Outrigger: Blog of the Pacific Institute

Annual General Meeting of The Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies (AAAPS), 10 May 2013

pacificinstitute — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 03:52:43 +0000

Annual General Meeting of AAAPS (AAAPS 2013 AGM flyer)
12:00 – 5:00pm, 10 May 2013
McDonald Room, Menzies Library, Australian National University, Canberra.
(Lunch and afternoon tea are provided)

The 2013 AGM of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies (AAAPS) will commence with a public talk by Dr. Keith Camacho from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), titled: “Militarized Incarceration: The U.S. Military Tribunals of Guam, 1945-1949”.

Lunch will follow Dr. Keith Camacho’s talk before the AGM proper (2-5pm). In addition to dealing with the formal business of the AGM, we hereby give notice of the special resolution that will take place regarding changing the name AAAPS into AAPS (see the AAAPS 2013 AGM Agenda). This is an important resolution and your attendance is much appreciated.

We very much look forward to seeing you in May!
Anna-Karina Hermkens and John Taylor (AAAPS secretaries)

For catering, please RSVP by May 3 to nicholas.mortimer@anu.edu.au.

Dr. Hsiao-chun Hung returns to the Mariana Islands

pacificinstitute — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:35:33 +0000

[a shard of decorated red-slipped pottery.]

“In February-March 2013, Hsiao-chun Hung and Mike Carson returned to the Mariana Islands in far western Micronesia, searching for more evidence of the oldest human habitation at the House of Taga Site, ca. 3500-3400 BP.

Following on their 2011 field-work, they uncovered more than 90 sq m of a very well preserved habitation layer, very dense with artefacts and midden, as well as arrangements of post-holes and other structural features. This work confirms that the very first inhabitants in the Marianas made red-slipped pottery of various forms with or without carination, including hundreds of decorated pieces that appeared from the earliest deposit of this site.

This excavation produced the largest so far known collection of decorated red-slipped pottery in the Marianas, with beautifully dentate-stamped designs highlighted by white lime in-fill. Some early pottery with painting was noticed, too! Certainly, the large amount of decorated pottery can help us to understand more about cross-regional relations.

Thanks are due to the funding sources, including both Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation and Australian Research Council. Strong support from local scholars and authorities graciously made this project gain fruitful results. The preliminary results have been invited for presentation at several locations, such as at Archaeology Center of Stanford University (USA) and Northern Marianas Humanities Council (Saipan), as well as featured in media such as Radio Australia News and as Archaeology Magazine’s top news story on 14 March 2013.”

[post taken from the latest Archaeology and Natural History (ANH) newsletter.]

Vote buying prevalent in Indonesia and the Pacific

pacificinstitute — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:40:24 +0000

Read a summary piece on Ed Aspinall and Jon Fraenkel’s latest CDI report Comparing Across Regions: Parties and Political Systems in Indonesia and the Pacific Islands, which was launched by the ANU’s Centre for Democratic Institutions earlier this month.

The end of the Pacific? Sea-level change and Pacific Island livelihoods

pacificinstitute — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:32:09 +0000

Public lecture by Professor Patrick Nunn, University of New England
1:00 – 2:00pm, Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Fenner Seminar Room, Frank Fenner Building 141, Linnaeus Way, ANU.

The effects of rising sea level – lowland flooding, shoreline erosion and groundwater salinisation – have become increasingly apparent in the Pacific Islands. Sea-level rise threatens the viability of livelihoods. Widespread population re-location is inevitable and should involve long-term planning, community support, and targeted donor funding. Planning for food security and population growth is also needed, as is global support for the sustainable future of Pacific Island peoples. There are few signs that any of the essential actors apprehend the enormity of the challenges ahead, suggesting that the next few decades will be marked by abrupt changes and reactive responses.

About the speaker

Patrick Nunn is the Professor and Head of the School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences at the University of New England. His research interests range from geology and geography to archaeology and mythology. He has long-standing interests in climate change and is part of IPCC Working Group 1. He has some 200 publications including books like Oceanic Islands (Blackwell, 1994), Environmental Change in the Pacific Basin (Wiley, 1999), Climate, Environment and Society in the Pacific during the Last Millennium (Elsevier, 2007), and Vanished Islands and Hidden Continents of the Pacific (University of Hawai’i Press, 2009). For 25 years he was at the University of the South Pacific learning about the challenges of life – historical, contemporary and future – in the Pacific Islands.

Politics, development and security in Oceania

pacificinstitute — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:20:28 +0000

Edited by David Hegarty and Darrell Tryon. This publication, Volume 7 in the Studies in State and Society in the Pacific series, is now available in PDF View Online ePub mobi or print copy formats from ANU Epress.

