing body representing New Zealand authors and publishers of books, journals, newspapers and magazines).

From the start, the practices of the commercial firms were not wholly satisfactory for many academic libraries because of the choices the online providers made in creating their “bundles”. For example, a library might want the JPS from an online provider but few or none of the other journals with which it was “bundled”. And, the publishers of the journals themselves were often not happy about what other journals they were “bundled” with.

Nonetheless, by 2008 the Polynesian Society had signed non-exclusive contracts with Informit, EBSCO and ProQuest, and was considering a proposal from JSTOR, which was signed the following year. By 2010, however, the Council was questioning some of these commercial agreements, particularly the one with EBSCO from whom the Society had received no payments under the terms of their agreement for four years and through whom local community libraries were receiving access to the journal online via the National Library. After protracted attempts to address the situation with EBSCO, whose ever-changing email responders “stonewalled” and prevaricated, the Society formally cancelled its contract. By way of contrast, once the JPS was available through JSTOR in late 2010, the Society began receiving substantial payments.

The Society also received multiple approaches from commercial academic publishers with proposals to relieve the Society of certain tasks (and costs) of producing the JPS. They promised technical skills in copy editing, formatting, designing, printing and distributing. What they could not provide was academic expertise in judging manuscripts and editing their content, and this is mostly what JPS editors do at very modest expense. Such commercial arrangements necessitate considerable employee and other costs, and these costs are inevitably passed on to readers (the price of the journal escalating as much as 50 or even 100 percent). Fortunately, the Society could easily dispense with these proposals because of its structure and its Rules. Let it be said that commercial publishers of scholarly journals are making good money; the academic authors, referees and editors provide them with content at no cost and they sell the product back to the academic scholars and institutions at very considerable cost. Doesn’t seem quite right somehow.³

The Society’s own Digital Initiatives

In 2010, the newly elected President of the Society was alarmed about the sharp decline in membership numbers reported at the July AGM, fearing that he would be overseeing the demise of the Society. The Secretary-Treasurer explained that the apparent fall-off was an accumulation of several years’ cancellations for non-payment of dues and included a large number of student prize recipients who had not continued as regular members. Generosity towards members in arrears could not continue, but the Treasurer would give them a final chance by forgiving some arrears if they re-started their memberships. The membership decline could not be substantially reversed, but a greater concern was the decreasing numbers of Institutional subscriptions, which brought in far more money than members’ dues. Of course the culprit in both declines was free online access and this was already being addressed by a Council-approved Working Party who would be recommending initiatives that would allow the Society to more fully enter the Digital Age.

Peter Sheppard, backed by Hamish, had been urging the Council for some time to consider setting up an independent website for the Society and its journal to replace the www linkage through the Anthropology Department. They had even talked about making an optional e-journal available to members. These possibilities were in effect on the table when the Working Party met and formed part of a package of recommendations to Council aimed at making the JPS more widely available and at the same time maintaining or preferably enhancing the Society’s financial viability.

The elements of the package were: (i) a stand-alone Polynesian Society website divided into two sections (open access and access restricted to dues-paying members), (ii) a two-tier regime whereby members preferring digital access only to the JPS, as well as the other privileges of membership, would pay dues of $50 and members preferring to have the JPS in hardcopy would have issues posted to them (as well as access it online and the usual membership privileges) and pay an additional $20 in dues to cover printing and postage costs, and (iii) the ability of new and existing members to pay their dues via Paypal on the website. There were obvious cost savings in this package and potentially a more effective way to monitor dues and subscription payments. (Institutional Subscribers were later included in the scheme with somewhat different arrangements.)

As with all omnibus initiatives, there were operational problems and setbacks, and matters not anticipated that reared their heads. The package came into effect with AGM approval in 2013 and has been re-jigged and refined since. A Facebook page was added to the package when the website went online in October 2013. Ben Davies was appointed to the newly created position of Webmaster to handle the Facebook page and liaise with Hamish who had set-up and refined the website, with a bit of help from our friends.

