Remediating Stevenson: Decolonising Robert Louis Stevenson's Pacific Fiction through Graphic Adaptation, Arts Education and Community Engagement
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Department Name: School of Literature Languages and Culture
Abstract
This interdisciplinary project explores the legacies of Robert Louis Stevenson's Pacific writing, investigating the relevance of his work to contemporary readers in Samoa, Scotland and Hawai'i, and producing new art and poetry inspired by the three short stories published in Stevenson's 1893 collection Island Nights' Entertainments. These include 'The Bottle Imp' and 'The Isle of Voices' - set in Hawai'i - and 'The Beach of Falesá', rooted in Stevenson's experience of Samoan culture.
Given that educational institutions throughout the world are actively engaged in decolonising their curricula, Stevenson's work and legacy present a particularly valuable focus of inquiry. Stevenson became actively involved in supporting Samoan and Hawaiian indigenous sovereignty movements at a crucial period just before these islands were annexed by the US and Germany, and yet his Pacific fiction, while iconoclastic in featuring indigenous protagonists with considerable agency and dignity, and offering a critical proto-modernist perspective on western imperialism, still upholds many of the colonial stereotypes typical of fin-de-siecle western literature. This project is unique, in terms of:
(a) developing a set of creative outputs and teaching resources emphasising the relevance of Stevenson's Pacific corpus to explorations of pressing contemporary issues such as globalisation, the transnational, climate change and sustainability,
(b) exploring the rich and complex legacies that Stevenson's Pacific writing, and his historic presence in Hawai'i and Samoa, has left for contemporary Pacific communities, and
(c) producing the first ever graphic adaptation of the three Island Nights' Entertainments stories, translated into Samoan and Hawaiian. Other outputs include new poetry by indigenous authors; a documentary film; an exhibition; a website; and various scholarly publications.
The project contains three major disciplinary strands, focused around visual arts-based practice and research; literary/adaptation studies; and arts education/pedagogy. These inform various project activities and methods, including:
1) On-location and archival research into the environments, cultures and histories depicted in Stevenson's Pacific fiction, and the contexts in which his work was originally published and illustrated, so that the adaptation process takes due account of the fact that Stevenson's Pacific writing was inflected by a desire to develop a literary realism attuned to meticulous observations of Pacific cultures and places also documented in his Pacific travel writing, photography and painting
2) In recognition of Stevenson's own respect for Pacific traditions of cross-cultural reciprocity (informing his practice of sharing Scottish/European folk tales in exchange for narratives from indigenous Pacific interlocutors, and blending European and Pacific storytelling traditions in his writing), indigenous Pacific communities will be involved in every stage of our creative and research processes, using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methodologies, including:
(i) semi-structured interviews exploring what Stevenson means to contemporary Pacific communities, as well as project artists/poets
(ii) participatory arts workshops (run by project artists/poets in Samoa, Hawai'i and Scotland) enabling participants to produce an illustrated piece of creative writing engaging with Stevenson's literary legacy and/or the Pacific places/cultures depicted in his fiction
(iii) involving Samoan interns in the making of a documentary film which will draw upon indigenous methodologies
3) Consultations with educators in Samoa, Hawai'i and Scotland that will inform the production of teaching resource packs, attuned to local pedagogical needs and appropriate age groups, to accompany our graphic novel. Partnerships with local educational organisations will enable us to pursue options for our resources to be adopted at national curricular level.
Given that educational institutions throughout the world are actively engaged in decolonising their curricula, Stevenson's work and legacy present a particularly valuable focus of inquiry. Stevenson became actively involved in supporting Samoan and Hawaiian indigenous sovereignty movements at a crucial period just before these islands were annexed by the US and Germany, and yet his Pacific fiction, while iconoclastic in featuring indigenous protagonists with considerable agency and dignity, and offering a critical proto-modernist perspective on western imperialism, still upholds many of the colonial stereotypes typical of fin-de-siecle western literature. This project is unique, in terms of:
(a) developing a set of creative outputs and teaching resources emphasising the relevance of Stevenson's Pacific corpus to explorations of pressing contemporary issues such as globalisation, the transnational, climate change and sustainability,
(b) exploring the rich and complex legacies that Stevenson's Pacific writing, and his historic presence in Hawai'i and Samoa, has left for contemporary Pacific communities, and
(c) producing the first ever graphic adaptation of the three Island Nights' Entertainments stories, translated into Samoan and Hawaiian. Other outputs include new poetry by indigenous authors; a documentary film; an exhibition; a website; and various scholarly publications.
