Title: Pacific futures : book review

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Pacific historiography : an indigenous view

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Pacific history on the rim what should students learn?

Abstract: The present status of Pacific History in Australian schools is analysed and compared against earlier decades and against developments in the History curriculum of Pacific Island schools

Title: The Pacific Islands : An encyclopedia

Abstract: Book Review

Title: Pacific journeys : essays in honour of John Dunmore

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Pacific migration futures : ancient solutions to contemporary and prospective challenges?

Abstract: Scholarship published by staff and students at the University of the South Pacific has had a profound impact on understandings by researchers of both historical and contemporary transformations in Oceania. This paper contains some reflections by a geographer who has been researching population movement in the region since the mid-1960s. It begins by drawing attention to seminal writing by the late Epeli Hau’ofa in the 1980s and 1990s, and traces the impact of some of Hau’ofa’s messages about regional integration and identity in Oceania in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Reference is made to another very significant collection of essays by scholars, students, politicians and government officials linked with the USP in 2015 which explores what is being called ‘the new Pacific diplomacy’. Like the discourse generated by Waddell, Naidu and Hau’ofa’s (1993) A New Oceania: Rediscovering our Sea of Islands, ideas reported in Fry and Tarte’s (2015) The New Pacific Diplomacy have the potential to shift thinking about identities, regional co-operation and migration in Oceania.

Title: Parks, reserves and tourism : the Fiji experience

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Peace and conflict reporting : strategies for knowledge sharing in Africa and the Pacific

Abstract: Journalists are enjoined to be truthful, fair, accurate and balanced in their reporting but whether they can do so in reporting conflict situations remains debatable. While some, in particular peace journalism advocates, argue that journalists can contribute to peaceful settlement of conflicts by the way they report on conflicts, others disagree. This study investigates Nigerian press coverage of the ongoing Niger Delta conflict, to determine the extent to which the press reflected balance in news reports, the amount of coverage given to the two sides in the conflict (the Nigerian government and the Niger Delta activists), and the range of sources used in reporting the crisis. At two levels, the study found evidence of bias. First, the press gave a greater amount of coverage to the government side than to the activists. Secondly, the press cited government sources more often than sources relating to the Niger Delta activists. The paper draws a parallel between the struggle for environmental and petroleum resources in Nigeria and similar conflicts in the Pacific, notably the 10-year-old conflict in Bougainville over resource ownership and control, and the issues that underpin the Solomon Islands ethnic conflict. It argues that experiences and lessons learnt in those conflicts could be mutually beneficial to journalists in Africa and the Pacific in terms of sharing knowledge and strategies for reporting conflicts

Title: PEACE BUILDING IN THE PACIFIC REGION : the search for solutions

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Peace journalism, media objectivity and Western news values in fragile Pacific Island states : reflections from Pacific Island journos

Abstract: The news media’s role in Pacific Island societies, its handling of conflicts, peace journalism and notions of media objectivity are some issues and concepts explored in this paper. Given the political upheavals, coups and civilian uprisings seen in some island countries recently, the applicability of conflict-driven Western media values in a fragile region is at the heart of discussions. Seven senior journalists, a media academic and a PhD in Media responded to questions on topical issues surrounding media’s role in conflict-prone societies

Title: The people of the sea : environment, identity, and history in Oceania

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: The pesonification of social totalities in the Pacific

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: The phenomenon of varietal yield decline of sugar cane with particular reference to Fiji

Abstract: The varietal yield decline of sugar cane (Saccharum Officinarum L.) is a complex problem being dependent not only upon vigour of the crop but also upon physical environmental conditions. The deterioration of soil physical and chemical properties, ratoon stunting disease, presence of nematodes and poor quality of management practices all contribute in varying proportions to the decline of yield in sugar cane. By virtue of its importance, research on sugar cane breeding has an international dimension.

Title: Photographing Kanak women in the nineteenth century : a voyeuristic approach?