Melinda Allen had been elected as co-Editor at the July 2012 AGM, and took charge of editorial matters facilitated by the new website through which manuscripts could be submitted for consideration and potentially tracked. She conferred with the Webmaster and liaised with Hamish. Judith, who was not so au fait with the Digital Age, was delighted there was someone else to deal with it as she anticipated retirement.

Melinda was not only intent on promoting the JPS to increase (or halt the decline of) dues paying members and subscription-paying institutions, but also on making it attractive to scholars as a venue in which to publish their manuscripts (potentially providing the editors with an abundance of submitted manuscripts to select for publication). In this latter respect she was concerned with the journal’s ranking, its timeliness and its appearance—its visibility.⁴

“VISIBILITY”—PROMOTION AND CELEBRATION OF THE POLYNESIAN SOCIETY AND THE JPS

The multiple events marking the centennial year highlighted and promoted the Society successfully for a while, with the number of members and subscriber reaching a total of over 1100, though not quite reaching the 1200 aim. However, in subsequent years, the number of continuing recipients of the JPS dropped year by year, and the Council did a lot of handwringing. Ways of increasing the visibility of the Society were regularly put forward at Council meetings, but rarely pursued. But then, this was not a new concern, but it was becoming a different sort of concern in the Digital Age.

After 1992, the ways of promoting and “making the Society more visible” were largely the same as they had been before: by word of mouth and through networks, along with strongly urging graduate students to enrol and take advantage of their 50 percent discount. Scholars working in Oceania, it was assumed, would be familiar with the Society and its journal, and keen to join. In any case, the JPS was subscribed to by libraries all over the world. Much of Council’s handwringing was about increasing the number of local members and predictably AGM meetings brought forth suggestions: that each member enrol a new member (with various inducements), that the Society sponsor a regular lectures series, that notifications of the Society’s activities be sent to various newsletters, etc. Officers and Council members did recruit via words in newsletters and book displays at conferences, but always low key.

For years the Council had pondered the possibility of a logo for the Society, whose volumes unimaginatively sported THE POLYNESIAN SOCIETY on the book spine where the logo might have been. But Council was always stumped by what would be appropriate: it could not be specific to any Oceanic culture either in item or form, and beyond flora and fauna what was generic? Then in the mid-2000s Mark Busse suggested we try for a simple generic canoe design. Hamish drafted one, consulted with Geoff Irwin, re-drafted another, consulted again and did indeed create a simple, generic canoe symbol for the Polynesian Society that no one has yet objected to. The blue generic canoe has graced the spines of Society’s publications, its letterhead and its brochures. It is prominent on the website and Facebook page, and on announcements and posters.

The Digital Age provided new ways to make the Society more visible and these have been detailed above: JPS Online, the Polynesian Society website and Facebook page, announcements and comments on various other websites, such as when one member praised the Society’s generous policy regarding authors’ rights to their own work (unlike journals produced by commercial publishers).

The Society has taken advantage of appropriate occasions to have a presence. Professor Sir Raymond Firth’s 100^th Birthday Party was held at New Zealand House in London in February 2001. Together with Judith Macdonald, whose PhD research was in Tikopia with Sir Raymond’s blessings, I was there to award him the Nayacakalou Medal before a packed house of eminent British social anthropologists. He responded with a heartfelt tribute to the Society, which was extended and revised, and appeared in the September 2001 JPS. This was his last of many contributions to the journal. He passed away about a year later and Sir Hugh Kawharu composed a moving poroporoaki that appeared in the March 2002 JPS.

Members of the Association of Social Anthropologists in Oceania (ASAO) learned of Sir Raymond’s death when they were gathered in Auckland for their annual conference and observed a moment of silence. The Society held a reception following the Invited Address and gifted each attending member with a copy of the June 1976 special issue on “Incest Prohibitions…”. The articles therein were the outcome of several early ASAO conference sessions and the Society had hundreds of copies in storage to dispense.

