REVIEW: A skilful weaving of Teaiwa’s creative legacy

Review of Sweat and Salt Water: Selected Works: Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa, compiled and edited by Katerina Teaiwa, April K. Henderson and Terence Wesley-Smith

Abstract

Sweat and Salt Water: Selected Works: Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa, compiled and edited by Katerina Teaiwa, April K. Henderson and Terence Wesley-Smith. Pacific Islands Monograph Series. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. 2021, 286 words. ISBN 9780824890285.

Sweat and Salt Water: Selected Works is a collection of texts written by Banaban, I-Kiribati, and African-American Pacific studies scholar and educator Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa, which were put together by her sister Katerina Teaiwa and friends and colleagues April K. Henderson and Terence Wesley-Smith. Described by Katerina as '[a] true labour of love and occasional, intense grief', the book was published posthumously. While, as the editors note, ‘it is impossible to contain or present the dazzling spectrum of Teresia’s published work in just one volume’ (p. xvii), the selected texts were originally published between 1992 and 2017 and as such provide an idea of the variety of Teaiwa’s intellectual and creative writing across her career.