“The chapters in this volume canvass political change and development across the Pacific Islands from a variety of perspectives, each contributing to the analysis of a region growing in complexity and in confidence. They fall neatly into three sections: Oceania and its Inheritance; Oceania – Current Needs and Challenges; and Oceania and its Wider Setting.

The new states of the Pacific have demonstrated considerable resilience, and in many cases, an extraordinary capacity to bounce back from difficulty and to maintain optimism for the future. The continuing professionalisation of public management across the region is building on that tradition. The growth of civil society organisations is also beginning to play a positive role in policy and implementation. Donors are becoming more coherent in their strategies, more attuned to the realities of generating development outcomes in small island states, and are beginning to acknowledge and map progress.

This book explores these themes of governance, development and security that signal both continuity and change in the Pacific’s pattern of islands.”

Kago, Kastom and Kalja: The Study of Indigenous Movements in Melanesia Today (Cahiers du Credo) (Volume 2)

pacificinstitute — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:05:23 +0000

Edited by Marc Tabani and Marcellin Abong,
Pacific-Credo Publications (April 2013).
[purchase through Amazon.com]

“This volume, bringing together six ethnographic papers and an epilogue first presented at ASAO sessions in 2009 (Santa Cruz) and 2010 Alexandria), includes a wealth of ethnographic and historical information on a topic of enduring interest in Pacific studies and anthropology: cargo cults. These fascinating social phenomena undoubtedly have ongoing relevance for ethnographies of Melanesia. In this collection of papers, we learn about the history of the concept itself as well as how contemporary movements articulate world views, political awareness, material desires and even criticism of the now globalized concept of cargo cult itself. The chapters offer remarkable stories of cult activities and interesting arguments about the entanglement of Western desire for both cargo and cults with these Melanesian visions of how to create a prosperous future for themselves.”

In conversation with Sir Mekere Morauta

Tess Newton Cain — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 20:00:44 +0000

Tess Newton Cain meet up with Sir Mekere Morauta whilst he was in Port Vila recently. You can listen to the podcast of their conversation here and read the full transcript here. "The main topic of conversation was the ongoing review of the Pacific Plan – Sir Mekere is the eminent person leading the review team. The team was in Vanuatu to undertake consultations with government, civil society and academics as to how the Pacific Plan should be reformed..." [read more].

Engendering objects: Dynamics of Barkcloth and Gender among the Maisin of Papua New Guinea by

pacificinstitute — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 23:51:54 +0000

This new book by Anna-Karina Hermkens is now available through Sidestone Press.

“Engendering objects explores social and cultural dynamics among Maisin people in Collingwood Bay (Papua New Guinea) through the lens of material culture. Focusing upon the visually stimulating decorated barkcloths that are used as male and female garments, gifts, and commodities, it explores the relationships between these cloths and Maisin people. The main question is how barkcloth, as an object made by women, engenders people’s identities, such as gender, personhood, clan and tribe, through its manufacturing and use.”

“This book describes in detail how barkcloth (tapa) not only visualizes and expresses, but also materializes and defines, people’s multiple identities. By ‘following the object’ and how it is made and used in the performance of life-cycle rituals, in exchanges and in church festivities, this interaction between people and things, and how they are mutually constituted, becomes visible. How are women’s bodies and minds linked with the production of barkcloth? How do cloths produced by women both establish and contest clan identity? In what ways is the commodification of barkcloth related to gender dynamics? Barkcloth and its associated designs show how gender ideologies and the socio-material constructions of identity are performed and, as such, developed, established and contested.

The narratives of both men and women reveal the ways in which barkcloth provides a link with the past and dreams for the future. The author argues that the cloths and their designs embody dynamics of Maisin culture and in particular of Maisin gender relations. In contributing to the current debates on the anthropology of ‘art’, this study offers an alternative way of understanding the significance of an object, like decorated barkcloth, in shaping and defining people’s identities within a local colonial and postcolonial setting of Papua New Guinea.”

