Decolonisation and the Pacific This book charts a previously untold story of decolonisation in the oceanicworldofthePacific,AustraliaandNewZealand,presentingit as both an indigenous and an international phenomenon. Tracey Banivanua Mar reveals how the inherent limits of decolonisation werelaidbarebythehistoricalpeculiaritiesofcolonialismintheregion anddemonstratesthewayimperialpowersconfigureddecolonisation as a new form of imperialism. She shows how Indigenous peoples respondedtotheselimitsbydevelopingrichintellectual,politicaland culturalnetworksthattranscendedcolonialandnationalborders,and connectedlocalisedtraditionsofprotestanddialoguewiththeglobal fermentofthetwentiethcentury.Theindividualstoriestoldhereshed new light on the forces that shaped twentieth-century global history andre-configurethehistoryofdecolonisation.Decolonisationispre- sentednotasanhistoriceventbutasafragile,contingentandongoing processthatcontinuedwellintothepostcolonialera. tracey banivanua mar is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Principal Research Fellow at La Trobe University, Australia.ShehaspreviouslypublishedViolenceandColonialDialogue: TheAustralian-PacificIndenturedLaborTrade(2007). Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Florida, on 18 Nov 2017 at 06:51:01, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794688 CriticalPerspectivesonEmpire Editors ProfessorCatherineHall UniversityCollegeLondon ProfessorMrinaliniSinha UniversityofMichigan ProfessorKathleenWilson StateUniversityofNewYork,StonyBrook Critical Perspectives on Empire is a major series of ambitious, cross-disciplinary worksintheemergingfieldofcriticalimperialstudies.Booksintheseriesexplore the connections, exchanges and mediations at the heart of national and global histories,the contributionsof localas wellasmetropolitan knowledge,and the flowsofpeople,ideasandidentitiesfacilitatedbycolonialcontact.Tothatend, the series not only offers a space for outstanding scholars working at the intersectionofseveraldisciplinestobringtowiderattentiontheimpactoftheir work; it also takes a leading role in reconfiguring contemporary historical and criticalknowledgeofthepastandofourselves. Afulllistoftitlespublishedintheseriescanbefoundat: www.cambridge.org/cpempire Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Florida, on 18 Nov 2017 at 06:51:01, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794688 fi Decolonisation and the Paci c Indigenous Globalisation and the Ends of Empire Tracey Banivanua Mar LaTrobeUniversity,Australia Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Florida, on 18 Nov 2017 at 06:51:01, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794688 UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107037595 ©TraceyBanivanuaMar2016 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2016 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary ISBN978-1-107-03759-5Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication, anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Florida, on 18 Nov 2017 at 06:51:01, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794688 For Nisi and Jimmy Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Florida, on 18 Nov 2017 at 06:49:27, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794688 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Florida, on 18 Nov 2017 at 06:49:27, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794688 Contents Preface pageix Acknowledgements xi Introduction:sailingthewindsofchange–decolonisation andthePacific 1 1 Borders:thecolonisationofmobileworlds 22 2 Currents:thewellspringsofdecolonisation 48 3 Churn:restlessnessandworldgovernmentbetween thewars 82 4 Saltwater:theseparationofpeopleandterritory 114 5 Flight:territorialintegrityanddependentdecolonisation 147 6 Black:internalisingdecolonisationandnetworksof solidarity 183 Conclusion:proceduraldecolonisationandIndigenous philosophiesofuncolonising 216 Bibliography 226 Index 258 vii Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Florida, on 18 Nov 2017 at 06:48:10, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794688 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Florida, on 18 Nov 2017 at 06:48:10, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794688 Preface BubuTakawasmygreataunt.ShewasaregalfigurewhenImetherin Melbourne in the 1980s on her first trip out of Fiji. She was small, frail and fierce with a shock of a white afro, a wicked sense of independence andthesharptongueofamatriarchwhohadhelpedraisethreegenera- tions.Shediedhavinglivedintwo,possiblythree,centuries.Noonewas toosurehowoldshewasasshehadnobirthcertificate,butmostofthe familyiscontenttosayshewaswellover100,oldenoughtoremember whenwhitemenwerearumour.Notlongaftershedied,thefamilydug up an old photo that was taken in the village on our island in the Lau Group,Fiji.Itwasblurryandscratched,butithasbeenreproducedmany times,asoneoftheonlyknownphotosofsomeofourdearestrelations.In the foreground, seated at a table laden with glassware and food, and in crisp white clothes, probably late Victorian or Edwardian, were a white manandawomanandpresumablytheirchildren.Inthebackgroundand standingweremyrelatives,mygreatgrandfatherinhisprimeandsmall children, among them Bubu’s little sister Qalo. It is unclear who was servingwho,orhowthetablesetting,theseating,theVictoriandelicacies of the seated family and the clean white cotton were maintained in the village setting. The trappings of empire, in this instance at least, were conditional. Whateverherexactage,BubuTakawasclearlyachildaroundtheturn of the twentieth century. She grew up at a time when she would have neededpermissionandapasstoleavethevillage,letalonetheisland.In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth, the Indigenous Fijian populationappearedtobeinterminaldecline,aswasthecaseelsewhere in the Pacific and Australia. In state-sponsored efforts, Indigenous mothers everywhere and especially in Fiji were being taught by well- meaning European women how to mother, how to clean and how to think and behave like civilised women. This even as the kitchens and nurseries of white families throughout the islands and many parts of Australia were staffed by Indigenous houseboys and housegirls. These were Bubu Taka’s formative years, when she and her community were ix Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Florida, on 18 Nov 2017 at 06:47:19, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794688 x Preface being systematically recast as ‘natives’ in a period when colonialism throughouttheworldhadreacheditszenith.Inthedecadesthatfollowed, asdistantworldwarswerefoughtandthetwentiethcenturyunfolded,the formalempirescrumbled–partlyself-inflicted,partlyimposedby‘native’ men and women sick of being infantilised by colonial governance. The reverberationsoftheseglobalcurrentsreachedthePacificandtheislands, touchingthebeachesandripplingawayagain,inherentlytransformedin theprocess. BubuTaka,probablybornagenerationafterFijiwasformallyannexed byBritain,thereforelivedtoseeBritainhastilyleaveagainin1970.Ifshe ever internalised the smallness of colonialism’s view of natives, by the time I met her she had kicked against it. She was a global citizen then, independentlyandseamlesslytraversingvillagelifeintheislands,urban life in the Pacific’s capital centres and international travel to Australia. Thisrelativefreedomofmovement,tohaveapassport,toliveindepen- dentlyinthevillageorcityandeventowork,isthetangible,measurable resultoftheeraofdecolonisation.Buthersenseofself,ofbeingsomeone entitledtodothesethings–asanywhiteman–wastheproductofamore complex, unevenand fragile process of unthinking and undoing coloni- alism.Thisbooktellspartofthatstory. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Florida, on 18 Nov 2017 at 06:47:19, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794688