Between 2003 and 2011, the Society published or co-published 13 separate volumes and sponsored launching events for most of them: sometimes small scale after AGM meetings, sometimes large scale at the University’s Waipapa Marae or Government House.

“Special Issues” of the JPS also served to increase visibility. The most effective was the June 2007 issue Polynesian Art: Histories and Meanings in Cultural Context. Steven Hooper, of the Sainsbury Institute at the University of East Anglia, was the guest editor and the publication comprised conference papers presented in conjunction with the opening of a major exhibition, Pacific Encounters: Art and divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860, which would travel from Sainsbury to London and Paris. Steven’s umbrella project, Polynesian Visual Arts: Meanings and Histories in Pacific and European Cultural Contexts, subsidised the unusually large (90 pp.) publication, and the extra 500 copies printed were purchased with project funds for sale during the exhibitions in the UK and EU. That was visibility!

Sean Mallon, Curator of Pacific Cultures at Te Papa/The New Zealand National Museum, joined the Society’s Council in 2008. Not long thereafter he was exploring possibilities of events at Te Papa in association with the Society. The first was held in September 2011 and was funded by the Friends of Te Papa; the Society provided airfares for its President, who chaired the occasion. An audience of some 200 attended to hear three addresses on “New Frontiers in Pacific Research”. Sean’s report on the occasion (March 2012 JPS) noted: “As well as highlighting current research and scholarship, the evening celebrated the Polynesian Society and its Journal…. One common and interesting feature of each of the talks was that each presenter mentioned how the Journal of the Polynesian Society had played a role in their development as scholars.” In October 2013 a comparable occasion was held at Te Papa entitled Archaeology: New Frontiers of Pacific Research, again co-sponsored by Society and chaired by its President. The speakers were Professors Atholl Anderson, Janet Davidson and Geoff Irwin—all recipients of the Best Medal.

What might be called the Society’s one lecture series occurs usually annually following the AGM. The lectures are presented by recipients of the Society’s Best or Nayacakalou Medals (see Appendix 1). On some occasions these lectures have attracted substantial audiences, on others embarrassingly few. It all depends on publicity, topic, speaker and the weather, which for the traditional July date was usually increment. In recognition of the latter factor, the AGM date was recently shifted to May. For the past 25 years, the lectures presented, extended and revised, have subsequently been published in the JPS.

However, these sponsored lectures are only visible to New Zealand audiences. Melinda Allen phrased the matter differently and internationally. She composed a discussion paper noting her concerns about the JPS’s future: the extent of readership and, more important, the inflow of publishable manuscripts. As will be appreciated from my explanation of ranking above, scholars want to publish their work in journals where it will have high visibility and impact. She proposed some changes to increase these aspects of the journal. Of course, a larger readership translates to greater visibility—but this no longer means more members. The impact of a published work, especially in science disciplines, often relates to how quickly it is available, and this in turn again raises the issues of embargos. But then there are the pragmatic financial considerations; no embargo might result in no members or subscribers. More easily solved was the issue of timeliness; simply make an issue available online via the Polynesian Society website as soon as it is approved for printing and announce its availability via Facebook. Thus, printing and posting delays could be avoided for readers wanting the latest word.

Melinda’s paper prompted responses from the President and some Council members commending the recent sponsored lectures at Te Papa and calling for more such occasions, although who would be responsible for organising such events on a regular basis remained an open question. Michael Reilly introduced a conservative historical note. He noted that JPS contents cover a “wide range of disciplines and time periods” and that the journal’s historical strength came from “writing about the past as it is understood by different societies in Oceania” and, as previously noted, publishing indigenous language texts, which have come to be sought after not only by scholars but also by people who identify with those texts and their tellers. He argued: “Surely the JPS is a far broader church and has never been simply another academic journal.” In fact, it is a rich resource for the future about the past and present peoples and cultures of the Pacific. Indeed, these were what the aims of the Society were according to its charter.