“Engendering Objects is among the most comprehensive and innovative new works emerging from Melanesia examining the intimate connections between material culture, cultural identity and gendered personhood. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic fieldwork, archival research and examination of museum collections, Anna-Karina Hermkens traces the enduring yet innovative place of tapa (barkcloth) among the Maisin people. Written with warm compassion and immediacy, the book is a theoretically provocative, accessible and compelling portrait of changing life in a Papua New Guinean village society.” – John Barker, University of British Columbia

“This book makes a most welcome contribution to the study of the materiality by showing how gender is performed in the sensuous terms of clothing, food, and the exchange of objects. Anna-Karina Hermkens accomplishes this with enviable care and intellectual resources, and a prose and ethnography that make the book a pleasure to read.” – David Morgan, Duke University

“Anna-Karina Hermkens takes us to look at designs on bark cloth from Papua New Guinea through a magnifying glass. A fascinating perspective on material culture evolves. Beyond the art work we discover individuals – mainly women – painting their stories about who they and their beloved are as women and men, as traditional members of a clan, and also what they head for as strugglers in a new economy driven world.” – Christian Kaufmann, Honorary Research Associate, Sainsbury Reseach Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich UK, former curator for Oceania at the Museum der Kulturen Basel

Another Port Moresby community bulldozed

Michelle Nayahamui Rooney — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:00:29 +0000

On Tuesday March 12, 2013 a Papua New Guinea (PNG) daily newspaper, The National, carried an article titled ‘NCD settlement bulldozed’. According to the article, over 4000 people’s homes were affected. On that same day, I made one of my regular visits to the Oro/ATS (Air Transport Squadron) settlement in Port Moresby where I have been undertaking field work for the past three months. As I approached the area where [...] Continue reading →

Reflections on the PNG Budget Forum: Can devolved funding be effectively utilised

Colin Wiltshire — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:00:36 +0000

"One of the major talking points of the recent PNG Budget Forum was the huge increase in devolved funding to provinces, districts and local level governments. Both Finance and Treasury Ministers speaking at the forum seemed cautiously optimistic and nervous in justifying these funding allocations. On paper, it seems like a large increase to subnational levels of government, up from 5% of the budget in 2012 to 15% in 2013. However, ... They are effectively allocating much more funding to their own committees in a large expansion of the District Services Improvement Program (DSIP)..." [read more].

European Investment Bank backs remote aviation investment in the South Pacific

What was new before — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 10:06:00 +0000

"The European Investment Bank has agreed to help examine safety improvements, upgrading of terminal facilities and more efficient power use at airports in the Cook Islands and Samoa. The USD 1.1m technical assistance programme (EUR 850,000) will be used to improve preparation of key investment expected to improve tourism, regional integration and economic development..." [read more].

Lifting skills in the Pacific: using infrastructure procurement for skills transfer

Richard Curtain — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:00:45 +0000

If it was good enough for the London Olympics in 2012, why not use large infrastructure projects in the Pacific region to do more than merely build a new facility? Why not also aim, as the UK’s Olympic Delivery Authority did, to get people into jobs, develop their skills and help them gain top-rate qualifications? The Authority followed EU procurement requirements. However, it also wanted to give young people better [...] Continue reading →

Fiji constitutional referendum? Unlikely

Lowy Institute — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 05:01:00 +0000

In her latest post to Lowy's Interpreter blog, Jenny Hayward-Jones notes that "Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has released the much anticipated Fiji draft constitution, an extensive revision of the 2012 draft released by the Constitutional Commission, led by international constitutional law scholar Yash Ghai..." [read more].

CDI Policy Paper: Comparing Across Regions: Parties and Political Systems in Indonesia and the Pacific Islands

pacificinstitute — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:48:19 +0000

The Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI) at the ANU has just released a new Policy Paper on Political Governance titled Comparing Across Regions: Parties and Political Systems in Indonesia and the Pacific Islands (CDI PPS 2013/02). The authors, Prof. Jon Fraenkel and Prof. Edward Aspinall, seek to identify patterns of similarity and difference in political competition in Indonesia and the Pacific Islands through a survey of five major factors shaping the nature of the party systems in the two regions:

broad context (size, geography and economic prosperity);
the role of electoral systems and the rules governing parties;
ethnic and religious identities;
ideological issues or their absence; and
how patronage shapes political allegiances.

“Despite obvious differences, the authors find some similar patterns of loose and fluid political party allegiances at the local level.” The authors will give a public lecture related to their research on 3 April 2013 [read more about this event].

SSGM’s ‘State of the Pacific’ Conference (25-26 June 2013)

pacificinstitute — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 03:47:57 +0000

The State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program at The Australian National University will be hosting the inaugural State of the Pacific conference on 25-26 June 2013 in Canberra.

The aim of the conference is to bring together academics, parliamentarians, policy makers, business leaders, civil society representatives and the media to share and discuss policy-relevant issues and research on and about the Pacific region. The conference will be structured around the following three themes:

State of Democracy (elections, new states, constitutions…);
Challenges Facing Small Island States (viability, climate change, migration…) and
Land (including livelihoods and food security)

In addition there will be a session on New Directions in Research to showcase recent PhD research and other new research initiatives on Pacific themes. More information will be available shortly through the SSGM website and you may keep informed by liking or following us or by emailing ssgm.admin@anu.edu.au!

