Like Moses Who Led His People to the Promised Land: Nation‐ and State‐Building in Bougainville

Abstract

This article focuses on indigenous religious beliefs and practices in relation to nationalism and state‐building in conflict and post‐conflict Bougainville. Since the early seventies, people of the island of Bougainville have sought to secede from Papua New Guinea and constitute a separate sovereign state. The almost ten year long secessionist struggle between the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) and the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF) that eventuated in 1988, destroyed nearly all infrastructure, socio‐economic services, and the functions of the PNG state on the island. At the same time, the crisis also brought about the establishment of new local governments, such as ‘The Bougainville Interim Government’, as well as a new Nation: the Independent Republic, later called the Kingdom of Me'ekamui, ruled by BRA leader Francis Ona. This article explores the creation of the Me'ekamui Nation and analyses the religious underpinnings of nation‐ and state‐building in Bougainville, focusing on the performances and normative frameworks used in the endeavor to become a sovereign state.

Israeli Technicians and the Post‐Colonial Racial Triangle in Papua New Guinea

“…These genealogically delineated and locally situated collectivities then give rise to their own ‘ethno‐theologies’ that resituate ‘ancestral identities and history within Biblical history’ (Scott :102), often still in relationship to local topographical narrative traditions (Bashkow : 149ff). They are also capable of expanding from this localised kin group scale to embrace regional or subregional identities such as the ‘Holy Nation of Bougainville’ (Hermkens ). I regard the relationship between ‘Lost Tribes’ thinking and ‘Moral European’ thinking as analogous to (Sahlins 2005 [1992]) concept of developman and development, where developman utilises modern means to fulfil objectives from within an older cultural logic, whereas development represents a further stage of conscious rejection of traditional values and an embrace of modern ones.…”

Form-Meaning Regularities in Old English Lexicon

“…Dameng rejected all foreign influences and the three precepts of his movement were that "Western education belongs to the bad spirits; Western health belongs to the dogs; and Western religion belongs to immature kids" (Roka, 2014). In the 1990s, Dameng's movement became part of the ideological inspi ration for the Bougainville Revolutionary Army under its leader Fran cis Ona (Hermkens, 2013). It has even been argued that Francis Ona adopted Dameng's program in order to shore up waning political sup port.…”