The project contains three major disciplinary strands, focused around visual arts-based practice and research; literary/adaptation studies; and arts education/pedagogy. These inform various project activities and methods, including:
1) On-location and archival research into the environments, cultures and histories depicted in Stevenson's Pacific fiction, and the contexts in which his work was originally published and illustrated, so that the adaptation process takes due account of the fact that Stevenson's Pacific writing was inflected by a desire to develop a literary realism attuned to meticulous observations of Pacific cultures and places also documented in his Pacific travel writing, photography and painting
2) In recognition of Stevenson's own respect for Pacific traditions of cross-cultural reciprocity (informing his practice of sharing Scottish/European folk tales in exchange for narratives from indigenous Pacific interlocutors, and blending European and Pacific storytelling traditions in his writing), indigenous Pacific communities will be involved in every stage of our creative and research processes, using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methodologies, including:
(i) semi-structured interviews exploring what Stevenson means to contemporary Pacific communities, as well as project artists/poets
(ii) participatory arts workshops (run by project artists/poets in Samoa, Hawai'i and Scotland) enabling participants to produce an illustrated piece of creative writing engaging with Stevenson's literary legacy and/or the Pacific places/cultures depicted in his fiction
(iii) involving Samoan interns in the making of a documentary film which will draw upon indigenous methodologies
3) Consultations with educators in Samoa, Hawai'i and Scotland that will inform the production of teaching resource packs, attuned to local pedagogical needs and appropriate age groups, to accompany our graphic novel. Partnerships with local educational organisations will enable us to pursue options for our resources to be adopted at national curricular level.
| Title | Revisiting Robert Louis Stevenson in the Pacific |
| Description | This is an exhibit on display at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, featuring project creative work (including art from project graphic adaptations; excerpts from project poetry; and a film loop showing Pacific locations, visited by our project team, of relevance to Stevenson's Pacific travels/writing) alongside photographs and artefacts from the Pitt Rivers Museum's Pacific collections. It opened on 12th June 2024 and will run until the end of December 2026. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | A public engagement event was held during the Pitt Rivers Museum's 'Late Night' event on 8th November 2024, at which a preview version of the project documentary film ('Tales of Tusitala') was screened and followed by a panel discussion with project film-makers Daniel Lin and Nick Stone. Project artist Solomon Enos also ran creative workshops focused around Hawaiian quilt-making motifs, and project poet and translator Keao NeSmith gave a presentation focused on various projects involving translation from English into Hawaiian. Positive feedback on the event was shared with us by museum curators. |
| URL | https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/event/revisiting-stevenson |
| Title | Tales of Tusitala |
| Description | A short documentary film (just under 15 minutes long) focused on Samoan perspectives on Robert Louis Stevenson. The film was made by student interns at the National University of Samoa, in partnership with our project filmmakers/editors Dan Lin and Nick Stone. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | The film has had public screenings at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and the National Library of Scotland (in 2024); and was screened at a symposium and public engagement event in Samoa in 2025. |
| Title | Tusitala: Pacific Perspectives on Robert Louis Stevenson |
| Description | An exhibition at the National Library of Scotland (running from 8th Nov 2024- 10th May 2025) featuring project art (from project graphic adaptations of RLS stories); audio recordings and printed excerpts of project poetry; and a short preview of the project documentary film ('Tales of Tusitala'), alongside items from the NLS's Stevenson collections. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | A public engagement event was held in connection with the exhibition on 13th November 2024, which included a screening of a preview version of the project documentary film, and a panel discussion with project creatives, with time for questions from the public afterwards. The NLS also ran a series of public facing activities connected with the exhibition, including a series of creative writing workshops, through 2025. |
| URL | https://www.nls.uk/whats-on/tusitala/ |
| Description | -Two public exhibitions featuring project work have aligned with the Pitt Rivers Museum and the National Library of Scotland's objectives to 'decolonise' their Pacific/Stevenson collections and bring their collections, and our project work, to public audiences. -The project documentary film, 'Tales of Tusitala', has been screened to public audiences in the UK and Samoa in 2024 and 2025 and is now publicly available via our project website (www.remediatingstevenson.org). The National University of Samoa students who made the film, and also feature therein, speak about the positive impact of this experience on their skill development and confidence in interviewing public figures. -Project interviews and research have revealed new perspectives on Stevenson's Pacific travels; writing; and relationship to Indigenous Pacific communities; these insights will be disseminated in forthcoming project publications, including an edited collection of essays currently under preparation. -Young people and adults from stakeholder organisations in Hawaii, Samoa and Scotland have gained the opportunity to develop their creative skills during project participatory arts workshops. -Audio recordings of new poetry by project poets have been incorporated into the listening stations in the Pacific gallery at the National Museum of Scotland. -In the final months of the project, several events were organised to maximise the utility of our project creative outputs for schoolteachers