"It is time to break the silence. It is time for the world to listen to the voices of Indigenous Pacific Women", writes Zohl de Ishtar in Daughters of the Pacific. And Grace Mera Molisa from Vanuatu has certainly done everything that could possibly be done to make the voices of the Pacific women heard. Blackstone Publishing which began in her front room with just one book is a one-woman engineered operation. She writes, publishes, distributes and does everything else that needs to be done to make a book see the light of day.

Talking about how and why she became a poet, Grace goes back to the early days of post independence Vanuatu. The newly established government in Vanuatu was over-enthusiastically promoting tourism in the country while most people in the country were a little unsure about it. Grace wrote a short piece voicing her doubts on the issue and published it. Those who read it thought that it was very poetic. So she got home, "took a pen and rearranged the words in poetry format and it looked like a poem, and that was that."

Grace has gone on to publish several volumes of poems on a wide range of themes. Her poems reflect the lives of women in Vanuatu. Their themes include violence against women, women and the environment and the political role of women. They also critique the stereotypical attitude that most foreigners have towards the Pacific. Grace sees all her activities as socio-political projects. Her verses may 'provoke merriment' but they are certainly not intended as jokes.

Grace Molisa's extraordinary career graph, however, should not blind us to the difficulties a woman publisher faces in a small island like Vanuatu. In her own words, "The pen and paper I write with I have to buy. Printers cost the earth. I come from a background where there is no money. Money does not exist." Money is not the only problem either. Limited readership due to non-literacy and the existence of many local languages, difficulties of distribution are the other major hurdles. Predictably her publishing activity does not meet with commercial success. The work, however, goes on because "it must be done, somehow."

Blackstone Publishing can be contacted at:

PO Box 252, Port Vila
VANUATU

Phone/fax : (678) 23081