Böcker i Pacific Studies-serien

Originally published in 1978, God's Gentlemen remains the only detached and detailed historical analysis of the work of the Melanesian Mission, which grew out of the personal vision of George Selwyn, the first bishop of the Church of England in New Zealand. Starting with its New Zealand beginnings and its Norfolk Island years from 1867 to 1920, the book follows the Mission's shift of headquarters to the Solomon Islands and beyond through the beginning of World War II. Based on a wide range of sources, God's Gentlemen is the inner history of the slow growth of an important and genuinely Melanesian church.

Based on thorough documentary research in archives and newspapers, Workers in Bondage begins with the origins of servitude during the convict era in Queensland before its separation from New South Wales in 1859. The study then focuses in on Queensland's Pacific Islander labor force, examining the reconstruction of the Queensland sugar industry after the withdrawal of Islander labor and describing the realities of white labor and the early trade union struggles in the sugar industry. Underlying the text is an analysis of labor manipulation by capitalism in a new colony during a time of transition from slavery to indenture in the British Empire. This is a comprehensive and insightful academic examination of the little-known history of the enslavement of Pacific Island workers in Australian convict-era industries, as well as a wider study of race relations in a frontier society.

In this autobiographical account of life in the capital of the Solomon Islands, Michael Kwa'ioloa reflects on the challenges of raising a family in town and sustaining ties with a distant rural homeland on Malaita island. Continuing the long tradition of Kwara'ae community leaders participating in political activism, he discusses how the roles of these leaders were severely tested by the violent conflict between Malaitans and the indigenous Guadalcanal people at the turn of the century. Kwa'ioloa provides a local perspective on the causes and course of this unhappy episode in his country's history and describes a need for a way of life founded upon ancestral values, giving chiefs a role in the governance of Solomon Islands.

First published in 1976, Papua New Guinea was the first book to interpret the key events that led to the nation's independence in 1975. In the book, journalist Don Woolford, a correspondent for the Australian Associated Press in Papua New Guinea, describes the ferment and excitement of the 1960s and 1970s, chronicling the former Australian territory's political development from the first general election for a representative House of Assembly in 1964 through independence. Key figures in the transition, including Michael Somare, John Guise, Albert Maori Kiki, and Josephine Abaijah, make an appearance and their contributions are analyzed adroitly. Woolford's access to these and other important individuals, as well as to literature produced for a moment that is no longer available, make this an inimitable and invaluable record of the remarkable years that led to the creation of the nation of Papua New Guinea.

When Hugh Laracy reviewed this book in The Journal of Pacific History in 1978 he rightly described it as the 'product of monumental research'. Exploring the diplomatic negotiations that led to the division of the Samoan Islands between Germany, Great Britain and the USA in 1899, it is a significant study of international relations between the three late nineteenth century super powers. The Pacific Islands were pawns in an international diplomatic chess game that involved Britain's early, but often unwilling, acquisition of Pacific territory; Germany's scramble to get its share to bolster its prestige and trading interests; and the USA's late, but insistent, demands for its place in the Pacific. What emerges in The Samoan Tangle is a detailed study of late nineteenth century international relations that reminds us how often the Pacific Islands have been used to satisfy great power plays on the other side of the globe.

Fast money schemes in Papua New Guinea, collectivities in rural Solomon Islands, gambling in the Cook Islands, and the Vanuatu tax haven--all feature in the interface between Pacific and global economies. Since the 1970s, Melanesian countries and their peoples have been beguiled by the prospect of economic development that would enable them to participate in a world market economic system. Access to global markets would provide the means to improve their standard of living, allowing them to take their places as independent nations in a modern world. Managing Modernity in the Western Pacific takes a broad sweep through contemporary topics in Melanesian anthropology and ethnography. With nuanced and rigorous scholarship, it views contemporary debate on modernity in Melanesia within the context of the global economy and cultural capitalism. In particular, contributors assess local ideas about wealth, success, speculation, and development and their connections to participation in institutions and activities generated by them. This innovative and accessible collection offers a new intersection between Western Pacific anthropology and global studies.

"Australians in Papua New Guinea, provides a history of the late Australian years in Papua New Guinea through the eyes of thirteen Australian and four Papua New Guineans. The book presents the experiences of Australians who went to work in PNG over several decades before the 1970s. Australians in Papua New Guinea begins with medical practitioners: Michael Alpers, Ken Clezy, Margaret Smith, Ian Maddocks and Anthony Radford (with accompanying reflections by wife, Robin) who grappled with complex medical issues in difficult surroundings. Other contributors-John Langmore, John Ley and Bill Brown-became experts in governance. The final group featured were involved in education and social change: Ken Inglis, Bill Gammage, and Christine Stewart. Papua New Guinean contributors: medical expert Sir Isi Henao Kevau, diplomats Charles Lepani and Dame Meg Taylor, and educator and politician Dame Carol Kidu further deepen the quality of this collection. A final reflection is provided by historian Jonathan Ritchie, himself part of an Australian family in PNG. This extraordinary book balances expatriates with indigenous Papua New Guineans, balances gender, and pioneers an innovative combination of written reminiscences and interviews. The history of this important Pacific nation unfolds as do the histories of individuals who were involved in its formative decades.