If I were rating this collection on the poems themselves, I'd probably give it three stars. They're affecting, but often a little bare for my tastes. Where they do shine, however, is the central metaphor of the book, which bumps this up a star for me. Molisa considers Vanuatan women (of which she is one) as a colonised people, and by this she doesn't mean colonised by European settlers, for example, although that's undoubtedly true as well. She means colonised by Vanuatan men, and she contrasts Vanuatu's struggle for independence, and its support for other colonised countries as they too fight for independence, with its internal willingness to treat women as the other: something to be abused and exploited for the good of the ruling class. It's honestly a really powerful idea, and it's backed up with tables that show women's involvement in the workforce; one of the poems also include a record of recent injuries inflicted on Vanuatan women by men. It's rare that I come across poetry collections that make such a use of primary sources, and it's undeniably effective.