There was another follow-on from Melinda’s paper beyond suggestions about other Polynesian Society sponsored events. The Otago-based members of Council proposed initiating a prize for an emerging scholar to be called the Bruce Grandison Biggs Prize. Over the following two years this proposal gradually morphed into what became the Bruce Grandison Biggs Postgraduate Research Grants Fellowship Trust. It was approved by Council and by the Society’s Accountant in 2016. The Trust, ring-fenced by registration with the Charities Commission and funded by the Society and substantial donations, will be self-sustaining with sufficient income to make modest annual grants for postgraduate research. Applications are limited to postgraduate students enrolled in New Zealand universities and proposing to undertaking studies of “past and present New Zealand Māori and other Pacific Island peoples and cultures” (as is written at the top of the front inside cover of the JPS). The procedures for setting up the Trust proved to be protracted, but by the end of 2017 it was in place and applications for grants were called for in early 2018. While the Trust initiative may produce more members, its primary intention is to produce scholars of the Pacific who will contribute to knowledge and also to the JPS.

AS THINGS STAND

The visibility of the Society has increased year by year thanks to its Facebook page. In 2015, its “views” shot up within a year, doubling between the beginning and middle of the year, and in early 2016 it shot up again when the Webmaster posted an announcement that the December 2015 JPS issue devoted to Polynesian voyaging canoes had become available—gaining 3500 views. The Webmaster noted that most of our Facebook “friends” are in New Zealand, but increasing numbers are based in Honolulu and Salt Lake City, where there are large Polynesian populations.

From the mid-1990s, I made sporadic forays at promoting the Society and JPS at academic conferences. Marama Muru-Lanning, who joined the Council in mid-2014 and attends many overseas conferences, decided to pursue Polynesian Society promotion with consistency and purpose at the conferences she attended. She made up a packet of display items and fliers, and at every opportunity urged conference-goers to join up. A year later the Editors and Hamish designed a bookmark-style laminated flier to both promote the Polynesian Society and explain the advantages of publishing with the JPS. The idea was to particularly target session convenors looking for a publisher; the aim was to have at least one “special issue” of the JPS each year.

The editorial anxiety about sufficient numbers of publishable submissions abated as visibility increased. JPS issues have usually appeared in the appropriate month by posting the digital issues online as soon as they are signed off for printing. And, the years of indecision about embargoes on digital forms of the JPS, whether in open sources or by online providers, ended with Council’s agreeing to a one-year embargo for all. The idealists had prevailed over the pragmatists.

The President arranged several meetings with staff at the Turnbull Library, where the Society’s archives—manuscript collection, publications and library—have been deposited as a long-term loan for many years. The Turnbull staff welcomed his approach, particularly since they had just uplifted records from the JPS office and had discussed with the Editors the status of documents and of records in general and particularly those in digital form. Senior Turnbull staff explained that they would prefer that the Society’s archived material was a donation rather than a loan. It turned out that this could be done quite simply for the Society’s paper and digital records. However, there were provisions in the Society’s Rules pertaining to the Society’s collection of manuscripts and its library. These Rules were quite outmoded and no one objected to changing them, particularly when the President was assured that the Turnbull would scan significant manuscripts from the collection and donation status would allow the Society’s archive to be fully catalogued. Eventually the motion was put to the Council and AGM and passed. The books and manuscripts that had long been on loan became a major donation, visible in the Library’s catalogue.

