VOICES OF LIBERATION: INDIGENOUS POLITICAL WRITINGS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA, SOLOMON ISLANDS, AND VANUATU DURING THE DECOLONIZATION ERA

Authors

David Chappell, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Abstract

Historians of post-1945 decolonization in Oceania often say that British “administrations were pushing for independence more than the islanders” (Thompson 1994, 153), and a literature scholar criticized indigenous political writings for their “absence of a truly revolutionary heritage [or] utopian schemes” (Subramani 1992: 18–20). Yet, considering the arbitrary colonial bordering in linguistically diverse Melanesia, “national” political consciousness was still under construction. Islanders had governed themselves in local village councils for millennia and had very limited access to colonial education, so grassroots movements for self-empowerment rarely embraced the entire colonial territory. The foreign-derived names of Melanesian countries typified their nation-building challenges: Papua (a Malay word), New Guinea (after West Africa), New Hebrides (after islands north of Scotland), and Solomon Islands (after the Hebrew king); Melanesia was a Greek-derived term for islands of dark-skinned people. “Decolonization” under a centralized administration thus became a paternalistic, even neo-colonial, process of top-down “modernization” by foreign rulers and indigenous elites (Banivanua Mar 2016).

Recommended Citation

Chappell, David (2018) "VOICES OF LIBERATION: INDIGENOUS POLITICAL WRITINGS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA, SOLOMON ISLANDS, AND VANUATU DURING THE DECOLONIZATION ERA," Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 41: No. 3, Article 6.
Available at: https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol41/iss3/6