Mana Moana - Toikupu Māori Moana in English
Mana Publications produced collections of creative writings by Tangata Moana and Tangata Whenua from 1974. It was led and founded by Marjorie Crocombe who also ran the South Pacific University’s extension centre in Suva, Fiji. As a branch of the South Pacific Creative Arts Society, Mana was set up to support and publish South Pacific writers in a time when the Pacific was being too often misrepresented by writers with a colonial or European lens. It was time to nurture and prioritise Moana voices. From here, Mana grew into the publishing strong arm of the South Pacific. The language and literature journal Mana Review: a South Pacific journal of Language and Literature soon followed in 1976 as a supplement to the collections. Mana Review’s first editor, Subramani, said the journal was intended as a platform to discuss Moana literature and criticisms and review in a backdrop of colonisation of which writers were drawing. The following year, Mana Review’s kaupapa shifted slightly to...