Finally, the Treasurer’s cash flow statement from November 2015 to March 2016 showed a large increase in income. Payments from JSTOR and Copyright Licencing Limited totalled $21,968.56. Adding book-sales of $764.91, the total amounted to only slightly less than the Society’s income from dues and subscriptions (November through February is when these are paid). For years the Treasurer had assured the AGM that though income from members’ dues was declining, the deficit income from this source was being made up by income from royalties and payments from online providers. Now, the Treasurer could report that income from copyright royalties and online commissions equalled those of dues and subscriptions. A transition had been made, a line had been crossed. The Society was comfortable financially with a good nest-egg in the bank and a steady flow of income—albeit not all from its previous sources.

Finale: Returning to 1992 and Looking beyond 2017

The criticisms of the management of the Society and its journal voiced and written in 1992 may now be viewed in light of what has occurred in the past 25 years. What strikes me is how the Society activities and initiatives have addressed the issues raised in ways those critics would not have imagined. I rather think that better guides to the future were Sir Hugh’s “Kotahitanga” address upon receiving the Best Medal and President Biggs’s pointed speech at the National Library.

Publications: Nearly every memoir publication—six of them—during the past 25 years has included textual material in a Polynesian language. The exceptions are the new editions of the two Oldman catalogues, in which the many Plates of Polynesian and Māori treasures are simply saying the same things in another register. These publications have served both Polynesians and Polynesianists, a distinction that is growing more and more irrelevant. As for the JPS, its contents continue to be scholarly and an increasing number of Polynesian scholars write them.

In the Digital Age: Thanks to collaboration between the Auckland University Library and the Polynesian Society, every volume of the JPS, except the most recent, is available at the open-source JPS Online site, as are several memoirs in demand but now out-of-print as books. Teachers and students at educational institutions throughout Oceania, indeed anyone living in Oceania with access to the worldwide web, can browse and search and read past and present issues at no cost, as can scholars of Oceania right round the world. While the Society’s own website is directed primarily at academic scholars and especially ones who are members of the Society and contributors to the JPS, the Facebook page reaches out to anyone who clicks on it out of interest.

Financial Matters: The sources of income to keep the Society viable have changed quite dramatically. It can no longer rely upon dues of members and the subscriptions of institutions to fund it, though it still receives a considerable portion of its income from institutional subscriptions. Payments from online providers, royalties from publications, copyright payments and book sales now provide nearly as much income as dues and subscriptions. Further, the Society’s Secretary/Treasurer has managed the sources of income and expenditure very prudently, and the Hon. Editors had for 25 years managed to trim costs of JPS production as well as gain external funding for publication initiatives that produced income. Furthermore, as finances turned around in 2002 the reserves of the Society gradually increased so that the Council could establish as a 125^th year initiative the Bruce Grandison Biggs Postgraduate Research Grants Fellowship Trust to stimulate and facilitate field research by New Zealand’s emerging scholars “of past and present New Zealand Māori and other Pacific Island peoples and cultures”. Once qualified they will add to the cadre of scholars of Oceania, and, we hope join the Society and submit manuscripts for publication in the JPS.

The Society in 2017 could hardly be considered a cabal of esoteric academics. Its publications are accessible to anyone who wants to look for them, whether online or in a library. It supports emerging scholars of Oceania and provides resources for others who are interested in such things as Oceanic voyaging, or artefacts of Oceanic manufacture, or the words and thoughts of their ancestors.

ENDNOTES

1. Jenifer Curnow’s thorough and carefully tended records of this endeavour can be accessed in the Society’s archives at the Turnbull Library, Wellington.
2. The Tables also classify articles by discipline. Disciplines are still defined these days but the lines are blurred and I found it difficult to classify all the articles, so decided it best not to try.
3. For a like, but fuller, commentary on this situation, see the following website:  https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science.
4. Some explanation is called for here. From the 1990s and into the new millennium universities have increasingly demanded measureable “outputs” from the scholars they employ. These measureable outputs are largely publications—the more the better and the more published in highly ranked journals the even better. Scholars understandably do seek to publish in the most highly ranked, prestigious journals in their discipline. So not only are scholars being measured, but so are the journals in which they are publishing. Ranking has to be based on counting and journals are ranked (as scholars too had been) by citations, that is, how many times other scholars cite works published by the author or in a journal. Obviously, there are difficulties with these crude measurements, despite strategies to improve them: for university scholars other matters are considered (e.g., research grants received, invitations to address conferences, honours of various sorts, graduate teaching success, etc.); for journals some consideration may be given to the nature and breadth of the space their disciplines cover. There are regional focused disciplinary journals and disciplinary journals with no regional focus. In this respect the JPS occupies an unusual space being multi-disciplinary and focussed on a world region. Since the rankings are calculated for disciplines, where might the JPS fit?

