Creative Inspirations: Sean Mallon, author and Senior Curator at Te Papa Tongarewa

As part of Kete's Pasifika Books 2025, guest edited by Victor Rodger, we interviewed four Pasifika writers on their writerly inspirations, their latest reading, and the book they think everyone should read. Read on for Sean Mallon's answers!

The writers and/or creatives that have inspired my writing are...    Albert Wendt (Sāmoa), and my wife, the late Teresia Teaiwa (Banaba/African America) (1968-2017). Both are known for their fiction and poetry respectively, but I am inspired by the clarity and depth of their non-fiction writing that encourages us to think critically and creatively about the Pacific, its peoples and history. You will have to look it up, but Albert Wendt stopped me from saying “Traditional”.*   My desert island book would be...   The SAS Survival Guide by Lofty Wiseman. Being a long- time non-fiction reader, I remember first seeing this book at London Bookshop in Porirua back in the 1980s when I was at high school and involved in tramping and outdoor pursuits. I thought ‘Lofty’ and ‘Wiseman’ worked great together as the name of a military survival book writer. Today, I enjoy reality TV survival shows like Alone or Outlast. I wouldn’t last long in the tropics but longer than I would on Elephant Island, Antarctica.   My favourite Pasifika writer/book is...   Sweat and Salt Water: Selected Works by Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa (2021). Only last year I read her 'The Ancestors We Get To Choose: White Influences I Won’t Deny' that is republished in this volume. I hope Pacific readers and writers will find this article. In life I was amazed by my wife’s talent and intellect. It is bittersweet to discover the true scope of her work only after her passing. The one book I think everyone should read is...   The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien… I like books that recount real life events. The last book I read was... Rugby League in New Zealand: A People’s History by Ryan Bodman. As a sports follower and suffering Warriors fan, this was the history I had been waiting for my whole life. And it’s not boring. It is filled with characters, people and their stories, not just those of the elite players and the great games. It has the stories of participants and supporters from the grass roots to the board room. The book lives up to its title. It even has quite a few Māori and other Pacific Islanders in there.   Sean Mallon, of Sāmoan (Mulivai, Safata) and Irish descent, is Senior Curator Pacific Cultures at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. He is a co- author of both Tangata o le Moana: The story of New Zealand and the people of the Pacific and Art in Oceania: A new history. His book Tatau: A History of Sāmoan Tattooing with Sébastien Galliot won the Ockham Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction. Sean is currently researching issues relating to the agency and activism of Pacific peoples in museums. * https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2016/12/20/opinion-why-we-should-beware-of-the-word- traditional/