This volume of essays by practising Pacific Islands historians is a partial text of a Workshop held at the Australian National University in early December 1991 It is partial in both senses of the word. It is partial in that it represents only a portion of what was presented and discussed at the Workshop. For reasons of space , cost and other contingencies, not all the papers delivered have been included here. And it is partial in that the papers reflect the personal perspectives of scholars working in particular fields, statements of their approaches , concerns and conceptions of desirable directions in current and future research