The Changing Pacific
The Changing Pacific
Perhaps more than ever, the Pacific region is becoming prominent in world affairs. The impact of climate change will see population movements ahead of many other parts of the world, and the political and economic fallout of this alone will have effects on the affairs of all countries in the region, including Australia. There has never been a more appropriate time to undertake studies of the Pacific region that approach the subject in a cross-disciplinary, and cross-region, manner.
These studies take in aspects of national and international risk, the role of Australia in the changing world, and the challenge to ensure that all of the region's citizens have the opportunity to be treated equitably through access to appropriate development assistance.
The Alfred Deakin Research Institute, through its work on the 'Changing Pacific', is undertaking a number of specific, but related, research projects. Details of these include:
Australia and the decolonisation of Melanesia in transnational perspective
Australia's renewed engagement with the Pacific island nations over the past decade demands a better understanding of the decolonisation of Melanesia. Drawing on sources from the Pacific nations and the Australia state, the project will be the first regional study of decolonisation and nation building in Melanesia from the 1960s to the 1980s. In particular, it will evaluate Australia's engagement in this historical process; the role of regional institutions, especially church and educational, in the creation of national and Melanesian identities and the part played by constitution making in the formation of these nation states.
Funding is being sought for this important study and it is anticipated that it will commence in 2010.
Researchers: Helen Gardner, David Lowe, Jonathan Ritchie, Christopher Waters
'Leaving': the national institutions of Melanesia at independence, and what happened to them
This project asks the questions:
- What institutions and structures were left at the point of independence for the future well-being of the new state?
- How appropriate were they to the needs to be faced?
- How well prepared were the women and men whose task it would be to operate them?
- What was the effect, on the institutions and the people, of the departure of Australian and other expatriate staff who had previously run them? and
- What lessons are able to be learned from a consideration of these questions?
The approach being considered encompasses a strong oral history component, with a range of interviews to be undertaken with people with direct experience of this time, both in Australia and in Papua New Guinea, and elsewhere (New Zealand, the other Melanesian states, and the United Kingdom). We expect that the project's outcomes will appear in scholarly publications, but we also intend that they take the form of a report that is suitable for ready access by public policy makers. We also hope that the study's findings will lead to production in media such as film or television, which again will help in its widespread promulgation.
With project partners being identified at the moment, this three year project will begin late in 2010.
Researchers: Helen Gardner, David Lowe, Jonathan Ritchie, Christopher Waters
The Churches and the State in Melanesia
The institutions of Church and State in the nations of Melanesia are very closely intertwined, with a shared history and common values. The extent to which this is so is a largely under-reported area in historiography and contemporary analysis, and the study in question aims to explore the connectivity between the activities of churches and missions in the history of education, health, and administration, and the current situation in Melanesia.
Researchers: Matthew Clarke and Helen Gardner
Recent Activities
2009
Building Pacific Partnerships Symposium
The current situation of Pacific studies, research, and teaching formed the backdrop to a symposium held the Alfred Deakin Research Institute over two days in February 2009.
The symposium, entitled 'Building Partnerships in the Changing Pacific' came about thanks to two main factors: at a national level, there has been the renewed interest shown by the Rudd Government in the Pacific region, typified by the Port Moresby Declaration of March 2008 and the series of Pacific Partnerships for Development that have begun to appear since; and within Deakin, the coalescing of a body of scholars and researchers from a range of disciplines, all of whom have the Pacific, or parts of it, in their focus.
The question implicit in the symposium was 'what can the Alfred Deakin Research Institute provide that is both innovative and helpful?'. Those involved, including Deakin University researchers from the disciplines of criminology, cultural heritage, development studies, economics, education, history and law, as well as a selection of practitioners from the region (Fiji, New Zealand and Vanuatu) and from elsewhere in Australia (including the office of the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs) addressed this and related questions, in an important exercise in strategic planning for the Institute in its engagement with the Changing Pacific.
Conference on Tackling Extreme Poverty in PNG
Jonathan Ritchie was invited to participate in this conference at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney in May 2009. The conference, which was attended by business leaders, civil society organisations, and government and academic figures from Australia and PNG, was a useful gathering that heard about some of the challenges and opportunities in addressing this problem, linked with the Millennium Development Goals. Further information about the conference can be found at http://www.lowyinstitute.org/Program_Melanesia.asp .
2008
Chronic Poverty in Solomon Islands
This was the subject of a report prepared for the Chronic Poverty Report 2008-09 (funded by AusAID through the Overseas Development Institute, UK). Understanding chronic poverty in the Solomon Islands (and the Pacific more generally) is necessary when determining appropriate aid interventions. However, chronic poverty is difficult to measure in Solomon Islands. This research analyses chronic poverty and responses to such poverty. Eighty-four percent of Solomon Islanders live in rural areas, with very limited access to education, health or other social services. In addition, they are serviced by poor or non-existent transport, electricity or telecommunications infrastructure, and rely on subsistence farming for their livelihoods.
Aid Volatility in the Pacific
This Report was prepared for the United Nations University (funded by AusAID through the World Institute for Development Economic Research). Aid is an important resource for developing countries. Many small island Pacific states are highly reliant on aid to supplement meagre government resources and other foreign capital inflows. This research investigates the volatility of aid to small island states and year-on-year changes in aid allocation in 16 Pacific Island countries. The findings of this research suggest that past aid flows are correlated with present aid flows and shocks to bilateral aid result in the persistence of volatility for a number of years before stabilizing. The consequence of this finding is important to large donors to the Pacific, including Australia, seeking to improve the effectiveness of their aid.
Mission and Development in PNG
This Report was prepared for the Australian Association of Mission Studies. The research contrasts the principles formulated by the Franciscan missionaries working in PNG in the 1940s with the current 'best practice' ideals of secular development practices. Reflection on the success of this missionary work provides lessons for secular development practitioners. This research also highlights the Decalogue of Development and the Summary of Resolutions regarding Development prepared by the Franciscan Friars in the Diocese of Aitape, Papua New Guinea. These documents explicitly describe strategies to 'improve' the physical lives (health, education, economic security) of the people of the Aitape in the late 1940s. The importance of these principles has only recently been understood by secular development practitioners.
Australia and the Decolonisation of Melanesia
A team of Deakin researchers were successful in being awarded funding through Deakin University's Central Research Grants program to undertake a project on Australia and the Decolonisation of Melanesia. This project forms the precursor to the research project on the same subject for which funding is currently being sought.
Waigani Seminar, University of Papua New Guinea
Deakin University was represented by Jonathan Ritchie who spoke on the making of the Papua New Guinea constitution at the recent Waigani Seminar in Port Moresby. This seminar series was held throughout the 1970s and proved to be a 'labour ward of ideas for a nation in the making'. It has been recently revived to bring together academics, politicians, and key figures in the public and private sector to provide new responses to the issues of Papua New Guinea.
