Introduction: Writing the lives of some extraordinary Polynesian women

This “special issue” on the lives of some extraordinary Polynesian women considers biographical narrative as a means of highlighting the lives and experiences of Polynesian women in history and creating an understanding of wider social history. Traditional historical research into the lives and experiences of Polynesia usually ignored or minimised women in the historical record. Indigenous gender concepts were usually misunderstood and women, if represented at all, were portrayed as sexual objects or as inept or unseemly rulers. Allowing the voice of the subject to be heard, instead, permits an individual and intimate as well as culturally rich interpretation of the past.