House-Girls Remember

Book excerpt: Giving voice to the women who worked as maids—known as "house-girls" in the Pacific islands of Vanuatu—is the goal of this innovative work. The stories the women tell resonate with the experiences of domestic workers around the world; their histories contribute to theorizing intimacy and traveling culture; and their struggles with adverse working conditions help find solutions, which are outlined at the end of the book. In addition to contributions by the editors, workshop reports by eleven ni-Vanuatu women fieldworkers and ten others who spoke about their lives as house-girls are included. These reports detail ni-Vanuatu women’s experiences as domestic workers during the colonial period. One chapter presents an elderly French woman’s recollections of the Vietnamese orphan who grew up in her home and worked as a house-girl. Material from contemporary house-girls appears in a final chapter based on research conducted in Port Vila.