and pupils. Within Scotland, on 28th August Co-I Shari Sabeti co-organised (with Scotdec) an in-person launch of our graphic adaptations and resources at Moray House, UoE; this event was attended by teachers and student teachers. On 29th October Dr Sabeti and Scotdec ran an online event launching our project adaptations and resources for a wider spectrum of teachers across Scotland. Some 400 downloads of our project resources have been made since the launch events. Dr Sabeti also ran events connected with our project resources in Samoa in November 2025. A Samoan-language edition of our graphic adaptation of Stevenson's 'The Bottle Imp' was produced and distributed in hard copy on Friday 14th November, to various schools in Apia. Dr Sabeti also led an assembly at the RLS School in Apia, at which she discussed the book and distributed copies of 'The Bottle Imp', on Wednesday 19th November. Dr Sabeti also attended an end of school assembly, and distributed copies of 'The Bottle Imp', at Vailima Primary School, on Friday 21st November 2025. We will follow up with participating schools in 2026 to ascertain the impact of our resources on students and teachers. |
| Exploitation Route | In addition to the outputs that have already been produced, we are preparing an edited collection of scholarly essays that will be of use to other researchers. We have a forthcoming book (Island Tales), due for publication in 2026, featuring project graphic adaptations, poetry and contextual material, that can be used as a teaching resource. Our project website could also be of use to other researchers/creative practitioners interested in developing participatory arts projects, arts education projects, and projects with a decolonial focus. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Creative Economy Education Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.remediatingstevenson.org |
| Description | As outlined elsewhere in this report, two exhibitions featuring project creative work have taken place at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and the National Library of Scotland. The National Museum of Scotland has included recordings of project poetry (by Selina Tusitala Marsh and Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard) in their Pacific gallery. Various public engagement events (including lectures) have taken place (as outlined in more detail in other parts of this report) and we have received positive feedback on these from attendees who have reported that they have learned entirely new things about Stevenson and the Pacific, and plan to learn more about this topics going forward, as a result of our presentations. A set of open access teaching resources, featuring graphic adaptations, poetry, and supporting educational material, have been created in partnership with Scotdec, and distributed to a wide range of schools across Scotland. In 2026 we will contact participating schools/teachers to gauge the impact of these resources on their teaching. As mentioned elsewhere in the report, some 400 downloads of the online versions of our resources have been made since we launched them. As mentioned elsewhere in the report, a Samoan language edition of one of our graphic adaptations ('The Bottle Imp') has been distributed to schools in Samoa (in November 2025) and we will also contact participating schools/teachers in the coming months of 2026 to gauge the impact of these resources. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
| Title | Audio and video interviews, and photographs, for project documentary film; project research; and project website |
| Description | Various audio and video interviews have been undertaken throughout the project, both for inclusion in the project documentary film (which has yet to be produced as a final edit), and for project research (including artists', poets' and workshop participants' reflections on their creative process; and views offered by researchers and stakeholders on the significance of Robert Louis Stevenson's work. Photographs have also been taken at various phases of the project, documenting locations of relevance to the project graphic adaptations of Stevenson's Pacific stories, and material produced by participants in our project's participatory arts workshops in Scotland, Samoa and Hawai'i. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The interviews have had a direct impact on the project documentary film, as selected material is being incorporated into the film (which has yet to be completed as a final edit). Interview data has also been incorporated into various conference papers presented by research team members, and some of this material will eventually be published in conference proceedings, journal articles, and book chapters. Some photographs and other data has been made publicly available on our project website/blog. |
| URL | http://www.remediatingstevenson.org |
| Description | Exhibition at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Department | Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Artwork from our project graphic adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's Pacific fiction (by Solomon Enos and Simon Grennan), and poetry from project poets Selina Tusitala Marsh and Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard, are featured in a display at the Pitt Rivers Museum (entitled 'Revisiting Robert Louis Stevenson in the Pacific'), which opened in June 2024. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We contributed £1000 for the costs of staging the exhibition, but the Pitt Rivers team covered all other costs, including staff time, preparation of the display (which includes items from their own collections), and printing of all materials, as well as advertising. |
| Impact | The exhibition opened on 12th June 2024 and will run until the end of December 2026. On 8th November, 2024, our project team participated in a public engagement 'Late Night' event at the Pitt Rivers Museum. This included a screening of the project documentary film, 'Tales of Tusitala', and a panel discussion featuring project film-makers Daniel Lin and Nick Stone; art workshops focused on Hawaiian quilt-making designs led by project artist Solomon Enos; and a presentation by project poet and translator Keao NeSmith, covering his work on various projects involving translation from English into Hawaiian. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Partnership with National University of Samoa |