Vanuatu High Commission – 1st Anniversary (22 March 2013)

pacificinstitute — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 03:22:10 +0000

A small ceremony was held on 22 March 2013 to mark the First Anniversary of the establishment of Vanuatu’s High Commission in Canberra. For more about this and future events, visit their new website.

PNG slowdown pushing regional growth lower in the Pacific

Christopher Edmonds and Aaron Batten — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:00:04 +0000

"In the latest issue of the Pacific Economic Monitor, released yesterday (March 26), the ADB forecasts that the average rate of growth in its 14 developing member countries in the Pacific region will fall to 5.2%, as earlier gains from major foreign investments and public infrastructure projects fade. The performance of the region’s larger natural resource exporting economies (Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Timor-Leste) continues to drive the economic outlook, with these two economies comprising about two-thirds of the weight in the regional growth average..." [read more].

Pacific Buzz (March 27): MSG’s growing strength | Polynesian pain | PNG moves on Ok Tedi | Fiji army consolidates power

Devpolicy-PiPP — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:00:20 +0000

Politics MSG’s growing strength The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) continued to celebrate its silver jubilee, marking its formation in 1988, with a special Melanesia Week. There have been events in Vanuatu and Fiji to note the milestone with more to come in New Caledonia in June when it takes over the Chairmanship of the sub-regional grouping. In a recent Devpolicy interview, MSG Secretary General Peter Forau attributed MSG’s successful rise [...] Continue reading →

Dissertations on PNG highlands online

pacificinstitute — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 23:58:14 +0000

by Kathy Creely, Melanesian Studies Resource Centre (and Archive), UCSD Library.

The University of California San Diego (UCSD) Library has recently completed a project to digitize and provide online access to fifty-two dissertations and theses which document anthropological (and related) research in Papua New Guinea. With one exception* the research was situated in the Highlands. This work was done with permission granted by the authors or their heirs. Funding was provided by the UCSD Library.

Access is through the Digital Library Collections at https:libraries.ucsd.edu/digital and the dissertations are easily found by browsing “By Collection/Library” and selecting “Papua New Guinea Highlands dissertations” under the “Tuzin Archive for Melanesian Anthropology”.

Links are also present in the records for individual titles in our library catalog (http://roger.ucsd.edu), most easily found by a keyword search on “Papua New Guinea Highlands Dissertations”.

This project could not have happened without help from many people. Janel Kozlowski Fink managed the permission-seeking process. Roger Smith, Joaquim (Jack) Neves, Gabriela Montoya and Cristela Garcia-Spitz of the UC San Diego Library’s Digital Library Program coordinated the work of getting the scans made and a million other details. Hanley Cocks and Marilu Vallejo worked on creating catalog records for each title; Arwen Hutt ensured that these records were adapted for metadata describing the digital versions. All of the authors generously gave permission to include their works without restriction. Special thanks to scholars who supplied advice, contact information, missing pages, scans of original plates, loans of original typescripts, and other treasures: Chris Ballard, Philip Gibbs, Terence Hays, Robin Hide, Allison Jablonko, Ragnar Johnson, Deveni Temu, Paige West, Polly Wiessner and many others. A huge thank you to everyone above—and apologies if I’ve left anyone off the list.

Now available online:

