Saturday, November 15, 2014

Head of State to attend launch of Whispers and Vanities in Wellington

15 November 2014

On Tuesday 18th November, Samoa’s Head of State, His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Tupuola Tufuga Efi will attend the launch for the book Whispers and Vanities - Samoan Indigenous Knowledge and Religion, (Huia Publishers) in which he has played an important role.

This book is a response to a ground-breaking address on Samoan religious culture given by His Highness to the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne which challenged some fundamental aspects of modern Samoan indigenous religious culture.

The renowned African philosopher and scholar Theophilus Okere who provides the foreword to this book, sees this address and the responses contained in the book as a “cry for the liberation of peoples and cultures from the domination of the principalities and powers”.
“For the reign of what has been dubbed ‘the C-triumvirate of Colonialism, Christianity and Capitalism’ has decimated many cultures, driven some underground, others into ‘whispers’ and yet others into extinction.”

There are thirty-eight contributing authors to the book's collection including a diverse range of prominent Pacific and non-Pacific writers, poets, theologians and academics - from theology and religious studies, to sociology, psychology, history and education.
The book launch commences with a powhiri at Te Wharewaka o Poneke on Jervois Quay, Wellington at 10.00am.


Following the book launch, there will be a mini-symposium from 2.00pm with some of the authors discussing the sensitive and complex issues raised in the book, as well as drama-dance performances and Samoan community responses to this landmark book.

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