Self-determination in Oceania

Abstract

The interplay between national self-determination, the colonial legacy, the concept of sovereignty and the nature of state formation is what is at issue in any understanding of political development in the Pacific Islands. These complex territorial entities, scattered over thousands of square miles of ocean, embrace a vast range of cultural, geographical and linguistic diversity. Indigenous social and political organisation has been overlaid by arbitrary colonial divisions, and a model of western-style nation state formation promulgated by UN agencies. In the event, many of the fundamental economic and political problems of these societies have never been properly addressed -a situation exacerbated by the growing recourse to interventionism against 'failed' states by the most powerful. Any starting point for true self-determination in Oceania has to be found in indigenous practices of self-government.

The inverse sovereignty effect: Aid, scale and neostructuralism in Oceania

“…Sovereignty is rarely absolute and in the Pacific, context is complex (Aqorau, 2006) and muddled by recent direct intervention by donors in state‐building projects in countries such as the Solomon Islands (Fry and Kabutaulaka, 2008). Wesley‐Smith (2007) points to the possibility of indigenous models of self‐determination in the region, but perhaps this should also encompass a deeper and more micro‐scale view of sovereignty. With regard to aid, this should focus on the everyday ways in which decisions about aid and development policy are negotiated by donors and recipient agents and institutions.…”

The Naturalist and his "Beautiful Islands": Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific

“…Opportunities to diversify an economy reliant on tropical product extraction remain limited, the territorial reach of the government incomplete. Western institutional implants exist uneasily alongside the indigenous institutions that have persisted throughout the colonial and post-colonial eras (Wesley-Smith 2007). The creation of a state is a complex task.…”

Geographies of Aid: A Critical Research Agenda

“…This is akin to Foucault’s notions of governmentality and we should see sovereignty not just in formal political state‐bound models but as everyday practices. In this way, aid can and should be understood in terms of how it relates to people’s autonomy and effective self‐determination (Wesley‐Smith 2007).…”