Pacific Studies

The publication tells the story of the use of stakeholder participation to support public sector reform in Nauru and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The report provides important lessons for donor agencies, for Nauru and the RMI, and for other Pacific island nations that mainly live off aid and other rents. The lessons concern what has gone wrong with governance and why, and what can be done to improve governance under existing conditions. The three pilot projects described show that by taking transparency directly to the people, donors can help create more favorable conditions under which local citizens themselves can more readily press for reform. Whether the modest gains achieved in the pilot projects will prevail remains to be seen, but in all three cases, the future looks more promising than the past.

This publication seeks to explain the nature of settlements termed "urban villages" as set within the context of growing levels of urbanization in contemporary Pacific towns and cities. It investigates the meaning and conceptualization of myriad forms of urban villages by examining the evolution of different types of settlement commonly known as native or traditional villages, and more recently squatter and informal settlements. It views village-like settlements such as squatter and informal settlements as a type of urban village, and examines the role these and other urban villages play in shaping and making the Pacific town and city and arguably, the Pacific village city. It presents key actions that Pacific countries and development partners need to consider as part of urban and national development plans when rethinking how to conceptualize the ongoing phenomena of urban villages while achieving a more equitable distribution of the benefits of urbanization.

Pacific countries lack workers with construction skills and rely on large firms to import skilled workers for large infrastructure projects. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), for example, the working-age population is estimated to grow by 2.2 million people between 2014 and 2030. The country faces a growing challenge to create work opportunities for its people. This report examines the correlation between skills gaps and labor market efficiency in PNG's construction industry. Using six case studies, the report proposes actionable recommendations for policy makers, development partners, and other stakeholders. Find out how these recommendations---although based on PNG infrastructure projects funded by the Asian Development Bank---may be used by a broader range of stakeholders to address skills gaps across the Pacific.

This publication analyzes the trust funds established by the United States with the Republic of Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia, intended to provide budget support upon expiration of these countries' Compacts of Free Association with the United States. Analysis shows future revenues from the funds will likely be volatile and unsustainable, but examines simple rule changes designed to reduce fund volatility and improve the sustainability of fund balances.

The global financial crisis emerged at an alarming rate. A global credit squeeze led to large falls in international stock markets and the world economy is weakening rapidly. The Pacific is largely shielded from the most immediate effects of the crisis, but it is not immune. This Policy Brief provides early advice on what the global financial crisis could mean for the Pacific and what it could do to lessen its adverse impacts. The key response should be to reinvogate structural reform, which is crucial to achieving sustained economic growth.

This report was prepared for a conference hosted by the Asian Development Bank and the World Trade Organization entitled "Mobilizing Aid for Trade: Focus on Asia and the Pacific." It seeks to bring a better understanding of contemporary trade issues in the Pacific region.

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.

A pioneering study of early trade and beach communities in the Pacific Islands and first published in 1977, this book provides historians with an ambitious survey of early European–Polynesian contact, an analysis of how early trade developed along with the beachcomber community, and a detailed reconstruction of development of the early Pacific port towns. Set mainly in the first half of the 19th century, continuing in some cases for a few decades more, the book covers five ports: Kororareka (now Russell, in New Zealand), Levuka (Fiji), Apia (Samoa), Papeete (Tahiti) and Honolulu (Hawai'i). The role of beachcombers, the earliest European inhabitants, as well as the later consuls or commercial agents, and the development of plantation economies is explored. The book is a tour de force, the first detailed comparative academic study of these early precolonial trading towns and their race relations. It argues that the predominantly egalitarian towns where Islanders, beachcombers, traders, and missionaries mixed were largely harmonious, but this was undermined by later arrivals and larger populations.

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.

Few Pacific history books have stood the test of time as well as They Came for Sandalwood, but Dorothy Shineberg's book, first published in 1967, has never been bettered. This fascinating account of the sandalwood trade describes the first regular contact between Europeans and the Melanesians of New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, and the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). Shineberg studied the relationships and rivalries between European traders and European missionaries, between trader and trader, and between tribe and tribe among the indigenous peoples. Her book documents the details and color of these interactions. Unseaworthy ships, bloody battles, the hazards of sea and reef, and the firepower and inadequacies of European weapons all provide a gripping picture of the 1830s to 1860s. Valuable appendices list the ships involved, their cargoes and the location of the sandalwood stations. They Came for Sandalwood remains the only detailed account of the sandalwood trade, its routes, marketing problems and profits, and of the ships, merchants and seamen involved. It is a sharp, perceptive analysis of the confrontation of the two cultures, approached from the standpoint of Pacific history rather than a mere extension of European history into the PacificIslands.

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 the 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.

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.

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.