The Ocean Remembers

The Ocean Remembers is a powerful poetry collection that explores the deep relationship between Pacific peoples, language, ancestry, and the ocean.

Written by eight Pacific poets and presented in both English and heritage Pacific languages - including Cook Islands Maori, Niuean, Samoan, Solomon Islands languages, and Tongan - the collection reflects the diversity and richness of Pacific storytelling traditions. Through lyrical imagery and evocative language, the poems explore themes of identity, belonging, environmental stewardship, and the enduring wisdom of the Moana.

For Pacific communities, the ocean has always been more than water. It is a pathway between islands, a source of life and sustenance, and a keeper of ancestral memory. Across this collection, the poets reflect on ancestral navigation, cultural identity, and the responsibility to care for the ocean and environment for future generations.

Each poem is accompanied by background insights from the poets, offering readers deeper context about the inspiration, cultural meaning, and language used in their work. These reflections are included to support Pacific language learning and literacy, helping readers aged 12-18+ engage more deeply with the poems while strengthening understanding of Pacific cultures, perspectives and languages.

Written in both English and heritage Pacific languages, the collection highlights the importance of language as a carrier of cultural knowledge and identity. By bringing together contemporary Pacific voices alongside heritage languages, The Ocean Remembers contributes to the revitalisation and celebration of Pacific languages.

The Ocean Remembers was created as part of the Tala: Sharing Pacific Stories initiative, a partnership between Creative New Zealand and the Ministry for Pacific Peoples that supports Pacific creatives to write and publish in Pacific languages.

Both intimate and expansive, The Ocean Remembers reminds readers that the ocean is not only a place of journey and connection, but also a living archive of stories, knowledge, and identity. Through poetry, the voices of the Pacific continue to travel across generations - carried by the tides of the moana.