Avonmore Books Pacific Profiles

In February 1942 the northwest found itself literally on the front-line of the war with Japan, while the town of Broome became strategically significant in regard to the aerial evacuation of Java. The peak of events was the devastating 3 March air attack. Aside from this, however, the bigger picture across the northwest, as well as the later attacks on Broome, have received little attention since the publication of the Official History of the Second World War by the Australian government.

This book provides an overview of Pacific-Indigenous knowledge as insights of Oceanic citizen-science to inform culturally-safe practice for psychology. It profiles contemporary Pacific needs in areas of crisis such as family violence, education disparities and health inequities, and points to ancient Pacific-indigenous knowledges as tools of healing for global diasporic communities in need. The historical evolution of psychology’s knowledge base and practice illustrates a fundamental crisis in the method of producing knowledge for psychology - the absence of Pacific-indigenous cultural knowledge. It suggests more effective research methodologies grounded in Pacific-Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies for psychology and overall community capability. It fosters practice perspectives and strategies based on NIU-psychology (New Indigenous Understandings) for innovative solutions to modern-day crises of humanity.