| Organisation | National University of Samoa |
| Country | Samoa |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | With the support of the NUS staff, we ran participatory arts workshops with school students, and CPD events for trainee and practising schoolteachers, at the NUS campus, and at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum at Vailima, in July 2023. We also ran a creative writing workshop for adults at the Tusitala Hotel, Apia at the end of June 2023. We then ran a project symposium at NUS on 12th June 2024, which included presentations by project researchers, artists and poets, as well as a screening of the project documentary film, 'Tales of Tusitala'. The film was also screened at a public engagement event at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum at Vailima during that same week. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Logistical support with arranging accommodation bookings, workshop facilities and activities, and the 2024 symposium; recruitment of NUS interns for the making of our project documentary film; and meetings with stakeholders (including the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture) |
| Impact | Outputs include: The documentary film, 'Tales of Tusitala' A selection of creative work from the 2023 project workshops has been uploaded to our project website (www.remediatingstevenson.org). |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Stevenson exhibition at the National Library of Scotland |
| Organisation | National Library of Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Our research team provided visual content (from our project artists' graphic adaptations of three Robert Louis Stevenson stories set in the Pacific); project poetry; and a shortened version of our project documentary film, for inclusion in the exhibition. We also made a contribution towards the costs of the exhibition, though in-kind contributions were also made by the library. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The National Library of Scotland covered all further costs associated with the exhibition that were not covered by our project funds, and provided significant in-kind contributions, including staff time to research library holdings pertaining to Stevenson; preparation, assemblage and printing of exhibition materials; and curatorial expertise. |
| Impact | The exhibition, 'Tusitala: Pacific Perspectives on Robert Louis Stevenson', opened at the NLS on 8th November 2024 and ran until 10th May 2025. It is multidisciplinary in that it includes visual art; poetry; film; and items from the museum's holdings pertaining to Stevenson. On 13th November 2024, the NLS hosted a public engagement event at which the project documentary film (Tales of Tusitala) was screened, and was followed by a panel discussion, chaired by James Nokise and featuring project artist Solomon Enos, project filmmaker Daniel Lin, and project poet Keao NeSmith, reflecting on the film, Stevenson in the Pacific, and on their various contributions to the project. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Online public lecture for Robert Louis Stevenson Day, 13th November 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Project researchers (Co-Is) Sabeti and Grennan presented an online lecture, 'Remediating Robert Louis Stevenson's Pacific Fiction', on 13th November, organised by Museums and Galleries Edinburgh to coincide with a suite of public-facing events held on Stevenson's birthday. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation at Gladstone Literary Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Two of our project team members (myself and artist Simon Grennan) were invited to speak about our RLS project at the public-facing Gladstone Literary Festival on 9th September 2022. The event was both in-person and streamed to a wider audience online. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/events/events-courses-list/gladfest-2022 |
| Description | Presentation at the City Arts Centre, Edinburgh, to members of the Robert Louis Stevenson Club |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a public engagement event attended by members of one of our stakeholder organisations, the Robert Louis Stevenson Club, at which various project team members (PI Keown; Co-Is Grennan and Sabeti; and project artist Solomon Enos) spoke about the project and progress made so far. Preliminary work towards the project graphic adaptations was presented by Enos and Grennan, and feedback was offered by members of the RLS Club. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation to the Longniddry Probus Club, 10th December 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | PI Keown delivered a public lecture to the Longniddry Probus Club, a third sector organisation based in Longniddry, Scotland. The hour-long presentation was entitled 'Tusitala: the literature and travels of Robert Louis Stevenson in the Pacific'. Members of the audience asked questions at the end of the talk and also completed questionnaires to offer feedback on the presentation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Public event at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This event, which took place on Robert Louis Stevenson's birthday (13th November), was open to the public, as well as to stakeholders such as the Robert Louis Stevenson Club, and included performances of new project poetry, and presentations on the project's graphic adaptations of three stories by Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as on Stevenson's musical activity while in Samoa. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/remediating-stevenson/celebrate-rls-day-2023-with-us-at-st-cecilias-hall/ |
| Description | Public lecture for the Melrose Literary Society, 19th March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | PI Keown delivered a public lecture/presentation on the project to the Melrose Literary Society, at the Ormiston Institute in Melrose, on Tuesday 19th March 2023. The talk was entitled 'Robert Louis Stevenson in the Pacific: The Remediating Stevenson Project'. Members of the audience asked questions at the end of the talk and also completed questionnaires to offer feedback on the presentation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |