Samoan Ghost Stories: John Kneubuhl and Oral History

Abstract

Hailed as 'the spiritual father of Pacific Island theatre' (Balme, 2007: 194), John Kneubuhl is best known as a playwright and a Hollywood scriptwriter. Less well known is that after his return to Samoa in 1968 he also devoted much of his time to the study and teaching of Polynesian culture and history. The sense of personal and cultural loss, which his plays often dramatise in stories of spirit possession, also guided his investment in oral history, in the form of extended series of radio talks and public lectures, as well as long life history interviews. Based on archival recordings of this oral history, this article considers Kneubuhl's sense of history and how it informs his most autobiographical play, Think of a Garden (1992).