“What does the word bikini evoke for you? A woman in a two-piece bathing suit, or a site for nuclear weapons testing? A bikini-clad woman invigorated by solar radiation, or Bikini Islanders cancer ridden from nuclear radiation?”
They’re the opening lines of an article written by Pacific scholar Dr Teresia Teaiwa in 1994 and featured in Sweat and Salt Water, a new collection of her work. Teresia goes on to point out the “sensational” bathing suit, which made its debut in 1946, was named after Bikini Atoll, the site for the testing of more than 20 nuclear bombs.
In a testament to her legacy, the article continues to be cited by researchers today, not only for its stinging critique of nuclear testing in the Pacific Islands but also for its commentary on the objectification of women through fashion—in this case, swimwear.
Before her death in 2017 at just 48, Teresia led the teaching of Pacific Studies at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. Sweat and Salt Water brings together 15 articles considered her most influential pieces.
Dr April Henderson, programme director of Va‘aomanū Pasifika—Pacific Studies and Sāmoan Studies, describes Teresia as an “incredibly rigorous and creative thinker” who “consistently pushed boundaries”.
April co-edited Sweat and Salt Water along with Teresia’s sister Katerina, a professor of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, and Terence Wesley-Smith, emeritus professor in the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
Sweat and Salt Water also includes four of Teresia’s poems. One of these poems, ‘Fear of an Estuary’, is reproduced here.