Ballard, Chris. The death of a great land : ritual, history and subsistence revolution in the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb7134402x. [Note: this thesis was completed at the Australian National University and is also available through the ANU's Digital Repository.]
Boyd, David James. Crops, kiaps, and currency : flexible behavioral strategies among the Ilakia Awa of Papua New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb08886076
Bragginton, Joan Rachel. Patterns of interaction in the Beha Valley : a study of social organization in the eastern highlands of New Guinea.http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb83289490
Brandewie, Ernest. An internal analysis of the kinship system of the Mbowamb of the Central Highlands of New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb9284590j
Buchbinder, Georgeda. Maring microadaptation : a study of demographic, nutritional, genetic and phenotypic variation in a Highland New Guinea population. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb53937665
Bulmer, Ralph. Leadership and social structure among the Kyaka people of the Western Highlands District of New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb0683828t
Burkins, Donald E. Waiting for “Company” : development on the periphery of the periphery in the Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb27998892
Burton, John. Axe makers of the Wahgi: pre-colonial industrialists of the Papua New Guinea highlands. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb07179561. Note: this thesis was completed at the Australian National University and is also available through the ANU’s Digital Repository.]
Cook, Edwin A. Manga social organization. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb1229906d
Crittenden, Robert. Sustenance, seasonality and social cycles on the Nembi Plateau, Papua New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb29705380
Dornstreich, Mark David. An ecological study of Gadio Enga (New Guinea) subsistence. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb6861356z
Feachem, Richard G. Environment and health in a New Guinea Highlands community. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb7032010d
Flanagan, James Gerard. Wovan social organization. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb4779428q
Gibbs, Philip. Ipili religion, past and present. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb3653137f
Glick, Leonard B. Foundations of a primitive medical system : the Gimi of the New Guinea highlands. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb9933058m
Hawkes, Kristen. Binumarien : kinship and cooperation in a New Guinea highlands community. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb3482486q
Hayano, David M. Marriage, alliance and warfare : the Tauna Awa of New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb0581437t
Hays, Terence E. Mauna : explorations in Ndumba ethnobotany. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb18442480
Healey, Christopher J. Hunting of birds of paradise and trade in plumes in the Jimi Valley, Western Highlands District. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb8090040m
Helden, Flip van. Through the thicket : disentangling the social dynamics of an integrated conservation and development project on mainland Papua New Guinea.http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb58374590
Hide, Robin Lamond. Aspects of pig production and use in colonial Sinasina, Papua New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb1195780x
Howlett, Diana R. (Diana Rosemary) A decade of change in the Goroka Valley, New Guinea [electronic resource] : land use and development in the 1950s. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb4267480j
Jablonko, Allison Peters. Dance and daily activities among the Maring people of New Guinea : a cinematographic analysis of body movement style.http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb0035358w
Johannes, Adell. Illness and medical care in a New Guinea Highlands society. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb2356200q
Johnson, S. Ragnar. Secret knowledge : an analysis of Ommura ceremonies. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb93869801
Keil, Dana Eddy. The inter-group economy of the Nekematigi, Eastern Highlands District, New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb60763711
Lacey, Roderic. Oral traditions as history : an exploration of oral sources among the Enga of the New Guinea highlands.http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb9728278g
Langlas, Charles Milford. Foi land use, prestige economics and residence : a processual analysis. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb10592585
Langness, Lewis. L. Bena Bena social structure. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb0376657p
Leininger, Madeleine M. Convergence and divergence of human behavior : an ethnopsychological comparative study of two Gadsup villages in the eastern highlands of New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb63494059
Leroy, John D. Kewa reciprocity : cooperation and exchange in a New Guinea Highland culture. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb74757006
Levine, Harold Gary. Intra-cultural variability and ethnographic description : a decision-making analysis of funerary behavior among the New Guinea Kafe.http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb54961552
Mayer, Jessica R. Sickness, healing and gender in Ommura, Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb4881819z
Modjeska, Charles J. Nicholas. Production among the Duna : aspects of horticultural intensification in central New Guinea.http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb97624060
Muke, John D. The Wahgi opo Kumbo : an account of warfare in the Central Highlands of New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb9625887j
Munster, Peter M. A history of contact and change in the Goroka Valley, Central Highlands of New Guinea, 1934-1949. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb7373309w
Munster, Peter M. The ground of the ancestors : a history of Goroka. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb3141186d
Newman, Philip (Philip L.) Supernaturalism and ritual among the Gururumba. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb8943290c
Overfield, Duncan. The economics of social subordination : gender relations and market failure in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb6793097p
Pflanz, Susan Marie. Manga entrepreneurial strategies (1956-1972). http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb4438126c
Podolefsky, Aaron. Pattern, process, and decision-making in New Guinea Highlands dispute handling. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb8670247f
Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual in the ecology of a New Guinea people : an anthropological study of the Tsembaga Maring. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb25268460
Read, Kenneth E. Native thought and the war in the Pacific : a study of the effects of the Pacific war on a native community of the Markham Valley, Australian Mandated Territory of New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb7987651m
Ryan, D’Arcy. Gift exchange in the Mendi Valley : an examination of the socio-political implications of the ceremonial exchange of wealth among the people of Mendi Valley, Southern Highlands District, Papua. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb21855464
Salisbury, Richard Frank, 1926- Economic change among the Siane tribes of New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb7646347x
Smith, Robert Millard. Conversion and continuity : response to missionization in the Papua New Guinea highlands. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb6690708d
Standish, William Austin. Simbu paths to power : political change and cultural continuity in the Papua New Guinea highlands. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb0240139j
Steadman, Lyle B. Neighbours and killers : residence and dominance among the Hewa of New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb1537077v
Thomas, William H. Traditional environmental knowledge and its implications for modern conservation among the Hewa of Papua New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb8465466s
Willis, Ian J. An epic journey : the 1930 expedition of Michael Leahy and Michael Dwyer across New Guinea via the Purari River.http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb40968273
Wohlt, Paul Brandin. Ecology, agriculture and social organization : the dynamics of group composition in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb2629236d
Zuckerman, Steven, 1952- Incorporating the world system : culture and historical transformation among the Kamano of Papua New Guinea. http://libraries.ucsd.edu/ark:/20775/bb9045679w

[*Kenneth Read’s 1946 master’s thesis]

New project on Children’s language learning and intersubjectivity in the PNG Highlands

pacificinstitute — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 23:03:46 +0000

In this post, Prof. Alan Rumsey and Prof. Francesca Merlan summarise their latest research project, one of several ANU-based ARC-funded projects for 2013 with a focus on the Pacific.

