"In Order to Win Their Friendship": Renegotiating First Contact

Abstract

This article discusses five different approaches to writing first contact. Numerous rereadings of the history of early colonial encounters in the Americas have been published in anticipation or in the wake of the Columbus quincentenary; three different varieties of quincentennial revisionism are identified and contextualized: the authors discussed either emphasize the fatality of colonial impact, stress indigenous agency and privilege indigenous perspectives, or focus on European colonial discourse. The article also looks at recent writings of Anne Salmond and Paul Carter on first contact. It investigates the relevance of these rewritings of first contact for Pacific Island historians. It argues for a heightened sense of selfawareness about the politics of historical representation.