APPENDICES

Appendix 1::MEDAL AWARDS 1992 TO 2017

1992 Sir HUGH KAWHARU received the BEST MEDAL: Kotahitanga: Visions of Unity

1992 ASESELA RAVUVU received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: Security and Confidence as Basic Factors in Pacific Islanders’ Migration

1994 ATHOLL ANDERSON received the BEST MEDAL: New Beginnings: Issues in East Polynesian Colonisation with Particular Reference to New Zealand

1996 KONAI THAMAN received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: Towards a Pacific Education

1997 RANGINUI WALKER received the BEST MEDAL: Fiscal Envelope Revisited—Whakatōhea Claim

1998 Sir PAUL REEVES received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: The Making of the Fiji Constitution

1999 MASON DURIE received the BEST MEDAL: Towards a Māori Psychology

2001 Sir RAYMOND FIRTH received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: The Creative Contribution of Indigenous People to their Ethnography

2003 ROGER NEICH received the BEST MEDAL: “The Māori House down in the Garden”: A Benign Colonial Response to Māori Art

2006 ANDREW PAWLEY received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: Explaining the Aberrant Austronesian Languages of Southeast Melanesia: 150 Years of Debate

2013 GEOFF IRWIN received the BEST MEDAL: “The Lake Village of Kohika and Archaeological Approaches to the Study of Māori Settlement Patterns in the North

2015 M.P.K. [KEITH] SORRENSON received the BEST MEDAL: The Lore of the Judges: Native Land Court Judges’ Interpretations of Māori Customary Law

2017: JUDITH HUNTSMAN received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: The Treasured Things of Tokelau 

 

Appendix 2: OFFICERS OF THE POLYNESIAN SOCIETY

PATRONS

Te Arikinui Dame TE ATAIRANGIKĀHU  1981—2006

Te Ariki TUMU TE HEUHEU  2008—

Le Afioga TUIATUA TUPUA TAMASESE TAISIS EFI  2008—

PRESIDENTS

BRUCE GRANDISON BIGGS  1979—1993

Sir HUGH KAWHARU  1993—2005

Dame JOAN METGE  2005—2010

RICHARD BENTON  2010—

SECRETARIES

JUDITH HUNTSMAN  1981—1986

MELENAITE TAUMOEFOLAU  1986—1999

MELANI ANAE  1999—2001

RANGIMARIE RAWIRI  2002—

TREASURER

RANGIMARIE RAWIRI 1990—

HON. EDITORS

RICHARD MOYLE  1987—1994

RAY HARLOW  1994—1996

JUDITH HUNTSMAN  1996—2016

JUDITH HUNTSMAN and ANN CHOWNING  1997

MELINDA ALLEN and JUDITH HUNTSMAN 2012—2016

MELINDA ALLEN 2016—

 

Appendix 3: ADDITIONS TO THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE POLYNESIAN SOCIETY 1992-2017