[Left: Children at play near Kailge, Western Highlands Province, where the project will be based.]

One of the biggest mysteries about the human species is that of child language acquisition – how children manage to learn, in a few years, systems so complex that no computer can yet model their use, but using a set of skills that is flexible enough to let them learn languages of widely differing structures. Another big mystery is the development of intersubjectivity – the uniquely human capacity for sharing and exchanging intentions and perspectives with each other. In this project we will help to improve the understanding of both language acquisition and intersubjectivity by studying them in relation to each other, in a region where neither has been systematically studied before – the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Studies of the relation between language acquisition and intersubjectivity have been very limited in the range of evidence they drawn on. They have been done almost entirely with children in North America, Europe and Australasia, speaking a narrow range of the world’s languages. This has led to overgeneralization based on false assumptions about the universality of particular linguistic structures and understandings about how the mind works. We will help to make up for those shortcomings by close study of the relation between language learning and intersubjectivity in a setting where the language and the people’s ideas about human psychology and personhood differ greatly from those where most of the research on this topic has been done.

The project will be conducted by Prof. Alan Rumsey of the Department of Anthropology, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU, in collaboration with Prof. Francesca Merlan, of the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU. The field research will be based in the Ku Waru region of the Western Highlands Province, where Rumsey and Merlan have been studying other aspects of the language and culture since 1981. They will work in collaboration with field assistants John Onga and Andrew Noma, who will be making audio and video recordings of Ku Waru children’s interactions on a regular basis, and helping us to analyse them. Assistance with computerization and further analysis of the material at ANU will be provided by Research Assistants Dan Devitt and Tom Honeyman. The project is funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council and will run from 2013 to 2016.

Report on PACE-Net Key Stakeholder Conference: Connecting Research and Innovation for development in the Pacific (Suva 12th – 14th March 2013)

pacificinstitute — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:59:09 +0000

“Enthusiastic discussions on results of the three year Pacific-European Network on Science and Technology (PACE-Net*) were held by more than 120 delegates from about 17 Pacific and European countries and territories [pictured above] at the final PACE-Net Conference hosted by the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Suva Fiji from 12-14 March 2013.

The Fijian Minister for the Environment, Colonel Samuela Saumatua, in opening the Conference, emphasized the need for policies to be founded on good scientific information, particularly because of the Pacific’s vulnerability to global change. He acknowledged that this was an area that needed strengthening in the Pacific.

Mr. Andrew Jacobs, head of EU delegation in Suva, stressed the EU’s active involvement in: regional and global areas of common concern; capacity building; and its continued commitment to research and development. VC & President of USP, Prof. R. Chandra outlined USP’s commitment, as a regional organisation, to increasing the role of science and technology in regional policy development, in capacity building and in networks with other Pacific Island Universities. Mr. Jimmie Rodgers, Director General of SPC, underlined the importance of research for Pacific countries to respond to their challenges and to improve their development. For this, he adds that research institutes, policy makers, regional organisations, private sector will have to all work together.

PACE-Net results included: strengthening the EU-Pacific bi-regional dialogue on Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I); identifying the general absence of regional and national ST&I policies and plans in the Pacific; catalysing the formation of the “Pacific Islands University Research Network” (PIURN); and assisting initiation of a national ST&I policy framework process in Papua New Guinea. In addition, PACE-Net raised awareness of the critical importance of the Pacific – a region of extraordinary physical, social and economic diversity –to global sustainability and of the vulnerability of small island nations to global change.

PACE-Net developed policy briefs which present priority research and development needs in seven thematic areas in the Pacific, Climate Change in relation to: Freshwater in the Pacific; Agriculture and Forestry; Fisheries and Aquaculture in the Pacific; Natural Hazards; Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management; and Health. These identified opportunities for bi-regional research partnerships and projects to address priority areas.

An information session on EU research and innovation framework programmes and mobility schemes detailed experiences in and opportunities for international collaboration between Europe and the Pacific. Research facilities were explored at the Conference which also further stimulated initiatives for research collaborations.

A range of recommendations for enhancing the use of research in policy formulation were developed including the creation of regional thematic task forces for research coordination.