Abstract: The colonising country, for its part, wrought a definite, though imagined, picture of the indigenous people of the conquered colonies. Portrayed and perceived as being naïve and primitive, but idealised by virtue of their ‘perfect’ osmosis with nature, these people aroused curiosity for their exoticism and the sexual overtones of their portraiture. The partially clothed Kanak model became an object and more of a stereotype, in the studio setting where ‘reality’ (or a sense of reality) was controlled. Stripping them of their clothing, the photographer laid bare their bodies to the lens. The very accessibility of these women reinforces the voyeurism of the camera operator. I challenge the proposition that the photographic representations of Melanesian and Polynesian women built on a foundation of racial and gender subordination were possibly the most significant French colonial images. Photography itself has, rather, set in concrete a cleavage between Polynesian woman and Melanesian woman. Tahitian women were seen in a much more positive and alluring light than Kanak women, who were considered plain and devoid of attractions. What is of interest here is the quite disparate concepts of native beauty that were current within French colonial society. French colonies in the Pacific rarely escaped this contradiction. Indeed the photographic representations of Kanak women differed considerably from those of their Tahitian counterparts. Can images play a voyeuristic role without sexual connotation? In Western cultural discourse, women have been perceived as objects of beauty and commerce. Photographs of women have played a central role, allowing the art of photography to exist, deepseated and silent, beneath a scientific agenda, thereby inflating readership and further legitimating the project as research into beauty and truth. The probable result, however, of the photographers’ presentation of their subjects’ unshielded bodies for close examination was the subconscious attribution of erotic qualities or even sexual license to non-Europeans (particularly women).

Title: Pigs, mats and feathers : customary marriage in Vanuatu

Abstract: Republic of Vanuatu law recognises three forms of marriage as valid: church, civil and custom. This paper reports on a preliminary survey to determine what forms of custom (kastom) marriage exist in Vanuatu and whether they are certain enough to establish that a marriage has taken place. The survey compiled information on procedures, participants, the role of property and the incorporation of civil or religious elements into the kastom form. It is apparent that the forms of kastom marriage, while varied, follow recognised procedural steps, most of which must be followed to validate the marriage. They are generally preceded by formal premarital negotiations. They usually involve negotiated property exchanges and transfer the bride from her own family’s home to her husband’s house. Preparations, the ceremony and the celebrations involve large groups of kin of both sexes, from both sides, providing many witnesses to the marriage. Persons of particular status, e.g. chiefs, may also play a significant role. The property exchange signifies the establishment of strong and ongoing social relations between social/kin groups. Though the sample was small, the survey strongly suggests the existence of identifiable kastom marriages in recognisable forms and fulfilling important social functions. Their recognition under the law indeed seems appropriate.

Title: Plantation workers

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: The policy of rehabilitations in Fiji

Abstract: The interest in prison rehabilitation as an object of publlic policy has acquired a new dimension in Fiji in the 1970s and the early 1980s. Several major developments have occurred in thhis area, closely connected, it seems, with more self-conscious ideas of national development and with a thrust in the economy towards more comprehensive development planning. The principal aim of this study is to identify and explain these developments with a view to enhancing the understanding of Fiji's rehabilitation policy to a particular approach, that of policy analysis, which has been neglected in the Pacific in the studies of public affairs hitherto.

Title: Policy responses to threats to rural household incomes Seaqaqa, Northern Fiji

Abstract: The incomes of people in Fiji who rely direcdy on agricultural production are under threat from a number of institutional changes or shocks occurring now, or expected in the near future. We examine recent evidence on current rural and urban incomes in Fiji and consider the sensitivity of the welfare of different groups of rural people to these shocks. The rural data are drawn from a census of rural households in Seaqaqa Tikina in the Northern Region of Fiji. The potential for alternative responses open to the government and individual producers to moderate the adverse impact of these shocks is considered in the context of an optimal policy mix.

Title: The politcs of managing urban development in Pacific Island states : the case of Samoa and Tonga

Abstract: Although Pacific Island (PI) towns and cities rarely feature in global accounts of urbanisation, the region’s urban areas are facing comparable problems of rural–urban drift and sustainability.

Title: Political science in the South Pacific : a survey of the literature and an agenda of what needs to be done

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Political social media campaigning in Fiji's 2014 elections

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Polynesian ethnomycology : a case for studying fungi in the Pacific

Abstract: Fungi are used as materials, as food, in trade, as medicines and in cultural practices across the world. However, the use of fungi is inconsistent across cultures, some readily using fungi as a resource and some not. The reasons for this pattern of fungal use have yet to be resolved. Research into the Pacific use of fungi would provide information to assist in understanding the pattern of the use of fungi globally. To date research into the Polynesian use of fungi has identified two main attributes. First, fungi are recognised and named in the environment and have an associated body of knowledge on fungal biology and ecology. Secondly, changes have taken place over time, including innovations in terms and uses in some Polynesian cultures. There is evidence to suggest that fungi have been used in the past in the Pacific as a source of medicine, as materials and as food. By studying fungi as a less important resource we develop an understanding of Pacific people’s interaction with the greater environment and what might drive people to use the environment in the way they do. Also discussed are the benefits to traditional knowledge and modern resource management.

