The Samoa Islands, Vol. 1, Dr Kramer...

 I've finally been able to source my very own copy of Dr Augustin Kramer's 'The Samoa Islands' Volume 1, book that was translated from German into English by Dr. Theodore Verhaaren and his wife, which took him two years to translate and sadly the translation was not published until after death.

Dr Kramer was an interesting character as he must have kept extensive notes whilst collecting information in the early 1900s. It was believed that he had seen what was happening in Hawaii and then wanted to record as much as he could as he could see similarities happening in Samoa with the advent of colonisation and Western knowledge and technology in Samoa.

I remember when I first came across this book in the 1980s and read it in the Nelson library in Samoa i.e. the Germany/Samoan original copy and then was also able to get a copy at Auckland Uni of which I was able to photocopy some of it but now to have my own translation is a miracle to say the least.

In the 1990s, Pacific Press published the translation and I remember being in Wellington when I first saw a copy but didn't think to buy it because it was over $100 and in those days, I didn't see the point in buying it for that price.

Years later, I now see that it's being sold at around $500 for a new limited edition soft cover copy because it's now quite rare to be able to find. Now I'm looking for Vol. 2 which discusses more the material culture of Samoa.

The neat thing is that now there are also Samoan indigenous writers discussing much of the information that Dr Kramer wrote about and even disputing some of his findings. This is so important in that a critique is needed from indigenous people's perspectives of information that Western perspectives write about but do not / should not own...