Delegates from Tuvalu and Tonga spoke for all participants when they thanked the EC, IRD and the PACE-NET Consortium for their generous support for PACE-Net and concluded that both the project and the final Conference, organised and run by USP, were highly successful and valuable and that wide dissemination of the outcomes of PACE-Net would catalyse the development of national and regional research policy frameworks in the Pacific.”

[*Coordinated by IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), PACE-Net (Pacific Europe Network for Science and Technology) is an INCO-NET funded by the European Commission. For more information on PACE-Net, visit http://pacenet.eu. For more about the March 2013 conference in Suva, visit http://suva-conference.pacenet.eu. The above text is taken from a PACE-Net media release issued after the conference.]

Last Post for Peter Worsley (1924-2013)

pacificinstitute — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 01:27:41 +0000

by Assoc. Prof. Colin Filer, RMAP.

Sad to report that Peter Worsley died last week. I cannot imagine that he ever attended an Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania (ASAO) meeting, but that is not surprising because he was forced to abandon his career in anthropology after the British and Australian intelligence services conspired to prevent him from doing fieldwork in Africa or the former Territory of Papua New Guinea during the early 1950s because of his left-wing sympathies. Although he would be best known to ASAO members for The Trumpet Shall Sound (1957), he had already become a sociologist at the time it was published, and ‘cargo cults’ (or proto-nationalism) had not been the subject of his proposed fieldwork when he was a PhD student at the ANU.* Siegfried Nadel had instead proposed to send him up to Goroka as one of the pioneers of New Guinea highlands ethnography, and one cannot help but wonder how his career might have turned out if the colonial authorities had allowed him to go there. The thought of Peter instigating an anti-colonial uprising amongst the Asaro mudmen or their neighbours now seems rather quaint, but perhaps he would have turned out to be a British equivalent of Maurice Godelier instead of becoming something more like a British equivalent of Eric Wolf.

For those of us left-wing Brits who started their academic careers in the 1970s, it still looked as if social anthropology – at least in Britain – was still mired in its colonial legacy, and the sociology of development appeared to be a rather more attractive disciplinary practice. This was in no small measure due to the example which Peter had established, not only in The Trumpet, but also in The Third World (1964). Oddly enough, having followed his example myself, albeit without being banned from PNG, I only got to know Peter towards the end of his life. That was after Christin Kocher Schmid persuaded him to write a concluding chapter to her edited collection, Expecting the Day of Wrath (1999), in which he commented on the latest evidence of Melanesian millenarianism confronting a real millennium. There he reiterated his argument that ‘cargo cults’ have only ever been one local variant of Melanesian millenarianism, which has itself been only one regional variant of a global phenomenon which is no more irrational than a bunch of other ideologies. And in his autobiography (2008), he pointed out that The Trumpet was originally intended to be a survey of the global phenomenon, but the book got out of hand and the publishers persuaded him that Melanesia was more than enough.

[* Worsley completed his PhD at the Australian National University in 1954 with a thesis on 'The changing social structure of the Wanindiljaugwa' (an indigenous group from Groote Eylandt, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, North Australia). He is one of the academics featured in Alan MacFarlane's outstanding series of interviews with anthropologists (and sociologists) as part of the World Oral Literature Project hosted by the University of Cambridge and Yale University. The image above, a reproduction of "The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch" (by Henry Raeburn, c.1790), is taken from the cover of his autobiography 'Skating on Thin Ice' .]

What do big miners contribute to Papua New Guinea’s development?

Margaret Callan — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:00:57 +0000

"...To answer the question, “how would developing countries know what the private sector is contributing to their development?”, I identified those indicators already used in international corporate sustainability and responsibility frameworks that are most relevant to development and proposed using them for a case study of Papua New Guinea. I expected to source most data from company reports, direct contact with businesses, membership surveys by business organisations ... and company websites. In the event, this proved unrealistic – most PNG businesses are not registered public companies so they have no obligation to publish details of their development contributions ..." [read more]

Sexual violence in Lae: impunity and resistance

Stephen Howes and Kamalini Lokuge — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:00:37 +0000

"Lae, on PNG’s northern coast, is the country’s second city and industrial hub. It is also the capital of PNG’s largest province, Morobe. Its main government hospital, the Angau Hospital, is home to PNG’s most successful Family Support Centre (FSC), which provides medical support and psychosocial care to survivors of family and sexual violence. Supported by Medecins san Frontieres (MSF) since 2008, in the last five years the FSC has provided care to over 11,500 patients..." [read more]

Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power A study of conflict over marine tenure in Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia

pacificinstitute — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 01:32:29 +0000

Dedi Supriadi Adhuri’s new book, Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power A study of conflict over marine tenure in Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia (Asia Pacific Environment Monograph number 8), is now available through ANU Epress in PDF View Online ePub mobile and print copy formats.