1. OLDMAN, W.O. The Oldman Collection of Maori Artifacts. New Edition with introductory essay by Roger Neich and Janet Davidson, and finder list. 2004. 192 pp, including 104 Plates.
2. OLDMAN, W.O. The Oldman Collection of Polynesian Artifacts. New Edition with introductory essay by Roger Neich and Janet Davidson, and finder list. 2004. 268 pp., including 138 Plates.
3. PAWLEY, Andrew (ed.), Man and a Half: Essays in Pacific Anthropology and Ethnobiology in Honour of Ralph Bulmer. 1992. 81 essays, 624 pp., photos, drawings, etc.. [The memoir is out-of print, but can be accessed from open source at University of Auckland Library.]
4. SORRENSON, M.P.K., Manifest Duty: The Polynesian Society Over 100 Years. 1992. 160 pp.
5. BROWN, DOROTHY (comp.), Centennial Index 1892‑1991. 1993. 279 pp..
6. TE ARIKI TARA ‘ARE, History and Traditions of Rarotonga. Translated by S.Percy Smith. Edited by Richard Walter and Rangi Moeka‘a. 2000. 216 pp., genealogies and song texts.
7. REILLY, Michael P.J., War and Succession in Mangaia—from Mamae’s Texts. 2003. 112 pp., genealogies and maps.
8. BIGGS, Bruce Grandison, Kimihia te Mea Ngaro: Seek That Which is Lost. 2006. 80 pp. figs.
9. REILLY, Michael P.J., Ancestral Voice from Mangaia: A History of the Ancient Gods and Chiefs. 2009. xiv + 330 pp., maps, drawings, genealogies, index.
10. Te Hurinui, Pei, King Pōtatau: An Account of the Life of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero the First Māori King. 2010. 303 + xiv pp., figs, genealogies, indexes, maps.
11. McRAE, Jane and Hēni JACOB, Ngā Mōteatea: An Introduction / He Kupu Arataki. 2011. 158 pp., biblio., figs, notes, song texts.

MĀORI TEXTS

NGATA, A.T. and Pei TE HURINUI, Ngā Mōteatea (Part 1). New Edition of 1958 edition, 2004. xxxviii + 464 pp., two audio CDs, genealogies.

NGATA, A.T. and Pei TE HURINUI, Ngā Mōteatea (Part 2). New Edition of 1961 edition. 2005. xxxviii + 425 pp., two audio CDs, genealogies.

NGATA, A.T. and Pei TE HURINUI, Ngā Mōteatea (Part 3). New Edition of 1970 edition 2006. xlii + 660 pp., audio CD, genealogies. 2006.

NGATA, A.T. and Hirini Moko MEAD, Ngā Mōteatea (Part 4). New Edition of 1991 edition with English translation, 2007. xviii + 380 pp., two audio CDs, genealogies.

SPECIAL ISSUES

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE PACIFIC: Special Issue, March 1994. 108 pp.

KIE HINGOA ‘NAMED MATS’, ‘IE TŌGA 'FINE MATS’ AND OTHER TREASURED TEXTILES OF SAMOA & TONGA: Special Issue, June 1999. 120 pp. (Out of print.)

ESSAYS ON HEAD-HUNTING IN THE WESTERN SOLOMON ISLANDS: Special Issue, March 2000. 144 pp.

POSTCOLONIAL DILEMMAS: REAPPRAISING JUSTICE AND IDENTITY IN NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA: Special Issue, September 2003. 124 pp.

POLYNESIAN ART: HISTORIES AND MEANINGS IN CULTURAL CONTEXT: Special Issue, June 2007. 192 pp.

COLONIAL GRIEVANCES, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION: Special Issue, June 2012. 106 pp.

TABUA AND TUPUA: WHALE TEETH IN FIJI AND TONGA: Special Issue, June 2013. 128 pp.

EXTRAORDINARY POLYNESIAN WOMEN: WRITING THEIR STORIES: Special Issue, June 2014. 130 pp.

ON POLYNESIAN VOYAGING CANOES. Special Issue, December 2015. 136 pp.

GRAVE MATTERS IN OCEANIA. Special Issue, June 2016. 112 pp.

CEREMONIAL ARCHITECTURE IN EAST POLYNESIA. Special Issue, September 2016. 136 pp.