Title: Popular movements and popular will

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Potential of composted mounding in sustaining soil productivity and sweetpotato yields in the Papua New Guinea highlands

Abstract: An agricultural technology, now known as the sweetpotato composted mound, was developed some 300 years ago when sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) was first introduced into Enga area. The technology involves placing cut vegetation or garden debris in soil mounds for cultivating sweetpotato and other crops. This practice offsets the inherent soil fertility problems of the volcanic ash soils dominant in this area and improves tuber yields. Today, it is widely practised in Enga, Southern Highlands and part of Western Highlands, and could be adapted in other highland locations that have a similar environment. The tuber yields from such mounds have been reported to range from 20 to 60 t ha-1. The technique allows permanent land use and intercropping, and facilitates successive multiple harvests of tubers and other vegetables, hence easing population pressure on land use compared to shifting cultivation. It counteracts the risks of frosts and soil-borne pests and diseases, and reduces soil erosion. About 20 agronomic trials conducted between the early 1970s and the 1990s showed its potential for further research in improving crop yields while maintaining soil fertility. A current ACIAR1 funded project at NARI’s Tambul Research Station in the Western Highlands showed that on marginal soils, composted mounds could help achieve sweetpotato yields of 11 to 13 times higher than yields from treatments without compost, particularly when high nutrient accumulating plant species were used as compost

Title: Power switching and renewal in French Polynesia politics : the importance of 2004

Abstract: The year 2004 saw great upheavals in the political situation in Tahiti, and may prove to be a very important year in the history of French Polynesia as a whole. The May elections for the Territorial Assembly, and thus for the President of the territory, resulted for the first time in the victory of Oscar Temaru. A long-time challenger of the outgoing President Gaston Flosse, Temaru had suspended his programme of immediate independence in favour of an ideological breathing space of several years, with two aims: to break Gaston Flosse’s autocratic grip on power, and to set up real and sustainable development processes. Oscar Temaru became President at the head of an unstable majority in May 2004 but lost power to Gaston Flosse in October 2004. He was re-elected, again with a fragile majority, in the February 2005 elections. This article, based on the facts of 2004 and early 2005, reveals the metropolitan French government’s lack of neutrality in the electoral process (notably by adopting a system intended to favour Gaston Flosse). It examines the relationship between politics and religion in French Polynesia; highlights cultural factors in French Polynesian politics, notes the emergence of young potential leaders, and thereby explains the reasons for the political rise and fall and rise again of Oscar Temaru.

Title: Preferential trade or strong institutions : promoting sustainable development in Fiji

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Private sector efficiency-public sector efficiency : evidence from Suva-Nadi highway reconstruction project

Abstract: In this article, a comparison of the cost efficiencies of the private and public sector is undertaken in relation to the reconstruction of the Suva-Nadi Highway - the nation's largest roading project to date.

Title: Prospects for a currency union in the Pacific : a preliminary assessment

Abstract: The paper presents some preliminary findings of a study on the prospects for a currency union among the Pacific Island countries

Title: Prospects for sustainable development in the Pacific : a review of corporate social responsibility in tourism

Abstract: Recent UN reports and the emerging post-20I5 agenda emphasise a key role for the private sector in fulfilling development goals, However, there has been little consideration of what this means in practice and how positive, sustainable change can be effected through this model,

Title: Providing opportunities for equality : Pacific islands students' experiences and perception on the use of ICT and e-learning

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Public service delivery dilemma : achieving quality of service in Fiji

Abstract: Today customers (or citizens of any nation) want effective, efficient and equitable services. The global problem is one where public service delivery is in a state of dilemma and service quality appears to be deteriorating. The dilemma is that the performance of the public service is not businesslike, and this has impacted the quality of service delivery. With this, customers/citizens are demanding an answer. In Fiji the area of public service delivery and service quality in particular appears to have received fairly modest attention. The main objectives of this paper are to get deeper understanding of the public service dilemma and understand the relationships between quality of services and customer satisfaction. Key

Title: Pushing out to windward : aspects of European plantation enterprise in Northern Lau, Fiji, 1870-1971

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]