“… this book discusses the social, political, economic and legal attributes that are attached to the practice of traditional (communal) marine tenure… [It] pushes the discourse beyond the conventional approach which looks at marine tenure only as a means of resource management” to offer a more comprehensive definition of marine tenure. For those working in the areas of marine resource management and fisheries, this book is a critical and complementary reading to the conventional discourse on the issue.”

Australia Awards Scholarships and Australia Awards Pacific Scholarships (applications now open)

pacificinstitute — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 02:09:54 +0000

Applications are now open for the 2014 round of Australia Awards Scholarships. Information for applicants, (including details of who to contact with scholarship inquiries and cut-off-dates for applications) are available on AusAID’s website. You may also view eligibility and other criteria related to the Australia Awards Pacific Scholarships (AAPS) program on the AusAID site.

New website for “Engendering Persons, Transforming Things: Christianities, Commodities and Individualism in Oceania”

pacificinstitute — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 01:37:24 +0000

Professor Margaret Jolly’s ARC Laureate Project Engendering Persons, Transforming Things: Christianities, Commodities and Individualism in Oceania has a new website.*

This project “addresses a profound and long-debated question about the historical interaction between Oceanic and western constructs of the person and contemporary controversies about the role of Christianity in the emergence of modern individualism. It is distinctive in linking the gender of persons with gendered things. It critically evaluates the role of Christianity in relation to processes of individuation emergent from the commoditisation of land, labour and consumption, biomedical systems of health and introduced legal regimes. It will significantly enhance Australia’s research capacity as well as its cultural understanding and delivery of development assistance in the region, with particular regard to gender justice, law and health.”

The team of staff and students is working across the region in Vanuatu (Margaret Jolly, Latu Latai); Papua New Guinea (Katherine Lepani, Latu Latai); the autonomous region of Bougainville and Solomon Islands (Anna-Karina Hermkens); Banaba and transnational Oceania (Katerina Teaiwa); Samoa (Latu Latai); New Zealand (Areti Metuamate) and Hawai’i (Marata Tamaira).

[* read more about the photo (above) on the new Laureate site.]

Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) celebrates its 25th Anniversary!

pacificinstitute — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 03:02:04 +0000

On 14 March 1988 representatives of The Republic of the Fiji Islands, The Independent State of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, The Republic of Vanuatu and Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) of New Caledonia met in Port Vila to sign the six point Agreed Principles of Cooperation Among the Independent States in Melanesia. Representatives of these parties also signed the subsequent Agreement Establishing the Melanesian Spearhead Group on 23 March 2007 in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

For more information about the MSG and its 25th Anniversary celebrations, visit http://www.msgsec.info.

Ancestors of the Lake wins Prix International du Livre d’Art Tribal 2013

pacificinstitute — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:47:35 +0000

Ancestors of the Lake: Art of Lake Sentani and Humboldt Bay, New Guinea has just been awarded the 2013 Prix International du Livre d’Art Tribal (International Tribal Art Book Prize).

The judges described the book as “… a stunning look at the region’s distinctive art, such as its highly stylized wooden sculptures and decoratively and abstractly designed barkcloths. This beautifully illustrated volume brings together many of these important historic pieces for the first time, including the landmark collection of French writer and art dealer Jacques Viot, along with photographs by Paul Wirz. The book also explores how European Surrealist artists found inspiration in the art of New Guinea, highlighted by rarely seen photographs by Man Ray of Sentani sculpture.”

Edited by Virginia-Lee Webb, with contributions by Anna-Karina Hermkens, Philippe Peltier, Andrea E. Schmidt, Dirk Smidt, David van Duuren, Kristina Van Dyke, Virginia-Lee Webb, and Muridan Widjojo, the book is published by Yale University Press.

Jobs: new academic positions for SSGM

pacificinstitute — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:13:52 +0000

State, Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM) Program seeks to appoint up to eight early to mid-career scholars, with ongoing research interests in Melanesia or Timor-Leste. SSGM seeks scholars with backgrounds in political science, anthropology, human geography, law, gender studies and development studies, whose research interests complement the existing expertise within the Program, which is organised around four thematic clusters.

Politics, Elections, Leadership & Governance;
Conflict, Justice & Peace Building ;
Livelihoods, Rural Development & Extractive Industries ;
Gender and Social Development.

Up to two appointments are envisaged in each cluster. For further information please see: http://jobs.anu.edu.au/PositionDetail.aspx?p=3296 or contact Dr Nicole Haley, Convenor of The State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program at the ANU.