New Flags Flying: Pacific Leadership.

• Author: Hoadley, Stephen
• Position: Book review

NEW FLAGS FLYING: Pacific Leadership

Editors: Ian Johnstone and Michael Powles

Published by: Huia Publishers, Wellington, 2012, 328pp, $40.

This book arose from an oral history project conducted by Radio New Zealand International, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The project's aim was to record the reflections of Pacific Islands leaders on the transition from colonialism to independence. Interviews were carried out by Ian Johnstone during the years 1992-95 and again in 2009-11 and the recordings were lodged in Radio New Zealand International's Archive, where they provided a source for uplifting broadcasts and sadly, as the years passed, obituaries.

In 2009 Ian Johnstone enlisted the assistance of career diplomat Michael Powles, founder and chair of the Pacific Co-operation Foundation, and the two constructed a website at www.rnzi.com/new flagsflying to make the recordings accessible. Because internet access was unreliable in the Pacific Islands, the next step, with the financial assistance of AusAid and the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust, was to publish a book that could be distributed to libraries and classrooms throughout the region.

The result is an attractive volume that presents not only the words of leaders whose names resonate...