With Our Eyes Advise Us: Marshall Islanders Confronting Disease, Climate, and Colonial Violence in the Nineteenth Century, Monica C. LaBriola fundamentally reorients our understanding of nineteenth century Marshall Islands history by foregrounding the expertise of Marshallese historians, cultural authorities, and scholars. This groundbreaking book centers bwebwenato (histories, stories) and jabōnkōnnaan (proverbs) to create a vivid account of Marshall Islanders navigating encounters with European, American, and Native Hawaiian outlanders, as well as the challenges posed by environmental upheaval, an influx of foreign diseases, and colonial violence against women and the wider community.

By privileging Marshallese archives, this volume provides a compelling reexamination of four well-documented episodes: the local reception of the Russian Rurik expedition in 1817, the rebellion against the American whaleship Globe mutineers in 1824, the endorsement of Protestant Christianity and the islands’ first Christian church in 1857, and the sale of Likiep Atoll to European copra traders in 1877. Throughout, LaBriola shows that oral traditions point to Marshallese women as key protagonists in these first-contact events and in Marshall Islands history as a whole, their deep cultural authority rendering them vital to decision-making and broadly influential in their families and communities.

Grounded in Marshallese language and poignant Indigenous accounts, Our Eyes Advise Us offers a model for decolonizing history and reimagining the past. It is an essential contribution to Pacific studies, folklore studies, and anthropology that highlights the power of Indigenous knowledge and the resilience of Indigenous historical traditions.