James Siers is an author of numerous books on the Pacific Islands, a film maker and record producer and was well known for his work on television in Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

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Biography

Siers was born in Poland in 1936 and came to New Zealand as a child in 1944 as an eight year old war refugee. The first time he went to the Pacific was in 1962 or 1963 on a journalistic assignment. After a long career as an author and film maker he moved to Fiji and became a resort owner.

Writings and observations

With a more than keen interest in the Polynesian islands, its people and its many cultures, James Siers via his books has attempted to show the similarities and differences with the people of the Pacific. In his book Polynesia in Colour, he takes the reader on a journey through various island nations, from Samoa to Tahiti to New Caledonia.

He had a lengthy association with the Hibiscus Records

Hibiscus Records

Hibiscus Records is a division of Kiwi Pacific Records International Limited and has many Polynesia and Maori titles on CD, specialised in mainly authentic Polynesian Music / Polynesian Folk music. There were many authentic Maori and Pacific Island recordings released via Kiwi Pacific Records...

 label as a producer and contributor of its liner notes. Some of his liner notes have appeared on Viking Records

Viking Records

Viking Records was an independent and prominent record label that featured many New Zealand and Polynesian recording artists.-Background:In the 1960s, the company was the largest locally owned record label in the South Pacific with its New Zealand head office in Wellington and a branch in Sydney...

releases such as The Family of the Maori, Viking VSP 18 .

Books released

• Samoa in Colour, ISBN 0589004557 (1970)
• Polynesia in Colour, ISBN 080480866X (1970)
• Hawaii, ISBN 006013769X (1973)
• Hawaii & Polynesia, ISBN 0385081677 (1973)
• Tahiti in color: Couleurs de Tahiti, ISBN 0804810567 (1973)
• Tonga, ISBN 0908582323 (1978)
• Taratai: A Pacific Adventure, ISBN 0908582005 (1978)
• New Zealand: Dramatic landscape, ISBN 0908582404 (1979)
• Fiji In Colour, ASIN: B0006E6X4W (1979)
• Tahiti - Romance and Reality, ISBN 0312595875 (1982)
• Papua New Guinea, ISBN 0312595875 (1984)
• Fiji: Celebration, ISBN 0312289308 (1985)
• New Zealand: Incredible Landscape, ISBN 0312571704 (1985)
• Fiji Islands (Insight Pocket Guides) (Paperback), ISBN 0395733979 (1995)